Your customers have questions. You have the answers. It’s the job of your sales and marketing process to make the two connect in the easiest way possible.
In years past, you might have handled the process with consultations and brochures. Technology increased and a lot of the process moved to the web. But times are changing once again, and more and more of your customer base is no longer tethered to a desktop or laptop existence; they are pulling out their mobile technology and accessing the data everywhere. Whenever they have a question, the answer is a mere click away.
Are you ready?
Control Leads With A Process
All leads go through a process from the moment they determine they need help, to finding and finalizing the sale. Most of that process can be anticipated by simply thinking like your customer. (There’s a book I highly recommend that will help you understand this process on a deeper level – Becoming The Customer.)
Buyers have taken control of the sales cycle; they want information on their timeframes and know exactly how to get it. With seemingly unlimited resources online, they can do as much research as they choose, pushing the sales cycle from days to hours, even to minutes, all depending on their needs and desires.
Traditional marketing and sales strategies lack the ability to allow a customer to travel at their own pace. They rely on you for everything. By converting the process to the web, you are opening it up to a new level of potential. With the web, a customer can search for and have access to any information you choose to release. You can direct them through landing pages and sign up opportunities. You can have contact forms and shopping carts that put the customer in control.
But there’s one more step you have to consider; are you mobile ready? Traditional websites may not convert easily and be accessible on mobile devices. Certain programs may not be visible on smaller screens. While it may take a conversion process to handle the details, the results can be more than worth it as your potential customer base grows.
Create Support Systems To Keep Learning
The sales and marketing process doesn’t end when the customer signs on the dotted line. The sales and marketing process keeps going indefinitely. They continue when a customer forgets the advice you gave them and goes to your site hunting for the answer. They continue when its time for another service. Or the next appointment. Or the next question.
Technology gives us the ability to build comprehensive mobile-ready libraries that interact and provide on-demand customer support in every way. They can provide push notifications as alerts, provide newsletters to keep people better informed, and can provide ongoing support throughout the process. Whether content is provided directly in one-on-one format, or is created generically and pushed via scheduled formats, staying in your customers’ thoughts is an important part of remaining a viable business.
Mobile Can Increase Productivity
Whatever your needs, however you choose to connect and be a part of your customers’ lives, incorporating a mobile friendly strategy as you move forward will make all the difference. Customers of the future won’t just demand it, they won’t be able to function any other way.
That means coming on board today with the realities of what mobile has to offer. What programs make it easier for you to connect with your customer base? What apps give you potential at the click of a button? Yet through all of this change, there is one more thing to keep in mind: safety.
Downloading an app is quick and easy; keeping your customers safe and happy is a completely different challenge. If you have any questions about how to combine all the pieces into a working strategy, lets talk today.
