Align your sales strategy with your customer journey will allow you to optimize processes for lead acquisition and increase your conversion rate: why is that? When you look beyond and pay attention to what your leads require in each moment, your sales methodology transforms into a sales strategy focused on your consumer.
By designing a shared path for your commercial agents and their speech, that is, the pillars of your sales strategy, and your consumers, the pillar of your customer journey, the final purpose of both processes strengthens. More benefitial, strong and long-lasting relationships are created between the pillars of both processes, which favors a quick and efficient sales increase.
Within a sales strategy focused on consumers, on one hand, commercial agents follow a linear path, illustrated with diverse ways, generally with a funnel, which allows them to understand how their leads progress along the sales process. However, how leads perceive their own progress along the process?
What is a customer journey?
A customer journey is a process that comprises everything that happens since the first moment a lead feels the need to get a certain product or service until they finally get it. It is a natural buying process composed of three phases:
1. Awareness: a consumer feels a need and starts a research to discover those companies that could cover it.
2. Consideration: once all options have been found, the consumer starts to consider which one would be best.
3. Decision: having considered diverse options, the consumer decides to acquire the one that better convers their need and, finally, purchases it.
5 steps to success
A sales methodology based on your customer journey is a strategy focused on consumers. It allows commercial agents to adjust their methods and tactics to each phase of the customer journey, allowing you to impact them on the most effective way and at the most appropriate time.
Which steps should you follow to align your sales strategy with your customer journey?
1.Identify your buyer persona: create “your ideal customer” profile, that is, that potential ideal client who is interested in your products or services. Who are they?, what do they expect from you?, what makes them have the need to acquire your products or services? Knowing how they behave will help you to understand how you should approach them to favor sales.
2. Determine your leads’ needs and desires according to each one of the phases within your customer journey. Put yourself in your buyer persona’s shoes:
• Awareness: if you had doubts about getting one of your company services, what will assure you that you have a need for it?, would it be a craving or a need?, in any case, what would you give priority to?
•Consideration: once you had several companies to choose from, what would make you choose a company like yours?, which factors would you take into account?
• Decision: you would had already decided to get a certain service from your company but, which kind of information would you like to get once you had completed your purchase?, which other complementary products or services would you need in a near future?
3. Define specific actions to each phase of your customer journey. Put yourself in your buyer persona’s shoes again:
•Awareness: how would you look for providers?, which channels would you use?, which information would you like to find?
•Consideration: how would you like to be treated when a company responds to your doubts?, how often would you like them to get in touch with you?, which formats would you prefer?
•Decision: which kind of experience would you like to receive in order to consider continuing your relationship whith the company?, what would make you be a second-time buyer?
4. Analyze your results: when you align processes there’s nothing more important than maintaining order in all parts to comprehend how they complement one another. Analyzing your results will allow you to discover which phases within the process work and which ones should be optimized or corrected in order to accomplish better results and copy the best practices.
5. Optimize your processes: innovate, incorporate new tactics, make adjustments according to market changes and be aware of how your buyer persona evolves. Optimization within sales processes comes from active listening and high quantities of innovation.
When a commercial agent aligns their speech and actions to their leads’ needs, there’s a mutual benefit. On one hand, your company will get a wider knowledge about how your clients make decisions, allowing you to boost sales. On the other hand, your leads will perceive a user experience according to their expectations, they will comprehend the value you provide in their individual cases and will feel predisposed to complete the purchase.
