I was thinking about the process of buying something, and how sometimes it seems effortless, such as when I am purchasing an item via Amazon, while other times it feels like I am stuck in a bad dream and having to agonize over the entire process – which is similar to the process of buying a car. Does the process of what the buying experience is like at your company get discussed and tested from time to time? Do you know how prospects and customers would rate your buying process? Are you delighting them during their experience, or are you making them run straight to your competitor?
There are a variety of different types of buying processes, and sometimes people are involved in the process during the sale, and sometimes the process is completely devoid of any human interaction. In either situation, there are ways to improve the experience the prospective buyer is having, but have you thought about what these are, and if so or not, have you applied ways to make your buying process better? In other words, would people who have purchased items from your company recommend your company to do business with because the sales process was seamless? Or, was the sales process experience something which might make them not recommend dealing with your company? You should definitively know the answer to this.
Some larger companies use what is referred to as a Net Promoter Score (NPS) to evaluate a series of how people interact with their company, and how they would rate the interactions. In most cases, unless a company is receiving a score higher than 8 out of 10, there is definite room for improvement. The NPS evaluation process is generally a survey which is sent to a random set of customers on a quarterly basis, but is can also be sent to the same group of customers during the course of the year during less frequent intervals. My recommendation is to send it out to a random group each quarter to increase your feedback pool.
For companies who have less than 50 employees, sending out a simple survey with less than ten questions to help determine how customers would rate your sales process is recommended. The survey can be sent out via a “free” survey tool such as Survey Monkey, but there are plenty of other ones to consider using too. Your email solution provider might offer a survey tool option, so look into this as it will make the administration of the survey easier.
Since you will want to know what the ‘temperature’ of the respondent is, I do not recommend sending out an anonymous survey. To increase your survey responses, you can also tell the survey takers that one of the takers will be randomly selected to receive a gift card with an intriguing and generous value amount (e.g., Amazon, coffee or gas). This helps to increase the chances of people responding to your survey. You also want to put a time limit on when they need to respond by to increase their sense of urgency of completing the survey.
When developing your sales process survey questions, remember to include your sales, marketing and customer support teams. If there are other groups involved in your buying process, include them too, as you want to have a variety of questions answered relating to your buying process.
Another approach to take when determining how ‘smooth out’ your buying process is, is to go through and test the process either with employees involved in the buying process, or someone outside of the teams who do not interact with your process. The ideal approach is to have a neutral party test your buying process on a regular basis to see what the experience is like. Sometimes buying processes are set-up without regard to what the true user experience will be like, and this is an enormous missed opportunity to delight your prospect as they are purchasing from your company. Small things in the buying process can be included to make the experience more pleasant and human, especially if the purchase is solely on-line.
Going back to my example of how Amazon makes it so easy to purchase items from them, think about how they streamline the entire process from the moment you pick your item, to when you are checking out and have purchased it. Granted some on-line buying processes can be much more complex than an Amazon sale, but the point is to make sure you are not overlooking the part of the sale that prospects and customers could either dread, or be pleasantly surprised and delighted with the experience.
Do you know if your buying process is negatively or positively impacting your future sales or company’s reputation? You should, and I strongly advise you to test this out.
Kathleen E. R. Murphy is the Founder, Chief Performance Strategist and CEO of Market Me Too. Market Me Too has expertise in bridging teams and providing organizations techniques to accelerate their market growth and revenue numbers, regardless of the industry they are in, or the business stage they are presently at. She is also the author of a newly published business book called Wisdom Whisperer which is available via Amazon, and has had numerous strong reviews.
Market Me Too also works with individuals from students to C-level executives. The individuals, business and sports teams we work with are coached on how to leverage and apply their peak performance talents on a daily basis, which produces repeatable, measurable and amazing results personally and professionally. We also offer numerous workshops which can be customized to meet your team or company’s needs.
If you want better results with what you are doing, let’s talk. We know how to help you get them. Contact Kathleen at kathymurphy@me.com or (339) 987-0195.