When it comes to selling, I don’t need to tell you many factors that can improve or hurt your sales.
But there’s one that even large businesses get really wrong.
The customer journey.
A customer flow or journey (in marketing there are so many words or phrases that mean the exact same thing) refers to the path of interactions an individual has with your brand, product, and/or services.
It includes every step someone goes through, from initial interaction or introduction to your final end goal/sale...and should also include how to repeat customer success.
Your customer flow should feel like a larger version of a funnel...because your business is a giant funnel. You connect with a lot of people, in different ways to ultimately reach your goals.
If you Google customer journey, you'll see a lot of people focusing almost entirely on an initial conversion funnel (like the example below), but I like to look at the bigger picture of all your options and paths, as well as how your website is assisting in this.
Create Your one Customer Journey
One of the first things I’d recommend to every business (once they know what they are selling) is to map out all the steps a person needs to take to purchase - from the point they connect to you, to receiving their purchase.
…the customer journey!
Step 1: List where you connect with people
Where are your customers or leads coming across you?
Are they seeing you on social media? Meeting you at a Farmer’s Market? Even seeing a commercial for your product?
List each place someone may come across you (that you control).
These will all go in the first section of your customer journey map.
Step 2: List out your purchase options (these are your sales goals)
In your last column, list your purchase options or goals.
For example, my “purchase options” are a custom project, hourly contract work, Marketing Coaching Calls, Marketing Consultations, and my new Customer Journey Decoded sessions.
I would list each of these in the last column.
Make sure to only include the purchase options you currently offer. You can add new ones as you have them!
Step 3: List where you send people for initial action
This brings you to column three, where you’ll list all the places you send people to on your website and the associated action
Note: I call this "website" because regardless of where you are sending people, it should always be located in one singular place...your website. Funnel? On your website. Quick Links? On your website. Scheduling Calendar? On your website. Not only is this good practice for your contacts, but it helps your domain (website) build authority and credibility.
Not only does this step focus on what happens after that initial connection (like a second date), it emphasizes how your website is vital to your business.
You may find this column is pretty empty - that’s okay! You’ll come back to “fill in the gaps” later 😉
If you have some initial thoughts of what to include here, use a different color sticky or text color so you don’t lose those thoughts and keep moving.
Step 4: List what drives people to purchase
This could be funnels, email lists (and campaigns), text messages, etc.
These don’t need to be formal multi-step funnels, they can also be a newsletter funnel (getting people to sign-up on your newsletter email list) or setting up a consultation call, or hosting an event.
Ultimately, you want to ask: What is the action I want my website visitors to take on each page of my website? And how are these actions driving my ultimate goals?
This includes things like, as soon as they download their free guide to creating a business plan, what emails are they receiving? Or when they schedule a consult call, what emails do they receive before the call? What about after the call? Are there autoresponders put in place to follow up if they don’t purchase?
Essentially, how are people connecting with me and how am I actively driving them to purchase?
Note I said “actively”. If you are passively wanting people to purchase you have your options just listed on your website (which works sometimes!), but actively doing so means you’re putting in extra work to get the sale.
This is the step where you see if you’re providing a higher level of service and trust-building before you ask for the sale versus going from your initial touchpoint to a sale.
Step 5: Work through gaps in your system
I mentioned this before, but by going through this worksheet you may discover gaps in your system.
This doesn't need to hold you back from figuring out the journey your customers need to take. You want to fill these gaps with the simplest steps possible.
For example, if you have a gap in your first step, you're not currently connecting with anyone and driving traffic. Don't fill that gap with an intensive 10-part connection strategy utilizing guest blogs, podcasts, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Snapchat, and Tumblr. Focus on starting with one option you believe will drive the most traffic.
Don't get bogged down on the perfect way to grow your business, look at the realistic steps you will accomplish in a timely manner instead.