The word ‘profitable’ gets thrown about far too loosely these days, but the fact is, a well-crafted prospect journey will near-enough guarantee that your Prospects bring revenue into your business…even if they don’t sign with you straight away!
Without any technical detail, let’s consider…
A warmed Lead
= an interested & engaged Prospect
= EITHER direct conversion to a Customer OR a strong, primed referral
= a better bottom line!
Let’s begin with a brief overview of how we define the main terms.
A lead – anyone who’s heard of your business.
A prospect – the ideal person or business you want to work with, who has had a positive engagement with your brand on any level.
A customer – anyone who has purchased a product or service from you, at any cost, over any length of time. Too loose a definition? We’ll touch on this later.
Condensing the enormous value of a successful Prospect Journey into 5 Key Steps is incredibly challenging, as in reality, your profitable prospect journey is a reflection of your entire organisational structure, vision, values, people, competencies, behaviours and your brand. You are welcome to read our more in-depth view of the topic in our recent blog on the topic.
1. Define Your Products and Services Based on Your Goals (again.)
If you are going to review or build a Profitable Prospect Journey that stands the test of time, and continues to draw the right kind of clientele and revenue, it is VITAL that every member of your team knows exactly what you are collectively aiming to achieve.
Define exactly:
- what you do best,
- what you want to be known for,
- the scope of how you do what only you can do.
Certainly, keep track of services you are regularly asked for and weigh up whether they would be worth adding to your paid portfolio, but perfect what you do without allowing scope creep to eat into your clear revenue and direction goals as this clouds the impact of your Prospect Journey promises and what people refer you for.
2. Walk Alongside’ Your Ideal Customers
Anyone who has ever tried to write marketing copy – be it a simple post, a blog, or a sales page – will tell you how hard it is to know what to say in just the right way to attract a customer.
You may be the best at what you do, but you are unlikely to be the only one advertising those services or products.
Instead, by gaining a strong, first-hand understanding of what your prospective customers truly, subconsciously want to achieve, you can ‘simply’ tell them all about how fantastic their lives or businesses will be after you solve their problem.
Make them feel HOPE: YOU understand them!
You will get them to the finish line.
3. Know Your Brand; Choose Your Tone; Don’t Discriminate
When communicating who you are, what you do, how you do it and where you’re headed as an organisation, it is incredibly important that everyone that represents your brand is echoing the same message, in the same way.
Don’t discriminate when conversing with leads. Don’t change the tone of how you deliver your brand message, offer and promised outcomes, depending on whom you meet, regardless of whether they seem to meet your dream client criteria.
4. Standardise Your Demos & Lead Magnets
When someone takes an interest in your brand and signs up for a demo or lead magnet, the opportunities are many.
- Lead qualification
- Make an impression that lasts and could lead to referrals
- Win a new customer
5. Plan to treat every prospective client like they are a long-standing and appreciated client.
When they part ways with you, every person and organisation you interact with should::
- know they are valued
- see your intentions, values and goals, everywhere they look or listen
- leave every interaction with a warm glow in their hearts and excited for the next chance to work with you.
Developing a strategic, authentic and effective profitable Prospect Journey is a fundamental and crucial investment of time and effort. Without it, your team will be working from their own perspectives and work ethics and your potential customers, feeding on inconsistent information.
Need a hand with yours? Check out Prospect to Profit – Maximising Client Conversion – our product to help you achieve the best Prospect Journey, Customer Journey and deliver that service to your prospects. Leaving no money on the table!
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