Learn More About the Buyers Journey
What You'll Learn
In this lesson you'll learn about one of the most fundamental marketing ideas, the Buyers Journey. How your clients are thinking and feeling at various stages of the buying process.
Why is This Important?
Clients want to be prospected, or free trialed, or closed when they're ready, not when you're ready. As the salesperson for your fitness business, you can personalise your sales process to the clients next logical step by understanding the buyer’s journey.
Step 1: Understanding the Buyer's Journey
The buyer’s journey is the process your clients go through to become aware of, evaluate, and purchase a new product or service from your fitness business. The journey is a three-step process:
The graphic below illustrates a sample buyer’s journey for the simple purchasing decision of a young man who struggles to gain muscle.
- Awareness: The buyer realises they have a problem.
"I think I'm overweight", "My doctor warned me I could get diabetes" - Consideration: The buyer defines their problem and researches options to solve it.
"I'll Google how to lose weight", "I'll talk to my friend who has diabetes" - Decision: The buyer chooses a solution.
"I'd like to try and fix this myself", "I think I need professional help"
The graphic below illustrates a sample buyer’s journey for the simple purchasing decision of a young man who struggles to gain muscle.
Step 2: Research Your Buyer Journey
If you don’t have an intimate understanding of your clients, conduct a few interviews with them, your friends and family, and other prospects to get a sense of the buying journey.
Talk to your existing clients, friends family and anyone else who fits your buyer persona. Use your listening skills to find out more about what your clients want and feel at every stage of your business system.
Great ways to get feedback to listen to is by simply asking. Clients are often more than happy to give feedback and advice and they'll even do it for free!
Questions you might ask:
Methods of gaining this client feedback include:
Whatever method you choose. Make it as easy as possible for clients to give you feedback and reward them for their time where necessary.
Talk to your existing clients, friends family and anyone else who fits your buyer persona. Use your listening skills to find out more about what your clients want and feel at every stage of your business system.
Great ways to get feedback to listen to is by simply asking. Clients are often more than happy to give feedback and advice and they'll even do it for free!
Questions you might ask:
- Why did you choose to hire a trainer instead of going it alone?
- What made you choose my business?
- Where did you look for answers?
- What made you decide to hire a trainer?
Methods of gaining this client feedback include:
- Surveys
- Usability tests (for online training)
- Interviews
- Social listening (Facebook Groups, Twitter, etc)
- Comment boxes
Whatever method you choose. Make it as easy as possible for clients to give you feedback and reward them for their time where necessary.
Step 3: Complete Your Buyer Journey
Now we understand what a Buyer Journey is and we've though about some questions to ask your potential clients, it's time to download, print and complete the Buyer Journey template using the steps below.
Download: The Buyer Journey
Download: The Buyer Journey
For each of the three buyer stages, fill in the boxes with the following information:
During the Awareness stage, buyers identify their challenge or an opportunity they want to pursue. They also decide whether or not the goal or challenge should be a priority. In order to fully understand the Awareness stage for your buyer, ask yourself:
- How do buyers describe their goals or challenges?
- How do buyers educate themselves on these goals or challenges?
- What are the consequences of inaction by the buyer?
- Are there common misconceptions buyers have about addressing the goal or challenge?
- How do buyers decide whether the goal or challenge should be prioritized?
During the Consideration stage, buyers have clearly defined the goal or challenge and have committed to addressing it. They evaluate the different approaches or methods available to pursue the goal or solve their challenge. Ask yourself:
- What categories of solutions do buyers investigate?
- How do buyers educate themselves on the various categories?
- How do buyers perceive the pros and cons of each category?
- How do buyers decide which category is right for them?
In the Decision stage, buyers have already decided on a solution category. For example, they could write a pro/con list of specific offerings and then decide on the one that best meets their needs. Questions you should ask yourself to define the Decision stage are:
- What criteria do buyers use to evaluate the available offerings?
- When buyers investigate your company’s offering, what do they like about it compared to alternatives? What concerns do they have with your offering?
- Who needs to be involved in the decision? For each person involved, how does their perspective on the decision differ?
- Do buyers have expectations around trying the offering before they purchase it?
- Outside of purchasing, do buyers need to make additional preparations, such as implementation plans or training strategies?
The answers to these questions will provide a robust foundation for your buyer’s journey.
Frequently Asked Questions
WHY DO I NEED TO COMPLETE A BUYER'S JOURNEY?
The Buyer Journey helps you to understand how your client is feeling and what they are thinking at different stages of the buying process, so that you can improve your marketing assets, create a better service and build a more profitable business.
WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO FIND OUT WHAT MY BUYER'S JOURNEY IS?
The best way to research your Buyer Journey is to use the Listen principle outlined in the L.E.A.R.N. methodology. Asking the right questions and listening to the answers will help you to create a strong buyer journey.
HOW DO I KNOW IF MY BUYER'S JOURNEY IS WORKING?
Simply put, your marketing will be more effective so you'll take on more leads, more clients and make more money.
The Buyer Journey helps you to understand how your client is feeling and what they are thinking at different stages of the buying process, so that you can improve your marketing assets, create a better service and build a more profitable business.
WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO FIND OUT WHAT MY BUYER'S JOURNEY IS?
The best way to research your Buyer Journey is to use the Listen principle outlined in the L.E.A.R.N. methodology. Asking the right questions and listening to the answers will help you to create a strong buyer journey.
HOW DO I KNOW IF MY BUYER'S JOURNEY IS WORKING?
Simply put, your marketing will be more effective so you'll take on more leads, more clients and make more money.