How to be easier and quicker to buy

--> it's always possible to do this

One of the biggest reasons we give up on our marketing habits is simply that we don’t see results early enough.

Part of the answer is the way we measure our marketing: looking at leading indicators like clicks on ads, visits to web pages, email signups or likes and replies on your content.

But a big part is also changing what we offer to make it easier and quicker to buy from us.

Because the more clients that buy quickly - even if it’s just something small - the more we know we’re on the right track.

Think about it in terms of “time to money”. If I have a 6 month or a 12 month sales cycle, I have to invest a lot and take a lot on faith before I know my marketing is working.

But if it only takes me a few weeks to sell something, not only do I know early whether it’s working, I also get an income I can then spend on more marketing without being massively out of pocket.

So it’s ideal for us if we have products and services that are easy and quick for for our clients to buy.

And it’s also better for them too.

Normally when we design our products and services our focus is on doing what will get our clients the results they need.

And that seems right. After all, that’s our job.

But the problem is that it’s often very difficult for clients to buy what they need straight away.

Often they don’t know what they need.

And often they might have an idea, but buying it from you is too big a risk. You haven’t proven yourself yet and they’re not sure what working with you would be like.

And sometimes the full solution is just too darned expensive for an initial engagement.

But if they can buy something from you that starts to get them results and proves that they can work with you then that will give them the confidence to make a bigger purchase.

Good for them. Good for you.

So you need at least some smaller, “easy to buy” services.

But they can’t just be any services. They need to do three things:

Firstly, they must actually get tangible results for clients. For example, a lot of coaches offer initial sessions. But often those sessions just consist of asking a bunch of questions to understand the client and their challenges. To the client it doesn’t feel like they’ve made progress, so it doesn’t motivate them to hire you for more.

Instead you need to reframe those sessions so they deliver tangible results. Perhaps a documented assessment you can run through with the client. Perhaps a step-by-step plan for how to progress. They’re unlikely to see much actual change after just one session - but they do need to feel like concrete progress has been made.

Secondly, it needs to model what it would be like to work with you. Your clients need to get a sense that your relationship would work.

So, for example, if you do a lot of work face-to-face with clients in workshops during your main service, it’s not ideal if your initial offer is some form of desk research where you deliver a report at the end. That won’t give them a relevant experience working with you to help them decide whether they want to buy the bigger project.

Finally, your initial work ideally needs to build the case for the full project.

Often your clients will have gut feel of what they need to do and that it’s something important to them. But without a more tangible business case it’ll be difficult for them to stump up a lot of money and put themselves or their organisation through a lot of upheaval.

So it’s important to use your initial work with them to build the case for the bigger program. To delve into the fact and figures and potential impacts in enough detail that you can build a solid business case.

Bain Consulting used to have a wonderfully named initial service offer called “Profit Hunt” where they would do a short assessment of the major areas a client could change to make big improvements in profitability. The plan they produced through this service was valuable to clients, but it was also quantified based on real numbers validated by their own people: giving them confidence in the “size of the prize” and justifying a much bigger investment in a larger consulting program to deliver the changes.

When we’re deciding on what products and services to offer we need to take into account not just what clients need, or what’s the most profitable for us to sell; but also what’s the easiest for them to buy to get our relationship started.

- Ian