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HOW BUYERS THINK

Let me give you an example. Let’s say that you are in the market for a car, and, while you know what you can afford, you have no idea what car you actually want. So you decide to visit a few dealerships to browse.

Every time you walk into a dealership, you feel a little bit guarded because you’re expecting the salespeople to pressure you and try to get you to sit in the car they want to sell you, coax you to drive it around and tell you whatever they think you need to hear until you are sitting at their desk filling out paperwork, right?

And because you expect this, you put your guard up even before you walk into the dealership. You prepare yourself by thinking, “If they try to talk to me, what am I gonna say? How am I gonna get out of having to listen to their sales pitch?” Mentally, you’re already preparing to say no, before you even walk in the door.

On the flip side, imagine that you already have your car picked out. You’ve had this car picked out or 2 years and have been saving up for a down payment. The new model just came out and you absolutely love it! With a skip in your step, you head into the dealership, with the intention of walking out with a new car! You have a completely different mindset and energy, right? You aren’t going in afraid of being “sold”, you’re going in ready to buy! It’s a totally different experience. There’s no sales tactics, manipulation, convincing, or contriving. Instead, it’s fun and exciting (and you feel good about the experience) because you already made the decision in your own mind. You walked in ready to say yes and you’re excited to spend the money because you’re excited about what it means for you!

That is the kind of relationship and sales experience you want to create with your prospects. You do this by building a trusting, nurturing relationship that does the selling for you before you ever get on a call.

BUILDING TRUST BEFORE THE SALE – THE JOURNEY

In order to build trust with someone, you have to connect with them, which means, understanding where they are and what they’re going through. You have to be very clear about the journey they’re on and what, specifically, they’re experiencing before they are ready to hire you.

• What are all the steps on their journey that lead up to them needing somebody like you and their life?
• What are they struggling with that they need help with?
• Why is this a problem?
• What is motivating them to take action?

Let me give you an example. . .

Let’s pretend that you are an interior decorator and your area of specialization (your niche) is that you help people furnish and decorate newly built homes. You know that before your ideal client is ready to hire you, there are a lot of things that have to take place—they have to first make the decision to build a new home, they have to select a floor plan, hire an architect, find a builder, purchase land to build on, etc. And then, they have to go through the process of building the home—which could be anywhere from eight months to several years—and once it’s all done, they finally get to move into their dream home, which is when they’re finally ready to pick paint colors, select window treatments, go furniture shopping and decorate—which is what you do! Except, if you wait to be introduced to them until this point in the process, you’ve waited too long!

They are now “shopping” for decorators. They don’t know you from the next person. They have no relationship with you, no trust, no comfort. No sense of certainty about their decision so they enter it with that same guarded energy of walking into a dealership knowing they need a car, but afraid of making a decision under pressure that they’ll live to regret.

And so they try to educate themselves the best they can, interviewing multiple decorators, looking over their portfolios, asking questions about what it will be like to work together and, of course, comparing their fees (because when sales aren’t based on comfort and value, it ends up being based on price, which for you, is not where you want to be competing!).

Whereas if you had met them much earlier in their journey, and started nurturing them and providing value way before they needed you, they would have already known that they love your personality, design style, and advice. They would already feel they could trust you and so, when it came time to hire a decorator, they wouldn’t even think of hiring anyone else! Your fees might be a bit higher than other decorators, but so what? The peace of mind and comfort in knowing they are going to have a good experience is worth it!

I have something you’re gonna love!

MAKING CONNECTIONS BEFORE THE SALE

Now that you’ve identified their journey, you want to be able to start a relationship with them way before they need you. To do this, you may want to offer valuable content that provides them with helpful advice as they navigate through the phases of their journey that lead up to working with you, while also giving them a chance to get to know you (the more they engage with you or your content before they need you, the more comfortable and certain they’ll feel about actually hiring you).

To keep with the earlier example of a decorator, you might create content (blogs, videos, podcast episodes, workshops, etc) on the following topics:

• How to choose an architect for your new home construction project
• 10 questions to ask your builder before you sign with them. Why you need to think about your furniture layout in the blueprint phase.

WHY CREATE CONTENT THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WHAT YOU ACTUALLY SELL?

Because when you educate your prospects in the earlier phases of their journey, especially when you provide valuable advice and teach them things they never would have thought up on their own, it shows them that you are the expert and you know what you’re talking about and they will start to rely on you for your advice and guidance. And because you help them make really great decisions before they ever needed you, they’re going to think, “If she was so helpful at this phase, imagine how helpful she’s going to be when we need to hire her for what she actually does!”

BUILDING TRUST THROUGH COLLABORATIVE PARTNERSHIPS

Another way to start getting in front of prospects at earlier phases of their journey is by relationships with collaborative partners—other service providers who are serving your same client along the same journey.

So, staying with the above example, a decorator may want to collaborate with builders, architects, land brokers, real estate agents, and contractors. If you can help answer questions for their clients, you are adding value to what they do (making them look good, which makes them want to bring you into the conversation and refer you to their clients).

For example, when you help an architect’s client figure out their furniture plans in the blueprint phase, you’re making the architect’s jobs easier and making him look good. Why? Because the client isn’t going to end up moving into their house with regrets because the furniture they really wanted doesn’t fit quite right. Instead, it will all be perfect! The client is happy with the end result and hires you to help with the decorating (because they now have a relationship with you and trust you) and they refer the architect to their friends because they are so please with the experience they had and the end results. Everybody wins!

NOW IT’S YOUR TURN

How can you start to think about nurturing your ideal client along their particular journey, and building trust, and establishing yourself as an expert in their world before they are ready to hire you?

To buy from you, what are they experiencing a year before they hire you six months before three months before? And how can you deliver value to them, that is going to help them get through those particular phases of their journey and lead them toward falling in love with you getting excited about the idea of working with you and eventually getting on a call with you so that they could pay you for the amazing expertise and value you offer.

I CAN HELP YOU WITH THIS!

Helping you create value-based content to attract dream clients that are excited to pay you what you’re worth is my jam! If you’d like to learn more about how we can work together, check out my coaching offers and book a call with me to talk about how we can get you to where you want to go!

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Mindset Switch Book. I wrote this book to simplify the Law of Attraction process and give you a step-by-step guide to leveling up your thoughts, transforming limiting beliefs and manifesting anything you want into your life, including clients and money!

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