As a consumer, have large corporations been prompting you to buy products or services just when you seem to need them? Has your online buying experience been made easier by offering related products like taxis when you book a flight? These new developments are the new way big companies are leading the consumer on their buying journeys. No longer are they just improving products and services, but now they are getting into consumer heads to make their buying processes easier. But how can you as a small business owner or an inspiring small business owner going to compete? We’ll look at this and in light of our continuing story the purchase of our 105 year old Pasadena house and its current bathroom remodel.
- Focus on the buying experience: How can you make it simple and useful in the busy world?
- Personalize the buying experience:
- If you have a tight budget, use basic accounting software to collect information about your customers, like using the Class and Region system in QuickBooks to categorize your customer.
- Of if you have more to invest, use a sales software database to keep tabs on your customer needs
- If you have a large budget, look into investing in date mining software to look at customers in different ways.
- Revitalize your sales team
- Direct your sales team to understand the customer’s frustration and what would make their buying journey more efficient.
- Create stages in the customer buying patterns.
- Instruct your sales team to monitor their customer stages of buying.
- Ask: What holds some customers up? What propels customers to finalize their buying process?
Moral: If you want to succeed against other businesses, focus on the consumer journey, and not just your product or service.
Source: The New Consumer Decision Journey by David Edelman and Marc Singer published by McKinsey & Company, October 2015
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