Key Parts of An Effective Customer Journey

The lack of a well-constructed customer journey (or failure to have one) is one of the most common problems costing coaches and consultants sales.

Your customer journey is the sum of all the touchpoints and experiences a client has with your brand, starting when you first gain their attention and continuing through to their first purchase and beyond.

A customer journey consists of the messaging, channels, and experiences you use to gain the attention of your clients, earn their trust, inspire them to buy, and provide them with exceptional value.

In this post, I’ll help you identify hidden gaps in your customer journey that might be costing you sales.

The Failings of the Sales Funnel

We frequently hear about sales funnels. A sales funnel is often one part of a customer journey.

A customer journey is a more holistic view of the experience prospects, and customers have with your brand. Thinking in terms of a sales funnel costs you sales and lasting impact.

I also prefer the imagery of inviting people on a journey to the idea of pushing them through a funnel.

I also avoid discussing sales funnels because it brings to mind an overly-automated process of pushing leads through an email series.

This might work for a high-volume business that churns through leads, but we want something for you that develops long-term relationships and results for your clients.

Guiding Your Best Clients to Enroll in Your Programs

A commonly quoted statistic is that it takes eight touchpoints on average before a qualified prospect becomes a client. I’ve also heard numbers in the teens quoted, though I haven’t been able to find any studies.

Regardless, the point is the same:

to consistently enroll new clients, you must deliberately guide potential clients through multiple thoughtful touchpoints with your brand before they will be ready to work with you.

It’s also important to note that only about 3% of your market is ready to buy right now. The clear message here is that you need to gain and keep the attention of prospects over time until they are ready to buy.

(Because we’re not about twisting anyone’s arm, using shame, or leveraging pressure to get people to buy before they are ready, right?)

This emphasizes the importance of being deliberate about how we remain top-of-mind with our potential clients, identify the prospects who are ready to take action, then guide them through a series of interactions that inspires them to work with you.

Are There Gaps in Your Customer Journey?

That brings us to the question at hand:

Do you have a well-thought-out customer journey that moves your intended audience down the garden path to becoming a thrilled client and voracious advocate for your brand?

Every sales process has gaps. The key is to continually find and fill them.

Here’s a handful of questions to help you.

If the answer to any of these is ‘no’, that’s an opportunity to fill a gap in your customer journey.

Do you know how your marketing and sales channels connect to further the customer journey? (For example: do your social media posts, podcast, and newsletter each play the right role in your customer journey?)
Do you think about how each piece of content identifies qualified prospects and moves them forward to the next step on the journey toward enrolling in your program (rather than publishing content just to “stay visible”)?
Do you have touchpoints that identify the hottest prospects so you know who is ready to move toward a sale?
Do you consistently use carefully crafted calls to action (even baby-step actions) to move qualified and ready prospects forward to the next step in the journey?
Do you know where your best clients come from and what led them to work with you, so you can use this information to improve your customer journey?

The last question is a great place to start.

—

At this point, perhaps you’re concerned about the effectiveness (or lack) of your customer journey. That’s okay. You’re certainly not alone.

If you’d like some guidance in identifying the gaps in your customer journey or deciding where to start building one, I’ll be doing a complimentary one-hour workshop for a small group next week.

I’ll outline the key parts of an effective customer journey and help you identify the high-leverage shifts you can make with yours to attract and enroll more of your ideal clients and fill your programs more consistently and with more ease.

Feel free to reach out if this interests you.