Know Your Customer

According to most sales instructors, customers go through four stages when considering whether to purchase a product such as CTi.  Knowing where your customer is can help you in determining what information to provide to close more sales:

Stage 1: Curiosity - This is the stage where the customer has first found out about the product and is simply curious in finding out whether he has any need for it.  Information here is general and is focused around getting the customer to the passive interest stage.  Most of the time, an effective web site or brochure provides enough information to get the customer to Stage 2.

Stage 2: Passive Interest - Here, the customer is past stage 1, but is still just investigating the product.  They have a better understanding of how the product can help them and they're looking for more specific information on whether the product is right for a particular need.  However, the customer is still just listening for information and is not likely to provide much in the way of "buying signals".  Information provided here should be more along the line of questions and answers so the customer can see how the product can fit their particular need.

Stage 3: Active Interest - The Active Interest stage is where the customer is starting to see how this product will fit their needs so they are considering the value proposition of price vs. benefits of the product.  Here the information provided is very specific and is moving the customer to the commitment stage by providing detailed information about how the product will fit their needs.

Stage 4: Commitment - This final stage is where the customer has all the information, has considered the trade off between price and the value of your proposition and is now ready to move forward.  Many times people leave a customer at this stage which is unfortunate since they've done all the work in creating excitement but have not instructed the customer on how to move forward.  Information here should be how to purchase the product, payment methods accepted and any final details for how the customer can move forward.

Increasing your Lead flow the Easy Way

by Brad Hieneman

 

Do you want a tip on how to increase your lead flow by 10% to 35%? 

 

Using a live voice to answer your phones has been proven to do just this.  With the onset of CTi's new marketing packages and the dashboard capabilities of the leads that come in through this marketing, we've had the ability to track hundreds of phone calls to Dealerships across the country.  Some of the Dealerships used voice mail or answering machines to answer their business line while others used a live voice (either an answering service, office person or having the calls come directly to their phone).  In all cases where the calls came to a live voice, hang ups decreased and the number of people who ended up giving their information increased from 10% to 35% in instances where the Dealer switched from machine to live voice.  This is a huge increase for something that is very easy to implement.  Take a look at how your business phones are being answered and see if there is a gold mine waiting to be tapped.