Fast and effective response to a prospective buyer has a major impact on both their momentum and their perception of you and your business. This has always been true. But what is different today is that today’s prospective buyer will be buried amongst a bunch of digital traces, or signatures of activity, on the internet. So it is not as simple as getting a phone call and having 30 minutes to complete the request.
Fast and effective response is even more important in today’s environment because the buyer comes along in a much more informed manner, by the time they make any request of you. They may have read some of what you have posted on the web; they have listened to comments that others have made about you, or the category of products and services that you offer. And if they come to make contact with you in any form, you are in a way, semi-qualified to warrant their attention. And with that comes a set of expectations. Because of this buyer preparedness, the impressions you create from all forms of your engagement, will have key impact on the buyer.
Of course, we know what happens if the buyer’s interaction does not satisfy their expectations. The buyer goes cold. They forget what they wanted from you. The sense of urgency on the issue fades. Other things become more important. And you may have forever lost the opportunity for engagement with that prospective buyer. And that is not fair, if you did not have the chance to put yourself in a position to provide a fast and effective response.
There is no need to let the buyer have unfair advantage that leads up to any form of engagement. The key for you to ensure a fast and effective response, and to maximize your chances for creating value in the engagement, is to be armed with information about the prospective buyer. Even though the buyer may be incognito, it behooves you to characterize and recognize behavioral patterns from their digital meandering activity. Even prior to a direct engagement request, they are leaving digital footprints.
This is what makes analytics so valuable. By collecting and analyzing the digital traces which your visitors leave, you are able to equip yourself so that you are able to detect when things are ripening. You will be able to adjust your activities to the buyer’s cadence. And even though the buyer will control the pace, you will be in a much stronger position to anticipate the next step in their process.
That is what levels the playing field. Certainly, you need to put your marketing content out there for prospective buyers to consume. But as has been widely discussed, today’s buyer is holding back on their engagement until much later in the buying cycle. Engagement typically begins with a well-informed buyer, and likely at a point where they see enough value in a specific engagement step. At that instant, it is key for you to know something meaningful about the prospective buyer. Only then can you have fast and effective response.