Here’s the cold, hard truth: Only 3 percent of your prospects are ready to buy right now. The other 97 percent have to go through a hierarchy or familiarity before they spend a dime. On top of that, most of your prospects that WILL buy are still not ready to do so today. Just because they don’t buy today doesn’t mean they ain’t gonna buy at all.
When I started off in my Hardcore Closer coaching venture, no one told me about the 3 percent rule.
I was a known closer and I expected EVERYONE to close who came into my ecosystem. At first, I had a warm market that was easy to close. Once that dried up, it took me about six months before I hit my stride again. After a few years of this cycle, I realized that my prospects watch me for at least 90 days before they even buy so much as a book.
When I launched Break Free Academy Entourage the first 90 days were definitely the hardest. The marketplace was watching us to see if we were gonna do what we said we were gonna do, and we did. It took 90 days for the market to go from skeptical to sold. I’m going to share the eight phases I’ve discovered that most prospects go through before they become raving fans.
Aware: The first step to familiarity is awareness. If they are not aware of your existence, they won’t make a buying decision because they don’t know the option exists. In other words, you gotta get some exposure. People buy from people they know, like and trust. In order for the prospect to make those decisions they must be aware of you or your product’s existence.
Engaged: Once they are aware and feel like they know you, they will engage with you. This may mean liking your social media posts, responding to your emails, or taking you up on free lead magnet offers. At this point, the prospect has decided they know, like and trust you enough to engage and reach out.
Subscribed: After they regularly engage, they buy into your ideology. They are subscribed to you. They check your social media posts; they read your emails and they avidly wait for your content. These folks are into whatever it is you sell and it’s only a matter of time before you sell it to them.
Believer: At this point, the prospect has bought the item and it’s working for them, i.e., solving their problem. They trusted you enough to take you up on an offer and that offer panned out better than they expected. If you skip this step, the next four steps won’t matter because they won’t happen.
Excited: The prospect is an avid user and regular consumer of your product. They enjoy using it and are excited to feel the benefits of whatever it is you sold them. The best way to cultivate this is with after-the-sale follow up. Support after the sale is as crucial to referrals as prospecting is to new sales.
Elevated: In my business, I have a model we call “elevator to the top,” and it basically means selling additional products to happy clients. When they buy one of my products, then get results; the only logical thing to do would be to sell them something else that will produce more results. That’s exactly what I do. I elevate them to the next product in line that fits their needs.
Ambassador: After the client gets results with multiple products, they will start to trust you enough to send you referrals from people they know. Referrals are always the easiest leads to close. Therefore, it’s in your best interest to get as many as you can. Once a client becomes a brand ambassador you can expect them to tell the right people about your products.
Raving Fan: If you’re lucky enough to get a client this far into the experience, you’re doing a great job as a salesman. The first four steps are the easiest. It’s the last four and specifically this one, that matter the most. When you create a raving fan, you have a client who will tell anyone and everyone about you and your product. They will pre-sell all the referrals they send you as well. Raving fans are like residual income, the money just keeps coming in over and over again.
It would be impossible for a prospect to go through all eight of these phases when they first see you. In order to create a raving fan client for life who floods you with referrals, you need a solid after-the-sale plan, too. I see almost 100 percent of the salespeople I run into using zero after-the-sale follow up. The real magic happens after the sale. Anyone can close a sale; only a CLOSER can create a raving fan.
If you’re looking to clique up with top salespeople who meet several times a year and who together produce over a billion dollars in sales per year, we’re looking for new members who are serious about advancing every area of their lives. Find out more at www.breakfreeacademy.com/entourage
