Original & Authentic Connections To Buyers! ( 2 of 4 part series)
This is part 2 of a 4 part series. It began with an introduction to the buyer journey and the trifecta used for our business communications. Click here to review if you missed it. Going forward, today and in the next 2 articles in the series, we’re diving deeper into using the trifecta for developing authentic messaging and content.
So let’s begin with conversations that will attract prospects to us. All we want to do is simply let them know we exist, because at this point, they have no active need for our offerings. Selling is NOT useful at this stage … we only want to enable these future buyers to be aware of us. It’s the beginning of “leading” our buyers to us so upon their needs being activated, due to the nature of the industry / business / company / lifestyle they are part of, we are already bonded with them. We are at the very beginning of the buyer journey which is also our seller journey.
Over the years I’ve used the analogy of fishing …in which we are attracting “fishes” to our “waters.” Or you might think of the car industry in which the buyers drive cars. Not all people who drive cars need a new one at a given time, BUT it is important for them to be aware of sources for a new car when the need appears and becomes active.
What type of authentic content can be created for this stage of the buyer journey? The first step is to again, wipe the slate clean of any selling of our offerings in these early stages of attracting … we are opening up relationships and building trust. Products & services will appear in conversations in due time and at the appropriate times through this process.
Going to the trifecta … buyer, business and self … authentic content that attracts comes from knowing our buyer and how well we can match our self to our buyer. To do this, we explore & identify all the pieces of their “being” … their industry, company, what seeds their needs, what is their job/position doing for their career purposes and for personal purposes, what are their values – company wise and personally, who are they? What is their lifestyle and what motivates them… makes them happy … challenges them? If applicable, their age, sex, interests, etc. Having a firm knowledge of all this as applicable gives us lots of sources for attracting new prospects authentically.
What we do with all this gathered information is create conversations that show we have knowledge and insight about the industry and/or lifestyle interests we share with our prospects. Articles, news reports, financial activity, mergers, new products, etc. Also the specific company that a prospect works for ….who else works there …. what is the culture of the specific company … what is new with them … why are they good. Maybe something about the venue where we are meeting (online & offline), maybe a zoom meeting we both attended … the organization hosting the event, and the list goes on. The news of the day can be relevant (or not .. careful with this one).
If it’s not an industry that is shared, it may be a shared lifestyle that breeds a shared interest .. such as soccer moms, etc. Maybe a shared community .. such as in the world of real estate! None of these conversations will have anything directly to do with our offerings but instead everything to do with the establishment of a matched and mutual understanding of the environment we share … the environment that seeds and creates active needs for our offerings.
Other ideas come from going beyond our prospect’s business day. Find out about their home life, their interests, outside activities. Do their kids play the same sports as our own kids. Do we both have tickets to the opera. Do we live in the same neighborhood or maybe we have worked at the same company in the past? We need to keep our eyes open for what bonds us as people with our tie to them being sharing the same industry/lifestyle/ interest. It is all about building trust, developing relationships and creating awareness that we exist!
I can remember when I first worked at Cisco. Those were the days when our 1st appointment was the relationship building stage. Cisco had an unknown product at the time and our job was to go out and simply “chat” with companies. Introduce ourselves, find out what they were up to, what challenges existed, etc. Build rapport & trust under the shared interest that we both lived in the world of voice & data communications. This is no different now with online communications. We just create it via frequent visibility with messaging and postings. The openings of relationships will pretty much always begin in this way … online and offline. We just need to know our buyer OR opportunities will go right past us online… quickly and often. The earlier we can become a part of a prospects buyer journey the more market share and eventual business we will acquire.
Give this some thought and let me know your questions. Part 3 will be all about making “connections” with these prospects. The stuff that goes beyond being aware, but makes them stop and take notice, give us a high-five, make them believe we “get them” .. gets us deeper into their heads!
Till then be #communicationsstrong
Here’s to your communications success!
margie
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310-306-1453