Buyers get used to new ideas and people in their own time. Forget about the traditional route of getting them in a headlock and pressurising them for a sale. It doesn’t work. Building trust is a slow burn.
The best time to do this is in the pre-bid phase of a buying cycle. You can take your time to listen to the client and find out about their concerns and beliefs. You can design new offers and educate them on how they will make their lives easier.
The Five Levels of Customer Awareness
Eugene Schwartz’s Five Levels of Customer Awareness model is a super tool for managing your approach to a complex sale. Schwartz was a brilliant copywriter whose words made oodles of cash for his clients. The model appeared in his book “Breakthrough Advertising” and though it was published in 1966 it’s still more than relevant today.
The model prompts you to consider where your product sits with a customer at that particular moment and influences the type of marketing and messaging that are appropriate. The idea is to move the client through each stage at a pace that is comfortable leading them to trust you and the product or service that you are selling. Let’s look at each phase:
1. Unaware
The customer doesn’t know that they have a problem. Moving them to the next level takes an advertising budget the size of a small country. It’s not worth your while kicking their door in about what’s on offer. They’ll call security.
2. Problem Aware
The customer is now aware that they have a problem but hasn’t worked out or isn’t curious yet about the solutions in the market. They may be a little more receptive to your advances at this stage.
3. Solution Aware
The customer is irritated enough to have gone online to do a bit a of research on what’s out there. They’re not at the stage where they’re ready to commit to a solution and possibly don’t want the hassle. This is the time to get a meeting and show them your wares
4. Product Aware
The customer has finally opened their eyes to what is actually out in the market. They’re serious about solving their problem and are aware of what you’re offering but aren’t convinced that you’re the answer. Getting to the next level requires a level of empathy and understanding that helps you calibrate your offer so that it is in tune with their needs and concerns.
5. Most Aware
The customer is ready. All you need to do from here on in is nail the RFP and make it easy for them to do business with you.
When to pull the trigger
In a previous post I used the following quote from Adamson, Dixon and Toman’s “The End of Solution Sales” (2012).
“In fact, a recent Corporate Executive Board Study on more than 1,400 B2B customers found that those customers completed, on average, nearly 60% of a typical purchasing decision – researching solutions, ranking options, setting requirements, benchmarking pricing, and so on – before even having a conversation with a supplier.”
Where in the five levels do you need to land in order to tilt the field in your favour and build some real influence with a buyer? Many of today’s procurement teams are resourced with solution designers and analytics that make it easier for them to make independent buying decisions. Your best point of entry is possibly between levels two – problem aware – and three – solution aware. Get in early with a design that plays to your strengths and delivers the goods for the customer, and you’ll have every chance with the RFP. Arriving late to the party at level four will see one of your competitors steal your lunch.
What Next?
To find out more about how to engage with your buyer and win that RFP click on the link below for a chat.