Why do people have to get curious and enlightened before they commit?
Understanding the stages of a relationship is crucial because it helps you know what your sales funnel has to accomplish as a business owner. The goal of a business is to help people understand how their products or services will solve problems for people so they will ultimately commit and make a purchase. Simply asking doesn’t work, and here’s why.
You need to understand the stages in relationships necessary for conversion rates, which means knowing when someone should be asked if they’re ready to buy something from you. Here’s where we come in – we’ll show you precisely what needs doing at each stage so that customers can get through your funnel with ease!
People generally do not want to get to know you or be “enlightened” by you unless they are first curious about you. Meaning that you have something that can help them thrive or survive, and until they are enlightened, they will not commit and make a purchase.
You want people to understand your business and how your products or services can solve their problems to make a purchase. It turns out that simply asking people to buy your products or services doesn’t work. At least not right away!
Asking for the sale is a rational proposition. And relationships have rules.
All relationships move through three stages.
Stage 1: Curiosity
Can this person or product help me to thrive or survive? This is the first stage of the relationship where you meet someone and want to know more about them.
A person, product, or brand can help your customer survive or thrive; activating that survival mechanism within them piques their curiosity levels. To pique someone’s curiosity, you must associate your products with something that will help them survive.
People are not curious about you; they are curious about how you can solve their problems. Instead of telling your own story, the first step of your marketing plan should be about how a customer’s own story could be made better with your products or services.
Stage 2: Enlightenment
This is the stage in which your customer begins to trust you. If curiosity gets us to pay attention to a brand, enlightenment invites us into the relationship. If you want people to take the next step in a relationship with your brand, you need to enlighten them about how you can solve their problems and help them to survive.
After piquing a person’s curiosity on your website, or through email, a sales presentation, or advertising, the next question your customer will ask you is, “but how”? In this next phase of your marketing, you should enlighten them about how your products work to solve their problems.
Remember, you are not telling your story or even talking about your products. You should always focus on inviting your customers on a journey to improve their lives by using your products or services. People want to know what tools you have to help them accomplish their tasks, and they need this explained step by step. If people are confused about how your products or services can help them, they will walk away without purchasing.
Stage 3: Commitment
People generally do not purchase because either you didn’t ask for the sale or asked for the sale too early. If you ask for the sale too early in the relationship, a commitment is usually too risky for the customer, which works against their survival mechanisms. If people are curious and gradually enlightened, this reduces their sense of risk and increases commitment chances. You must become a trusted advisor to your customers. For people to put skin in the game and commit, there must be trust.
The key to marketing and sales is to invite the customer on a journey at a natural pace and build a healthy, trusting relationship along the way. People can fall in love with your brand. Just invite them into the stages of a relationship and do so at the right pace.