I recently bought a new mailbox for my house. Two weeks later, I'm an expert on residential mailboxes. And I have a new appreciation for
why you should tailor your sales and marketing efforts to your
customer's buying process - not your company's selling process.
Buying a mailbox is not simple. Do
you need a surface mount, curbside or rural mailbox? Locking,
vandal-resistant, extra-large capacity? Contemporary, traditional,
cedar, polymer, aluminum? Tiny budget or big budget? Bolted into concrete,
in-ground post, or a no-dig installation system? And don't forget
street numbers (one side, both sides, or on the post?), mailbox flower planters,
in-box illumination, decorative magnets
and more.
Most of us will only buy one or two mailboxes in a lifetime. We're not
experts, and we probably don't know any experts.
So we're dependent on vendors to help us decide.
Same thing's true in health and wellness, right?
You and your staff
are totally confident when it comes to health and wellness. But your
prospective customers view it as complicated, full of conflicting information, and often
expensive with a high risk of disappointment.
So health and wellness businesses that make it easy to
buy will thrive. Those that don't will wonder why it always seems so
hard.
Here's what I learned from mailbox suppliers about tailoring your sales
process to your customer's buying process:
1) No digging to find the right products and services
I looked at about two dozen different websites. I picked one that
listed mailboxes clearly on their homepage. On other sites, I
had to figure out which category they had stuck mailboxes in (yard art?
outdoor living?)
What this means: your printed marketing materials
and website should clearly lay out your major product and service
categories. Use descriptive straightforward terms that help your
potential customer immediately assess whether this is what they're looking
for.
Buying shouldn't feel like a scavenger hunt. We saw a business recently that
placed sales information about nutritional supplements in their wellness
coaching marketing materials. That's probably the last place anyone
would look for it. Another firm listed personal training in three different
places. Potential clients had to read all three sections to get the
full picture. Far better to consolidate all the info into a single
personal training section.
2) A prominently featured buyer's guide
Out of all the sites I visited, only this one featured a buyers guide - and
it was right at the top of the main Mailboxes page. Only these folks
actually explained all of the different factors to consider. One of
the things that had kept me from buying on other sites was that I couldn't
figure out what kind of post to get.
What this means: you and your staff are experts in
healthy living. Your potential customers aren't. Your marketing
materials should help educate them on making a smart decision. For
example: consider a guide to "How To Choose A Personal Trainer".
Or a guide on "Safely Becoming Physically Active."
3) An easy-to-spot low-price guarantee
Smart - because one of the reasons I visited so many sites was to find the
best price. Once I saw that guarantee, I felt a lot less urgency to
keep comparison-shopping on price. Did they really have the lowest price?
I don't know, because once I saw the guarantee I assumed they probably
wouldn't make that promise unless they could live up to it.
What this means: If potential customers view your
services as easily interchangeable with similar services provided by someone
else, they'll probably emphasize price in their purchasing decision.
Your goal is to dissuade them from continuing to look for the lowest price.
You've got two basic strategies in this situation. A low-price guarantee can
work especially well for products like energy bars and national-brand
apparel. Most consumers won't actually invoke the guarantee - but
simply seeing it reassures them that you're probably not overpricing.
For services, it's often more effectively to spell out what sets your
programs or services apart from those of others. For example, you
might choose to market a weight management program led by a registered
dietitian as "medically-based." That helps justify a higher price.
4) Prominent link to an extended warranty offer
Great idea - because once somebody starts digging for more info, it's even
likelier that they're going to buy. So reducing their fear of making a
bad decision is really important at this point in the process.
Some mailboxes are really expensive. You could easily spend $1000 by
the time you add all the bells and whistles. At that point you start
wondering, "What if it rusts? What if it leaks? I'll be out all
this money and then what will I do?"
Plus, many online mailbox companies won't accept returns - at all. So
it's really important to reassure the buyer that they're protected if the
mailbox has problems.
What this means: Think about the questions and
concerns your potential customers raise - and think about WHEN they ask
those questions. Then build in easy ways for them to get that
information at the appropriate point in the buying process.
For example, if the first thing most people say is that they've tried other
diets and nothing ever works, you should create a marketing document that
identifies the top ten reasons people say other diets didn't work, and
explains why your program is different for each of those ten points.
Since your prospects usually mention that first, make that information
available very early in the sales process.
On the other hand, if the only time people ask about refunds is right before
they give you their credit card number, that's the right time to mention
your guarantee: "If you feel that this program isn't working for you for any
reason at all during the first month, we'll refund everything you've paid
us, no questions asked."
