Customers ignoring your outreach? Make sure your message aligns with their journey

In the fierce battle for customer attention, many of the salespeople and leaders I work with in my practice come to me with the same problem.

They feel they have a good value proposition and pitch, yet customers continue to ignore their outreach.

They lead with statements like, “We can help you…

…harness the power of AI for your business to help you grow 20% faster”
…boost your revenue and reduce your credit card processing fees by up to 25%”
…make critical decisions in less time with our powerful predictive analytics.”

But their buyers don’t respond.

In the past, I’ve spoken about many ways to break through your customer’s armor by refining your message, leading with the problem you solve, and bringing customers the gift of hidden insights to entice them to respond.

But there’s another critical, and often forgotten, factor you could be missing when it comes to massively boosting the engagement with your outreach; aligning your message with your customer’s journey.

Here’s what I mean.

The Impact of Journey Alignment

Suppose you recently thought about getting in better shape. And as you were scrolling through your social media feed, you came across a fitness expert with the following pitch:

“My proven coaching program will help [people like you*] lose 10 pounds and boost your boost your energy level in 30 days.”

* Your persona (e.g. middle-aged men, busy executives, working single mothers, etc.).

Putting aside your skepticism about this lofty claim and how the program might work for a moment, if you fit the target audience and hadn’t tried anything particularly formal to get in shape before, this message might sound enticing.

In other words, as someone at the beginning of their fitness journey, you might be tempted to lean in and at least want to learn more.

But what if you were already far along a turbulent fitness journey?

For example, suppose you’ve already tried a ton of diet and exercise programs promising similar results over the years and they didn’t work. Or perhaps you’ve invested in all sorts of home exercise equipment claiming big results that never materialized. Chances are the skepticism caused by your previous experience would cause you to quickly dismiss the trainer’s message. After all, at this stage of your journey, it sounds like nothing more than the same empty promise you’ve heard before.

On the other hand, what if the trainer’s message said:

“A proven system to get [people like you*] in the best shape of their lives when every other diet, exercise program, and piece of fitness equipment they’ve tried has failed!”

All of a sudden, a message directly aligned with where you are on your fitness journey speaks to you in a completely different way.

The same principle applies to your customers.

The average person sees roughly 5,000 ads every single day and almost 2 million ads per year. So if you “pitch slap” them with a narrative that sounds the same as everyone else’s and isn’t focused on them specifically, they’ll ignore you.

But if you target them with a narrative that aligns with the pains, problems, and experiences they’re living through at the stage of their journey today, they’ll engage!

Applying the Journey Principle to Your Sales Motion

The key to taking the same principle work for your message is as simple as answering these 3 questions.

Question 1: Who is your target customer?

This would include your ideal persona and factors like role, gender, age, seniority, location, problem awareness, spending power, etc.

Question 2: What do they want?

This should focus on the problem they’re trying to solve and can include both the quantifiable outcomes as well as the feelings they seek. As I discuss extensively in Sell The Way You Buy, emotions play a massive part in driving any purchase yet Value and ROI are two critical concepts that salespeople often confuse.

Question 3: Where are they on their journey of getting it?

This can include factors like:

• • What unspoken objections might they have?
  • What solutions might they have already tried?
  • What limiting beliefs might be holding them back?

Then, armed with these insights, craft a message that incorporates the answers to 1, 2, and 3.

For example, consider what these simplified pitches for the same solution might sound like based on where the buyer is on their journey.

Fitness coaching:

Beginning: Lose 5lbs in one month.
Middle: Lose 5lbs in one month without diets or exercise.
End: Finally get in shape after everything you’ve tried has failed.

Lead generation:

Beginning: Generate 15 hot new sales leads every week.
Middle: Generate 15 hot new sales leads every week without paid ads.
End: Generate 15 hot new sales leads every week without paid ads, a big email list, or frustrating outsourcing.

Virtual assistant:

Beginning: Hand off low-value tasks to allow you to focus on growing your business.
Middle: Grow your business by handing off high-value tasks you never considered outsourcing.
End: Are you a solopreneur drowning in critical tasks you believe no one can do but you? We can help!

But the story doesn’t end there! Because once you’ve engaged your ideal buyer with an opener that hits them in the feels, your job is to continue to deepen their awareness of their problem, why it exists, why it’s so hard to solve on their own, and your unique expertise and point of view on the solution to help them solve it. Only then will you emerge as a truly unique and differentiated offerring.

In Sales, getting your customers to notice your pitch and engage can be tough, especially with so many similar-sounding solutions and narratives flooding the market. However, if you find yourself struggling, aligning your message with the journey of your ideal buyer might just give you the edge you need to stand out.

Did you find this approach helpful and want to learn more like it? Check out the popular Cerebral Selling Sales Academy training program!