Digital Game Plan: Understanding Your Soulmate Success Path (aka Buyer Journey)
Are you tired of chasing customers and ready to create a digital path that brings your ideal buyers straight to you? In this episode of Stop Being the Best Kept Secret, we reveal why some businesses win big online, while others stay stuck and unseen. Understanding your soulmate success path is key to this success.
We are mapping out your Soulmate Success Path, a.k.a. your ideal buyer’s journey. If you have been asking:
• “How do I get more of the customers I want?”
• “How can I grow without running myself ragged?”
• “What is the best digital strategy for my biz?”
Don’t miss this chance to finally understand what is keeping you from your next level, and what to do about it.
Key Highlights of Understanding Your Soulmate Success Path
• Digital Game Plan Introduction 0:01
• Understanding the Buyer’s Journey 1:23
• Awareness Stage in the Buyer’s Journey 3:29
• Search Behavior and Emotional State 4:21
• Exploration Stage and Content Provision 6:23
• Evaluation Stage and Competitive Differentiation 7:42
• Decision Stage and Customer Support 11:24
• Post-Purchase Stage and Customer Retention 14:14
• Final Thoughts and Call to Action 15:17
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Transcription
Damon Pistulka 00:01
Hey, Damon, how are you, dude? What’s happening? I’m doing great. Curt, getting ready to go. Alright, man, is it
Curt Anderson 00:07
just awesome? Just go live and hang out and just kind of do these things on on a regular
Damon Pistulka 00:12
basis. Yes, yes. I enjoy it. I enjoy it. Hang
Curt Anderson 00:15
out with our friends and family and everybody out there. I think my mom’s watching. Hey, Mom, how are you so, all right, so stop being the best kept secret, and we are diving into this little fun tool that we have called the digital game plan. Digital game plan, and this thing we’ve been building with our clients over the years, we’re just super excited about it. And I don’t Are you sitting down? Are you ready for this one? Yes, I am. Curt, dude. We’re converting this into like, a little sass, like, like, we’re getting sassy at our stage in the game. We’re getting a little sassy. What do you think of that?
Damon Pistulka 00:47
I think it’s going to be an app that’ll work on computers and your phone and and wherever you need it.
Curt Anderson 00:53
Absolutely so today we want to dive into what we call is when you when you focus on that ideal buyer, right? Damon, what do we call them? Soulmates? We focus on that soulmate so instead of, like, you know, add the buyer’s journey, you know, it’s, let’s, let’s spice it up a little bit. We call it the Soulmate Success Path. Because don’t we want all of our soulmate successful? Damon, isn’t it really the name of the game?
Damon Pistulka 01:15
Well, if they’re successful, we’ll be successful. We help them more, right?
Curt Anderson 01:19
The more soulmates that you help become successful, the more that you’re going to be successful. So let’s dive right in. So when you think about that buyer’s journey, man, I mean, it’s really such a fascinating process. It could be, you know, a personal item. You’re buying a new computer, a new car. Could be a pack of gum, right? There’s a buyer’s journey with everything that you’re doing, right, and your thoughts as you’re going through, like, what do you think about when you’re going through, like, whether a major decision or just an impulsive little buy, what’s going through your mind?
Damon Pistulka 01:48
Well, as you know, wherever I’m at in the buying process, I want to make sure that I’ve got enough information to make an informed decision and move to the next stage. Right? Did I? Did I find enough so options did. I then was able to research each option to go, Okay, this one is the best for me, and then move on down to Okay. Which one is the the the best. How much is it going to cost? How? What’s the timeline? Those kind of things all the way through. But if you don’t have the information at each one of those stages, it makes the buying process a lot more risky, a lot more apprehensive for the buyer. And just, not just, it’s it’s harder to convince
Curt Anderson 02:28
yourself to do it. That’s right, it’s in, I know it’s a very common phrase our dear friend Greg Michou uses it all the time, that no like trust, right? Is, how do we get that no like trust? So again, whether it’s a small purchase or a major purchase in A, B2B manufacturing space, typically, it’s a pretty large purchase, right? And there could be a long buying cycle. Big buying process could be like a buy the purchases made by a large committee, right? Or maybe it’s just the owner, or somebody in procurement that’s just like, hey, I need a new supplier, new new vendor, and what does that look like? So let’s dive into the buyer journey process. We call it that Soulmate Success Path. And I’m really excited to share our new SaaS tool, our new software tool. So let’s go. Let’s take a little road trip here. Damon, so hey, all right, can you see my screen? Okay, there. Yes, again. Okay. So what we have here is like we have, for example, so somebody in supply chain, okay? And what we’ve done here is, with our little software tools, we’re taking each stage, each step of that buying process. So like first and foremost, the awareness, right? So Damon, when you think of awareness, what goes through your mind, on this, on this stage here,
