Attracting new customers may be a challenge that many businesses constantly face. Unless you have a fully defined, developed, and displayed brand, prospects are not familiar with you, what you do, or what you stand for. If you build your brand, people will become familiar with you and what you stand for long before they meet you, talk to you, or ever engage with you.
Our three phases of customer attraction will lead you to sales. Most businesses lose in phase one because they’re not attracting customers and in phase three because they’re not following up with customers. Below, we explain each phase and how to leverage them to attract new customers.
Phase 1: Introduction
This phase is exactly as it sounds. It’s when you and your prospect make the first introductions. Let’s say someone stumbles across your information or is introduced to you through lead generation or referrals. During this phase, you and your prospect usually don’t know each other yet.
Putting your brand out there in phase one helps your prospects learn about you before they even meet you in person. If executed well, your brand helps them become familiar with you and what you stand for. It also makes your prospecting warm (vs ‘cold calling’).
According to PR Newsire, 76 percent of consumers look at a business’s online presence before they physically visit that business or reach out to them. If you’re in a sales-oriented business, the number is much higher than that. That means prospects are already out there trying to learn more about businesses like yours. It does you a huge favor to provide the information that they are already seeking through your brand messaging to attract new customers.
Phase 2: Engagement
Without a well defined brand, you solely rely on phase two to attract new customers. Phase two is not meant to attract business. Its purpose should be to talk about your client, not you. It’s when you learn about their needs, wants, and desires so that you can express exactly how you will help them based on those things.
If you already have a brand out there making your business known, then you can spend your engagement time actually talking to the customer. Building a brand helps your prospects take active steps to know about you and reach out to you. You’re telling them your story through your brand, which means your brand can impact far more people than you could ever meet face to face.
It’s the difference between trying to nail a meeting where you spend a portion of that time just telling your audience about yourself and one where your audience already knows your story. Your brand should have already done that first introduction for you.
Phase 3: Follow Up
The follow-up phase is for all those you engage with who can’t make a decision immediately. Your brand helps keep you top-of-mind until they are ready.
If you don’t have your brand dialed in, you remain just a number to your prospects because there’s nothing significant for them to remember you by. You’re relying solely on them to remember you based on what little engagement you might have had with them.
Let’s say your competitor is doing a better job following up with their customers and telling them what sets them apart because they have a brand that constantly reminds their customers of them. Guess who’s probably going to end up with that business?
The Takeaway
Why do most people lose business in phase one and phase three? In both phases, you’re not there in person. Your brand is taking your place. When your brand is complete, you have a constant salesperson who’s out there helping you attract new customers. It’s another entity that’s working for you 24/7. Prospects will know who you are and what you stand for before they even meet you.
Your prospects must get to know you before they meet you. That makes the rest of the sales process smoother. If you present your brand messaging in a compelling way, your prospects can better understand why you’re the perfect person.
Are you a Coach, Consultant, or other Expert with a life-changing message to share? Download our free ‘Ultimate Guide to a Freedom-Based Brand’ to learn how to position & present yourself and your offers differently in order to maximize your time and dramatically increase profits.
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BrandFace LLC is a personal branding company for coaches, consultants and other experts who want to STAND OUT from their competition and attract their ideal customers so they can become recognized and sought after authorities in their industry. Tonya Eberhart & Michael Carr are international bestselling authors and the partners behind BrandFace. Their mantra is, “People don’t do business with a logo. They do business with a person.”