5) Logical and helpful ordering process
When I picked the mailbox I wanted, the ordering process walked me through
every single possible option - color, type of post, how many address panels,
and much more. At each point I had all the info I needed to make a decision.
On other sites, they just showed pictures and links of related items.
It was up to me to think of everything I'd need - post, mailbox, street
numbers, etc. - and then figure out which models were compatible with the
mailbox I wanted. And trust me - it wasn't nearly as obvious as the
mailbox pros thought it was!
What this means: Your buying process should
proceed in a logical order and make it extremely simple for the prospect to
make all the related buying decisions.
For example, if you're enrolling people in a walking program, your
enrollment process might cover:
which group they want to join
what size t-shirt they'd like
whether they'd like to buy a visor or cap
which pedometer they want to buy
whether they'd like to buy a heart rate monitor
You shouldn't just hand them a leaflet of related stuff they can buy if they
feel like it.
Your process - whether it's face to face, over the phone, or online - should
walk them through each decision, explaining the pros and cons and making it
easy for them to take action. Plus, it's an excellent way to upsell
the customer without pressuring them.
6) Tools to help buyers decide
I waffled on mailbox color - black with bronze trim, or black with antique
nickel trim.
Guess what? They had a tool that was available at exactly that point
in the ordering process. It let me compare the appearance of two
side-by-side mailboxes, each with a different trim color. How cool is
that?
Other sites didn't even show pictures of all the possible color
combinations, much less make it easy to play around with different
possibilities. I actually put off making a buying decision because I
couldn't picture the difference between the finishes.
What this means: some decisions are easy for
consumers. Other decisions are "sticking points" - points at which
people often waffle on what to decide. Waffling means a stalled sales
process. Figure out exactly why they're
waffling. Then create marketing tools that help them think through those
sticking points.
For example, if they get stuck on how to pay for your service, perhaps you should provide
a tool that helps them identify small budget changes that will allow them to
afford it. A checklist with ten ways to save $10/month so that they
can afford a membership might be handy. One suggestion might be
skipping Starbucks once/week.
If they hesitate to order online, provide info that addresses their
concerns. For example, you could provide more detailed garment
measurements so that they can order with confidence. Or include user
reviews like Zappos ("This shoe ran a half-size small" or "Small rocks kept
getting in these trail shoes because of the mesh insert").
If the variety of product models confuses them,
perhaps a side-by-side comparison of product features would help.
7) Fast response to questions - as promised
They say they respond to questions promptly and they did.
My first
question was answered within a few hours and included a helpful attachment
showing certain dimensions. My second question was answered within a
few minutes.
I emailed questions to a couple of
other companies, and still haven't heard back from them. I probably
never will. I called another company, had to sit on hold for about 5
minutes, and then got someone who sounded like they'd never even heard of
the mailbox I had questions about.
And interestingly, the questions I had for these other companies weren't
even issues when I finally bought the mailbox. The company I ended up
selecting anticipated those questions and handled them very smoothly in the
ordering process.
What this means: Actually, a couple of
things.
First, don't promise what you can't, won't, or don't deliver. I called
my local Life Time Fitness with a simple question over two years ago. They
assured me that my question was very important to them and promised they'd call me right back. Hasn't happened yet. If your
marketing features claims of wonderful service, you better make sure that's
how your potential customers see it.
Second, immediately reply to inquiries from potential customers, regardless
of whether they're emailed or phoned. If a prospect is standing right
in front of you, I bet you answer their questions immediately, right?
You wouldn't dream of saying, "OK, we'll get back to you within 48 hours on
that." And you certainly wouldn't ask them to talk to a completely
clueless employee.
Yet wellness businesses routinely respond poorly to email and phone
inquiries from potential buyers. They leave people on hold, take
messages that are never returned, ignore emails, or direct their calls and
emails to staffers completely lacking the know-how to actually answer
their questions.
8) A buying experience that creates confidence
A buying experience that anticipates the customer's questions and
concerns is a buying process that builds confidence. The company that
sold me my mailbox had clearly spent a lot of time thinking about how to
make it simple for people to buy mailboxes. That convinced me that they were
serious about providing good customer service start to finish. Other
websites clearly just wanted me to buy the darn mailbox, no questions asked.
Can you imagine trying to get help with any problems?
What this means: Many consumers are skeptical of products
and services related to health and wellness. Over-the-top claims of
amazing benefits have made them cynical. Yet a thoughtful buying
process, tuned to their concerns and questions, can actually reverse this
cynicism and replace it with confidence - at least in your company.
That, in turn, feeds word of mouth like nothing else can.
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