Damon Pistulka 03:37
well, it’s when, when you identify that I need to get something, or I need to have a problem that I need to solve. That’s really when it comes to you and goes, Oh, we have this problem, right? And I need to solve
Curt Anderson 03:48
it, right? And then the B2B space, like, say, if we need a new vendor, new supplier, it could be like, Hey, we have a new product line, or we’re going to do a new prototype, or we’re creating something. Or, unfortunately, it could be like, I call it that divorce, right? It could be, hey, we’ve been dealing with a supplier for many, many years. They’ve been just phenomenal, but something’s gone wrong. They’re not reliable anymore. They’re not delivering. Their quality has gone down. Unfortunately, we need to start looking right, so there’s a trigger that happens and Okay, so like, in this case, you know, hey, inventory is running low on unique, on trend products, you know? So again, that’s that we won’t get into the weeds. Let’s, let’s focus on the process, right? So there’s a trigger button that happens, that occurs where they’re like, I’m going to start my process. Let’s go down to the search behavior. Damon, what are your thoughts here? As far as like, search behavior, what’s so important is understand where your ideal buyer is hanging out and take a look. Like, what are your thoughts here, with some of these examples, yeah,
Damon Pistulka 04:43
it just, it has good examples, right? Are your are your soulmate customers going to go to Google first? Do they have other trusted resources that they’re going to go to? We really need to understand where they are going to go to find solutions when, at that point, when they’ve identified. Hey, I need somebody to help me do this, right? What is their next step?
Curt Anderson 05:04
Exactly, you know. So it’s like, okay, am I going to do a Google search now with AI, are they turning to chatGPT, are they going to Claude, what does that look like? Maybe they’re going to LinkedIn referrals, friends, family. What does that look like? Now, Damon, let’s dive in next, that emotional state, right? Typically, if they’re looking, you know, what are their emotions, right? You take a look here, what are your thoughts, as far as, like, you know, diving into that emotional state?
Damon Pistulka 05:29
Well, when you understand the emotional state, when they first identify that problem, you can then speak directly to it, right? You can be frustrated. Could be, you know, challenge, overwhelmed. There’s just a whole bunch of different emotions that could be coming out at that time, annoyed, you know, that’s one thing. I’m annoyed my car broke down alongside the road, or something like that. You know, there’s just, just understand that’s a big deal,
Curt Anderson 05:53
exactly. So we want to go through, okay, first and foremost, they’ve got the awareness. I have a problem. Okay, I now need a solution. Where am I turning Am I googling it? Am I looking it up? Am I going to social, LinkedIn, B to B, space, whatever it
Damon Pistulka 06:05
might be. And I think, I think we go back to awareness. There’s one more thing that you didn’t cover at the bottom of this, and it may be, is, this is just an example, right, where you got B2B, tell should, should provide. Now this is something I think that’s real important in our digital game plan, is, what are things that you could provide? Can provide buyers at that point to help them, like I said, get comfortable with the decision and move forward to the next spot. That’s a that’s a key part of this.
Curt Anderson 06:32
That’s a key part. Thank you. Thank you for pointing that out. And you take a look here. You know, Hey, is it a blog post? Is it a hey, how about a buyer’s checklist or a buyer’s guide. You know, a wonderful, quick little video. Instagram could be a LinkedIn post, a case study, a success story. So, you know, think about, Okay, what does your ideal customer, what does that soulmate, need at that stage? And how can you help provide that to them? You know, quickly, efficiently, easily. I know creating content is not the easiest thing on the planet, but like, you know, again, if you’re not doing it, we’re the best kept secret, and somebody your competitor very well, right? So let’s dive in. We won’t go super deep. I want to be mindful of time. We’re doing good on time. Let’s talk a little bit here on the exploration side of things. Okay, so we’ve gone through awareness. Now we’re going to exploration. We’ve started doing some Google searches. We’ve started seeing some articles. Maybe we’re seeing some potential candidates to align with your thoughts here as we start going through the exploration stage.
Damon Pistulka 07:32
This is huge. This is huge because it covers two things. It’s going to show us what, what that soulmate customer is looking for, what kind of information they’re looking for, what kind of questions they’re asking and all that. And then, on the other hand, too, it gives us, as the company that may be providing that product or service what we need to be including in our digital footprint somewhere, because this is a key point when, when people are looking for your company, your kind of product, your kind of service, your kind of whatever, if they can’t find it online, you just basically cut off both your legs of trying to get clients online.
