By Daniel Burstein
I was on a call with a MECLABS conversion marketing services client recently, and discovered that he could actually serve a lot more customers than I assumed from our initial conversation. We were working on website copy, and his response was, “Oh don’t worry about addressing it on the website, we’ll just discuss it on the first consultation call.” But that’s not how lead qualification should be set up, and and that is exactly how you lose potential customers, folks. Because customers will disqualify themselves before they ever talk to your sales team or get to your product page.
Humans Ache to BelongLead Qualification Works Both Ways
When companies talk about lead qualification, their focus is often on evaluating someone who had contacted their company to see if they are a right fit to buy.
But before you even try to weed out customers, they are doing it to themselves. You don’t have the luxury of waiting until your marketing automation platform or inside sales rep determines that someone could be a potential customer. Because they are doing it to you.
And if at any moment their ability to belong with your brand is unclear, they are far more likely to disqualify themselves and fall into the arms of another brand (or make no decision at all) than they are to assume they could be a fit.
All the Conversations Your Sales Force Isn’t Having
These are the conversations your sales force isn’t having, the prospects that could have benefited from your company’s value but never get to experience it because they disqualified themselves too early in the buying cycle.
That is why you can’t wait until they get to your sales reps or into your store to let customers know they belong. You should use your advertising, marketing, public relations, and websites to clearly help them overcome these self-disqualifiers:
Monetary cost – You should have a pretty robust pricing strategy for your product, including when to present price, contract length, the order of different price levels, etc. But even if you decide to wait until a sales call, quote form, or final shopping cart to reveal price, you should give some signals to let people know they can afford your product.For example, we were in a Quick Win Intensive with a tax attorney and enrolled agent group. Fortunately, I am not the ideal customer for this group because I don’t have tax problems, but if I did, I would assume I couldn’t afford their help. I would have disqualified myself and thought that their solution wasn’t for someone like me due to monetary cost. But it was much more affordable than I assumed, and the website just wasn’t communicating that affordability.
Nonmonetary cost – Your customers pay more than just money for your product. How easy is it to do business with your company and purchase your product?For example, my dentist is not on my new Florida Blue dental insurance. But I haven’t switched; I have disqualified myself after visiting a few websites of dentists in Jacksonville because the perceived switching costs are too high. These aren’t monetary (I would actually save money because the in-network dentist would be totally covered). If a dentist’s website had a credible Easy Switch package that reduced the friction for me (in addition to relieving my anxiety that the new dentist would be trustworthy), I likely would not have disqualified myself.
The ability to do it – Do your customers self-assemble or self-install your product? Do you offer travel packages that include a hike across the Negev Desert in Israel? Do you sell online language training?Many products require the customer to play a part as well. Show them that they have the ability to do it before they disqualify themselves. Even better, show how someone like them was able to do it (i.e., virtual role models). If your hike across the Negev is aimed at recently retired seniors, show the story of a couple in their 60s, and what the average day looked like for them on the multi-day hike.
Uncertainty about product basics – I’ve often come across landing pages or advertisements for brands that overlook some basic functionality of the product. Instead, they are only focused on the “wow” factor of making bold and audacious claims or putting out snazzy creative.
We call the basics “table stakes” – they aren’t the reason an ideal customer would choose your product over the competition – but they are basic functionality that the customer expects.
All too often as marketers we assume the customer will understand these basics about our product. We all have the marketer’s blind spot. We are so familiar with our products, we assume the customer will have the same understanding. Never assume!
For example, a DIY home security system that isn’t clear it offers 24/7 professional monitoring. Or a software-based game that doesn’t communicate that it can be played on computers, in addition to mobile phone apps.
If customers don’t understand that the product meets their basic needs, they will disqualify themselves.
Smart companies are pivoting hard and fast to make sure customers don’t disqualify themselves.
For example, when I bought a Casper mattress in the beginning of March 2020, the website promoted “Free delivery.” By the end of March 2020, that copy has been updated to “Free, no-contact delivery.”
Even my morning newspaper has adapted, making sure customers don’t disqualify themselves from a newspaper subscription or newsstand purchase (for those who can leave their homes). The Wall Street Journal has placed this message on its front page every day for the past few weeks:
“The World Health Organization has said it is safe to handle newspapers during the coronavirus pandemic. The Wall Street Journal’s printing plants and delivery services, though, are taking precautions, frequently cleaning equipment and facilities while reducing human contact with the newspaper. A digital version of the print edition also can be viewed at https://www.wsj.com/.”
