By Susan E. Fisher

Your empty stomach is grumbling, demanding dinner. You're hungry for a vegetarian delicacy, but you are not quite sure what you crave as you enter a recommended restaurant.

The waiter greets you warmly but fails to hand you a menu. Instead, he ignores your needs and state of mind, rattles off the history of the restaurant, describes the beauty of the building's architecture and expounds on the owners' philosophy.

Finally, when he does describe the food, he only reveals tonight’s special: teriyaki and peach-marinated pork tenderloin wrapped in smoky bacon.

You walk out.

Is this a ridiculous way to run a restaurant? Yes, certainly it is. Unfortunately, this is how far too many businesses run their marketing communications. They communicate with customers according to what they wish to say and sell, rather than what customers want to hear and buy. They disseminate the same messages to a wide range of customers regardless of each customer’s state of mind.

In my experience at BeTuitive Marketing, I know there’s a better way: Take a step backward before trying to push a customer forward on a sale. Consider how to understand, identify and fulfill the need for information customers crave before they make a purchase. The end result: more satisfied customers and more sales.

With the BeTuitive backward approach, I work with our customers to identify the stage of the buying process a customer has entered and provide appropriate resources that are appealing and valuable. E-newsletters and blogs -- both two-way communications vehicles that can foster relationships -- play a leading role.

How It Works

First, identify the steps of the buying decision process. The phases of the buying decision process are commonly identified this way:

1. The recognition of a need or the awareness of a problem
2. A search for information
3. An evaluation of alternative solutions or products
4. A decision to purchase
5. The purchase
6. A re-evaluation of the purchase decision after the purchase

Second, develop "indicators of interest," mechanisms that let you determine which phase of the buying process a potential customer has entered. With e-newsletters and blogs, you can use articles, white papers and other editorial elements as indicators of interest. If a potential customer reads (recorded as a "click") one of those articles, they have signaled their interest in that topic, suggesting a buying phase.

You can later track the behavior of your prospects and customers through this decision-making process and identify that behavior before your competitors do. To learn more, see Sarah Eaton’s article "Acting on Actionable Results" in this newsletter.

Third, fulfill both informational and psychological needs.

Remember, customers in the buying process have become aware of a need. You will help them satisfy it not just by providing the basic information they need to make a buying decision. You must send the right messages customers need to bolster their confidence in their own ability to make the right decision as well as the capability of your company’s products or services to fulfill those needs.

Your efforts can also go a long way in fending off buyers’ remorse. It is only natural that a buyer will reevaluate a purchase. If information (both factual and anecdotal) is at hand that will help reinforce their decision, they will be less inclined to suffer buyers’ remorse, or second guess their buying decision.

Fourth, give, give and give.

Even before a customer identifies a need or has an awareness of a problem, you can -- and should -- nurture a relationship with a customer. With one-to-one customized communications (i.e. -- e-newsletters), you can establish yourself as an authoritative source, so when a customer’s need for information arises, your company is present as a readily available, credible source of information.

How difficult it is to satisfy that need, the length of time it takes to move the customer through the process and the number of "touches" it takes to reach the customer will vary by the complexity of the product or service. Generally, the more complex, the more time and effort it will take to build a relationship with customer, educate them and their organization and help them solve a problem.

To begin the backward approach, here are the questions you should ask.

• What is our best customer’s buying process?
• What are the key stages of this cycle?
• What actions do they take during each phase?
• What information do they seek during each phase?
• Accordingly, what value can we bring to the customer to help them with this process? (Value can come in the form of an analyst’s report, industry statistics, a webinar with helpful tips, a case study illustrating a problem and solution, an article full of "news you can use" tips or a one-on-one consultation.)

If only our hypothetical waiter had bent over backward to understand, identify and fulfill our informational needs, there would have been an easy sale: a zesty serving of eggplant parmigiana in a tangy tomato sauce, a slice of foccacia on the side, perhaps?

As Sarah Eaton notes in her article "Acting on Actionable Results," "Just as you interpret complex signals sent by body language and expression in order to nurture your personal relationships, you can learn to be intuitive about your customers' responses by determining the cycle and observing the patterns."

Think backward, and you will certainly move forward in business.

Susan is the Editorial Director at BeTuitive Marketing. Susan's articles have been published in both the print and online versions of a variety of publications including Investor's Business Daily, the Boston Herald, Fortune magazine's Technology Buyer's Guide, InfoWorld and the Chicago Tribune. She is generally a forward-thinking person, but is always willing to take step backward to get the big picture.

Copyright © 2005 BeTuitive Marketing