Curt Anderson 08:17
That’s a great, great point here. And so let’s dive in here. Let’s think about like, those questions. You know, I think we covered that last week. You know, we call them our Ricks. Are ridiculously important questions that you’re so asking. But take a look here, some of these. You know, what platforms offer the lowest minimum of order quantities and transparent pricing? I’ll tell you. I just, I was talking with somebody this morning, and she’s a marketing guru, our dear friend, Amy, and she’s like, I don’t know why people don’t put more pricing out there, you know, like, who doesn’t need to know? You know, we wouldn’t buy a car. We wouldn’t buy a you know, many things without knowing what that price is, right? Yeah, and
Damon Pistulka 08:55
that’s a big deal. And in this day and age, some people still say, hey, we shouldn’t put pricing out there, because, you know, our competitors will know or whatever, and sure they will. But if you don’t put pricing on your website, people instantly think expensive, even though, when you can be competitive in the marketplace, you might even be a low price leader. Because the way you’re doing things and not putting price, I think, hurts more than it helps.
Curt Anderson 09:19
Yup, and just kind of going through some of these things. You know, reliability. Are you reliable? Do you have quality? And are you reliable? Supplier, shipping costs, delivery times, you know, these are just mission critical type things. You know, can I easily reorder? Do I have to call you after every time? Or can I just like, do you have an an easy, easy button? You have the easy button just to make that so again, you get the idea. These are the things when they get into that exploration they’ve gone through. Okay, who’s they go through that awareness, get to the exploration. Now we go into the evaluation. So Damon, any thoughts, comments that you want to share here, as far as like diving into that evaluation stage?
Damon Pistulka 09:59
Well, you. This is very important too, for for the companies providing the products or services to stand back and go, Hey, can a company someone that’s looking for my product or service? Can they look at me and compare me to others easily, and why I’m unique, why I could be the right choice for them? When am I the best choice? Those kind of things are, are huge, because then you know that someone can come find out about you and go, Okay, they’re best in this situation, and I am in that situation, so maybe I want to talk to them because of that.
Curt Anderson 10:32
That’s right. And so when you think about what is your top priority, is it? You know, maybe inventory management is your number one. So I need that supplier, or, you know, that ideal customer, their number one priority is inventory management. So they need like, Hey, can I get just in time? Can you deliver immediately? Our dear friend John Leroy at apparel redefine, does an amazing job with his products with just in time, on print, on demand, for example, you know, predictable pricing. You know, can we do blanket orders to like, you know, lock in pricing, as you mentioned, right? Here is your favorite right? Easy button, right? Yep. To get it ordered. Get it ordered. You know, a proof of concept, social proof. You know, do you have testimonials on your website? Do you have testimonials on your social Do you have case studies, that type of thing, right?
Damon Pistulka 11:19
It’s a huge thing for our clients, typically, absolutely,
Curt Anderson 11:24
you know, in responsive customer service before we move to the next stage. Anything else that you want to add here? No,
Damon Pistulka 11:29
I think this is just another example of breaking this down into the stages that people go through in the buying process, and then really understanding how you can help people through that better.
Curt Anderson 11:39
Yeah. And I just, I want to highlight this one here. You know, eager to find a partner, they’re looking for a relationship. You know what? I mean? They’re just not looking for widgets or looking for a relationship. And so that’s the important thing of like, you know, our dear friend Rob was on a couple weeks ago. Remember Damon? He was talking about, like, that human component, right? And I know people throw that around a lot these days, but it’s, it is just so critical. All right, now we’re in a decision stage, okay, what are some factors? What are some things that we could be helping our client to that potential soulmate, to close the deal? What are some other things that we could, we could help them with?
Damon Pistulka 12:14
Well, I think, I think really in this stage, you’re it has the first line it talks about pricing, but I think the very next thing behind that you can offer in this situation, to make the decision easy, help them understand what’s going to be like, to to what are the steps of the buying process, to the delivery of the product or service, you know, at least get them up to that and lead them through that, so they can see what it’s going to be like. If you do that in combination with with pricing, if it’s a product or service, but you know, or you will get the pricing at this point. And this is how we go down the road, just explain it, answer the questions, and let them feel comfortable about what their buying experience is going to be like, so that they can then go, Okay, this is what it’s like with them, and this is what it’s like with this other company and the third company, they don’t even talk about it. So where are you going to land in that right? If you’re really good, really succinct, it makes a big deal,
Curt Anderson 13:09
exactly. And as you mentioned before, coming down here, like, Hey, what are the things that we should provide? And again, we’re at the decisions, decision stage, you know, order, confirmation, estimated delivery date, real tracking, you know, like, Man tracking. They call it like, you know, the, like, the pizza tracker that, yeah, boys refer to, you know, a direct line of customer service, support for any issues, any tips, you know. How can you know, can you help me sell the product? Right? You have sales materials, those types of things, so, so, again, lots of great information. Then, of course, we’ve got, like, post purchase, and we’ll dive into that here any as we get in now, we’re under their side. They are a customer. What are some things that we could dive in here?
