Let me ask you a question. What inspires you? What gets you excited? What gets you uplifted? What gets you energized? Sometimes these are tough questions, but I do this thing every single day. In the morning, I do a quote of the day. At the end of the day, I do a caption contest. Today we’re going to talk about the quote of the day. These are inspirational quotes that I post. These are usually from famous people like Thomas Edison or Helen Keller or Zig Ziglar. They tend to be things that are uplifting, that give you hope, that give you positive energy to move into your day with and hopefully carry on throughout the day.
That quote of the day is usually triggered by an emotion in me, something that maybe I need that I want to share with somebody else. That’s my first point of today’s topic, and the title of it is How do You Inspire Your Customers to Buy From You?
You Are Your Best Customer
Now, you are your own perfect avatar. What’s an avatar? An avatar is basically an example of who you are, your perfect customer. A lot of the time, the emotion and the things that drive you are exactly what drives your customers. So a lot of the time, if you look at yourself, you can figure out exactly who your perfect customers are.
So, what drives you? Think of it this way: What are your values? What do you value the most? One of my values is that I love seeing other people succeed. And I want to succeed. I want to be very successful. So when I can help others succeed, that helps me become successful. So you might say I’m living vicariously through my clients’ success.
Now let’s take this down another road. Maybe you’re into sports. Obviously you get so excited when you’re rooting for the winning team, right? And you hate it when your team loses. But what about when your team comes from behind to win at the last second? That last second shot, that last second goal, that field goal, that touchdown, whatever it is. Man, the amount of elation you feel is just wow, right? And think about it — if your team’s the underdog and they beat the guy that’s supposed to win, it’s even more so.
Or what about somebody who’s overcome the odds? Maybe it’s not in sports, maybe it’s in life; maybe somebody who’s handicapped or has a challenge. Does that kind of stuff inspire you? I know it inspires me.
Inspiration
The word inspiration has one of two meanings. The first is that it is the action or power of moving the intellect or emotions. So you’re actually changing somebody’s emotional feeling about something. The other one is the act of influencing or suggesting opinions. So you can inspire somebody by doing something in suggesting something.
When we’re trying to inspire customers, we’re trying to get them to envision where it is that they’re going to be after they go through the process of whatever it is we’re selling or whatever they’re consuming. Obviously it’s different in the losing weight, getting fit, getting healthy world. But that’s what a lot of that inspiration is: to feel better. Be this person, be the person that you wanted to be, lose 50 pounds, whatever it is. There are a lot of uplifting, fast paced music, inspiring things.
So when it comes to customers, you have to think about the mindset of where they’re at when you are communicating with them now. I call it six degrees of separation, like six degrees from Kevin Bacon. But it’s really more than that, because it’s six different buckets. Each one of those buckets have multiple choices inside of them.
But let’s simplify it. When you’re talking to customers, there are two different realms that I want you to look at. Number one, where are they in the buying process? And number two, where are they as far as their experience with you?
The Buying Process
So the first one is where are they in the buying process?
Cold
The first kind that you can have is cold clients. Now, cold clients don’t know you from Adam or Eve. So in order for you to get in their head, you have to create awareness. When you’re trying to deal with cold clients, you have to basically say “here, I’m here and this is what I have to offer!” You’re just getting them to pay attention.
Warm
The second type is warm clients. Warm clients know of you, but they’re not maybe ready to buy. With those people, you have to be educational with them; you have to provide them content that gives them some ideas about where they might be going. How do you inspire them to say hey, you know what, if I just do this or I just buy this, I can get here. And that is the educational process.
Hot
The third type of client is hot. Man, they are ready to buy and you’re one of the options. The way that you want to communicate with them is sales, but very soft touches. You don’t want to be a hard seller. You want to be somebody that’s going to get it across to them but not shove it down their throat.
Now, the other three buckets I like to put customers in are past customers, current customers, future customers.
Past Customers
Let’s look at past customers. They used to work with you and they left for a reason, but it may not be personal. And a lot of people just let them go. That could be a problem because maybe they stopped working with you because they left their job. Maybe they stopped working with you because somebody else told them to, but maybe they still like you and your products and services. Maybe you have another opportunity to communicate and connect with them where they’re at. Maybe your business has changed and you have something else that they can use that they were not aware of. So again, where is that person in the buying process? Cold, warm, hot?
Current Customers
Next we have current customers. Of course, they’re already buying from you, but you have to think about this: There are other people out there trying to sell them stuff too. You have to make sure that you’re staying in concert with where they are now and keeping them in line with where you want them to be in the future. That means you have to continue to communicate with them; don’t be complacent.
Prospects
The last one is future customers, which are the prospects. This is where most people tend to focus all of their time and energy. Let’s go find these new clients! Well, yeah, you need to be top of mind, but where are they in the buying process? Are they cold, warm, or hot? Do you need to create awareness? Do you need to let them know specifically what they might achieve by educating them? Or are they so ready to buy that you just need to be in the right place at the right time?
You have to make sure that you’re communicating with each one of these groups the way that they want to be communicated to.
So, inspiration effectively is this. It’s tapping into the emotions and their potential and their dreams. Where can you and your products or services take them and why would they want to buy from you? Think of how you can inspire them to envision what the difference is going to be.
Final Thoughts
I want to leave you with some final thoughts, and all of these are something to follow. The first follow is to do exactly that: follow these people, figure out where they’re hanging out, and look at the signals that they’re giving out. Obviously if they’ve changed jobs, they may not need what you have.
Secondly, follow up. It doesn’t hurt to send out just a “Hi, how you doing?” If you haven’t heard my 10/10/10 theory, go read my last blog (What Can You Do With Your LinkedIn Connections?). The bottom line is to follow up, reach out to these people and give them gentle reminders.
The last one is follow through. Set goals and deadlines. Make promises of communication and make sure that you exceed them.
So let me ask that question again. What inspires you? What gets you excited, uplifted, or energized? If you can figure that out for yourself, chances are you can communicate it with potential customers.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas or questions about showing the concepts presented. Have you had to overcome any of the presented concepts? What worked and what did not live up to expectations? Do you have any ideas or advice you could share?