Episode 105: Are You Right For Your Potential Customers?: How The Evaluation Stage Improves Your Sales and Brand Loyalty
In this quick tip episode, Fiona talks about the evaluation stage of the buyer cycle and how it helps small business owners improve their sales and increase brand loyalty. Listen now as she shares her tips on how to improve and earn the trust of your potential (and old) clients/customers.
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
Ask for Help
The Buyer Cycle
Why The Evaluation Stage Matters
What You Can Do To Improve It
Conclusion
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Episode transcript:
Hello and welcome to episode 105 of the My Daily Business Coach podcast. Today, it is a quick tip episode and I'll jump into that shortly. I just wanted to give a shout out to anyone who's listening in Melbourne, who has recently had to go through the fourth massive and severe lockdown, especially small business owners. I really feel your pain. I work with so many of you, many of whom have physical stores or spaces or event kind of businesses. So yeah, my heart just goes out to you. I'm so sorry that we've had to go through this. I'm recording this during lockdown and I'm hoping that it is just seven days and then we're out of it as soon as possible. But yeah, make sure that even if we are out of it, that you have reached out for help, that you're asking people that you're accepting help and no matter where you are in the world, I know that Melbourne is by far nowhere near the hardest places in the world, so that have been hit by COVID-19.
So if that is you, no matter where you're listening to send a text message to somebody, call someone, you know, just let them know, “Hey, I'm finding it tough right now.” And, you know, really be open to accepting help. I think that's something that a lot of small business owners struggle with just by the pure fact that we have our own businesses. We do have that kind of level of ambition and determination and drive. And with that, that could be awesome. But on the flip side, we can also find it really hard to accept help. So that's just my little PSA that no matter where you are in the world, if you're in lockdown, if you're not in lockdown, if you are running a business and you're finding it difficult right now to deal with everything else, that's going on, make sure you ask for help.
You are not weak for doing so. It doesn't make you less than it's actually really a sign of strength and character that you can ask for help when you need it. And just before I jumped into today's quick tip, I am going to just remind you that group coaching is open at the moment for enrollments. You can find all the information about how I run my group coaching program. It runs for 12 months, we meet every two weeks, but you'll find all the details and specifics over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/groupcoaching - one word. And of course we'll link to that in the show notes as well. All right, this is a quick tip episode.
Let's get going shall we?
All right. So if you’re familiar with my work or you've listened to this before, you would have heard me talk about the concept of the buyer cycle. Now the buyer cycle is really the kind of journey that anyone will go through when they're transacting with a product or service. Now it can be they're buying a new couch. It could be you're buying your wedding dress. It could be your binding, a new synagogue to go to. It could be any sort of thing. So whether you're a product or service, everyone will go through this kind of journey. And there are really five stages to it. It starts with awareness. Someone tells you about it. Now you're aware they then move into research. If they think what they've seen is interesting enough, they will research. So that means, you know, jumping online, Googling you, finding your social media account, sort of getting as much information as they can.
Then they're going into a third stage, which is evaluation. So they're evaluating if you're right for them or not, then the fourth stage is purchase. So making sure it's really easy to, you know, check out with you to contact you all of those things. And then the fifth is post-purchase and kind of advocacy. And that's really where a lot of people fail to do any marketing. They kind of, I always refer to it like a one night stand. You've got the sale and now you're not talking to them anymore. So post-purchase is really important as are all of the stages. And if the buyer cycle is something you really want to kind of understand a bit more, definitely check out a longer episode that I did on this, which was episode 24. And that really goes into a deep dive on all of the five stages.
But today I wanted to talk about the evaluation stage. And I guess today is really a tip episode, as opposed to a tactic or a tool, although you could use the buyer cycle as a tool, but I really wanted to discuss evaluation and really get you to think about, if somebody has heard about your brand, they have done the research. They've come to your website, they have gone to your Instagram, they have Googled you they've maybe asked around what is happening at the evaluation stage and what sort of information do they need to see from you across various channels in order to feel that you are right for them. So there might be things that are part of your, you know, brand DNA or that you talk about when you're onboarding new customers or even your staff. And that might be all about, you know, why you started the business.
And yet that information is missing from your social media, it's missing from your website, your About us page. And so that could be a first thing to look at, you know, am I clearly showing my life behind my business, why I started it, my values, my beliefs is that in my marketing. And again, I know that people will sometimes be like, oh, that's a bit, you know, that's a bit personal in the night. And to go to every single detail that led you to starting your business, like, oh my gosh, I got divorced. And this happened and he was horrible and I was left with nothing. And so, you know, you can choose what you put out there, but make sure that you're putting out enough about the why and about the values and beliefs. So that if somebody is at the stage of evaluating whether you are right for them or not, they can at least access that information and, you know, decide to do what they want with that information.
