Many people mistakenly believe that marketing is a one-step process -- they believe people just buy.
That's never true. People go through many psychological as well as physical steps before making the actual purchase.
Let's take a simple example of a shoe store. Here are some of the marketing steps that might lead to a successful sale.
Step 1) A prospect sees your ad.
Step 2) She reads your ad.
Step 3) She looks for and finds your store.
Step 4) She enters your store and is greeted.
Step 5) She looks around to determine if it's the kind of store she wants to buy from. (Professional, clean, familiar brands, etc.)
Step 6) She looks at your merchandise to determine if the styles, quality and prices meet or exceed her expectations.
Step 7) She asks a sales person for help.
Step 8) The sales person answers her questions and helps her find the size and style shoes she is looking for.
Step 9) She tries on the shoes.
Step 10) She decides to buy the shoes.
Were you surprised at how many steps there were in this example? Most people are. The fact is, this is a very simplified version. Actually, we could have added even more steps, like finding parking, or selecting a method to pay for the shoes, but we wanted to keep it simple.
No matter what business you are in, there are a number of decisions and actions each of your prospects or customers must take before the sale is completed.
It is vital that you determine what these steps are for your particular business.
Why? Because any one of these steps can make or break your sale.
If she never saw your ad, she wouldn't be able to read it.
If she read it but was unimpressed with the quality of the ad or your offer, she wouldn't look for your store.
If she couldn't find your store she couldn't enter it.
You get the picture. At each step your prospect must make a decision concerning whether she will move on to the next step in your marketing system -- one step closer to your sale -- or stop the process and move on to one of your competitors.
No matter how good a marketing system is, no business manages to bring 100% of their prospects through each step to the sale. They end up with a percentage of the people who started at step 1. There are dozens of reasons why someone might decide to leave your marketing system at any particular step.
Your goal is to keep as many of your prospects as possible moving from one step to the next. You do that by improving each step so that you keep as many people as possible moving through each step to the sale.
When you break your marketing system down into simple steps it makes it a lot easier to improve. You can focus on improving one small step, like including directions or a map in your ad, so that you don't lose any of your prospects at that step because they can't find your store.
Whenever you lose a sale, the reason is in one or more of the specific steps of your marketing system. Break the process down on paper, and then put yourself in your prospects' shoes.
Examine each step and ask yourself why someone might decide to leave your process at that step and go to your competitor. Don't stop with one possibility. List as many as you can.
Then ask yourself how you could improve that step so that you will keep more of your prospects on track and moving to the next step in your system.
Here are a few hints: If a step is difficult, they may leave. If a step is confusing, they may leave. If a step doesn't build up their trust, they may leave. If a step seems risky, they may leave. If a step doesn't offer them what they want, they may leave, etc.
Prospects don't like problems, frustration or risk. They are always seeking products/services and businesses that present them with problem-free, frustration-free and risk- free solutions.
Look at each of your marketing steps with these concepts in mind and you will find ample opportunity to improve your marketing system and your sales.
With this concept alone you could easily double, triple, or even quadruple your sales -- we've done it many times with our clients.
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