Damon Pistulka 13:52
I just think, you know, post purchases. How are we going to make make sure that they’re happy with the product or service? How are we going to follow up to make sure that if they have any concerns are addressed. How do we help them to make sure that they’re they’re receiving the maximum benefit from the product or service? Right? It could be as simple as checking in with them both. It could be by email, could be by phone, could be however, the best way is and go. Hey, what? Everything working right? You know, just those kind of things or thoughtful reminders at certain points that, hey, this is a this is a stage where you might want to consider this item or maintenance or something like that, depending upon what you’re doing. There’s so much post purchase that helps you to create that, that sense of, hey, they really care more past the purchase about that I’m getting benefit. And when you do that, you can drive retreat by repeat buyers and those racist brand advocates that you want. Yeah,
Curt Anderson 14:47
exactly. And down here a couple great tips suggestions here, you know, I love the newsletter idea, you know, like keeping them in touch. Just get, you know, not to overwhelm their inbox, but just constantly provide helpful information. And one of the little tagline. That we always love to use is, how do you out teach the competition, right? So just being that fierce, you know, educator, hey, Damon, we’ve got our dear friend Diane is back. So Diane send you tons of positive vibes. My friend, can’t wait to chat with you soon. We’ve got nazas in the house Monday to you guys. So Damon, we’re going to wind down so as we go through the buyer journey, aka what we love to refer to as that Soulmate Success Path, what would you want to share with folks as we what parting thoughts, words of wisdom do you want to
Damon Pistulka 15:33
share? I just it’s worth it to take the time to really understand it, because when you do, then you can begin to really I mean, this is sales marketing. It doesn’t really matter. This helps you in both areas, because when you understand what someone is going through as they’re as they’re making that buying decision, you can you understand what what conversations we need to have, you understand what content we need to generate. You understand more about your sales process, right? It’s just so helpful to see
Curt Anderson 16:02
that right and try. I think it’s a great opportunity. How can you create, I, you know, I hate to say like, I almost feel like I’m being a little bit cliche, but I really like, I feel like, you know, it’s been game changing for me going through this process of, how do you create deeper, richer, more healthy, positive business relationships. Man, like our friend Diane, always says, like, we’re so strong, we’re so much stronger together. And man, Diane, I just, you’ve got me a firm believer in that, and the more we can be, you know, just dedicated, helping each other through that process, and just, you know, almost unconditionally, like just helping each other win the day, you know, yeah, at
Damon Pistulka 16:41
the end, we want people to buy the right thing, right? If I’m a company and I’m selling the wrong thing to a lot of people, it doesn’t do anyone any good. I want to set a lot of a lot of something to the right people, and then we build communities. We build real, long term, successful businesses. And that’s that’s what we need to be doing, right?
Curt Anderson 17:01
It’s how you deliver value. Hey, NASA says, Hey, I’m learning a lot as a young SaaS founder, thank you so much guys. Naza, hey, we’re a couple of old SaaS founders, yeah, how’s that? Damon, right? So, yeah, hey, we’re going to wind down and so again, connect with Damon on LinkedIn. I connect with myself. Love to hear what you guys have going. We have a weekly newsletter. Stop by B2Btail.com and you can sign up for our weekly we have also, we call it the secret sauce, and have all sorts of fun tips in our newsletter. Go ahead, sign up for that, and we’re going to be coming out in the next few weeks with our digital game plan and a little free software tool. So we can’t wait to get in your hands and you guys can, you know, dive in and hopefully get your buyer journey going. So,
Damon Pistulka 17:43
yeah, yeah, just jump to my profile on LinkedIn. You can, you can grab the newsletter right there. I got the link, I believe it’s right under my name, wherever I’m at on LinkedIn. So
Curt Anderson 17:51
awesome. Oh, and you’re, you’re on LinkedIn once a while, right? Yeah, that’s a while. So All right, guys, hey, have a great day. Everyone. Appreciate you guys. God bless you. Have a great, amazing rest your week, and we’ll be back here Friday for another little fun jam session so you.