Another thing that can help at the point of evaluation is for product based businesses, where they are made and how you find the different labels that you stock. Also looking at, you know, ethical practices, the manufacturing, how well, you know, your suppliers, putting those things in can actually really help people kind of have this level of confidence and trust that the supply chain is not just, you know, slave labor somewhere that's completely oblivious to, or you're completely oblivious to it or to the people behind the making of your product. It can also show that, you know, again, deepening those values of like trust and relationships and connection. So don't be afraid to put that stuff in. And even if you, you know, you're like, well, I produce offshore. I produce in China or other places where sometimes there can be this perceived idea around certain things, be proud of it.
You know, talk about how you found your suppliers, why they're so important to how, you know, you're growing as a business has allowed their family business to grow. There's a great interview episode I did on this podcast episode 102, and that was Becca and Jess Stern and they're sisters, but they're also the co-founders of Mustard. And they talk about that their lockers are made in China, but they go into detail as to how they found the manufacturer, why they chose them, you know, the interview process, all of that. And it really drives home their values of connection and trust and reliability and working with great suppliers and amazing people who really, really understand their business. Similarly, whether you run a product based business or a service based business, if you are highly experienced in what you do, even if your business is new, definitely make sure that you're putting that information in as well.
And what that can look like for say service-based businesses is it could be as simple as a logo farm. So these are the clients I've worked with. These are the companies I've worked at and, you know, maybe mentioning how many years experience you have. This is something I do on my own website. I have a logo farm of who I've worked with. It's something I bring in to speaker presentations or proposal or pitch documents. I also have a tag, like a small line of text that says, you know, experience matters 18 years and counting or 19 years and counting. I need to update that, but putting those small things in allows again, that trust to build in the evaluation stage. So remember, we're talking about the evaluation stage of the buyer cycle and what you can do to help guide people through that sort of uncertain stage to going, yep.
They're the right person for me. Again, things like bringing a little bit of humanity into your information about you. So I know, say with psychologists quite often, they will be very keen to put in all their academic accomplishments. And that's great. You know, got a PhD in this, or I'm a clinical psychologist who studied here and I've got these journal articles. That's great. But the average person viewing a psychologist page, who's thinking about, oh my gosh, I really need some help. Right now. I'm struggling with X, Y, and Z. They just want to know that you're a real person. And so putting things in that is not too personal, but might say, you know, I have three children and I love running or something like that. That might just be enough for somebody at the point of evaluation to say, you know what? I have two children and I'm struggling right now.
And actually I'd love to see somebody who also has three children who totally understands the demands and there's constraints on my time being a parent. So again, I know that people come sometimes can be reluctant to share parts of themselves. I think because they think they have to share everything you don't. You can just put enough in that if somebody is evaluating it, they're like, yes, that is the person for me. Or that is the brand for me. Are the things that you might put in there is if you are, you only work with local businesses, put that in. I'm a specialist working in this area. Or if you are really niche down and you work with pastry chefs who only deal with these type of ovens or something, put that in whatever you can do to really start tracking, okay. People are aware of me, awesome.
People are coming to my website. Awesome. I can see the traffic is increasing. I can see follower numbers are increasing. Email subscribers are increasing, but that evaluation stage that's really the gate. That is the gate to sales and to long-term brand loyalty. Because once people pass through the point of evaluation, then it's all about creating a great customer experience for them because they've made the decision. You are the product or service for me. So that is it for today's tip.
I want you to really, really think about at that point of evaluation, where they're really looking at you versus your competitors, or looking at you and thinking is this product or service actually going to help me? What are you putting out there that is really going to guide them smoothly through that point of evaluation? I know that when people look at the buyer cycle, quite often, the information is really like, you know, a lot of business information is out there talking about awareness, you know, grow, grow, grow, get to a bigger audiences and then, you know, purchase, make sure that people are converting.
And of course those things are super important, but sometimes we forget the evaluation stage. So what is it that will help someone say you are it, you are my person, my brand, my product, or my service. So that is it for today's quick tip episode.
As always, the show notes will be available in full, over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/podcast/105. Just a reminder again, group coaching is currently open for enrollments and you can find all the details over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/groupcoaching - one word. All right, I'll see you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to My Daily Business Coach podcast. If you want to get in touch, you can do that at mydailybusinesscoach.com or hit me up on Instagram at @mydailybusinesscoach.
