The Secret Top Performing Businesses Use To Dominate Competitive Markets

Every person is a buyer.

All they need is a specific set of information in order to make a purchase decision.

Most businesses rely on prospects to acquire that information on their own with the hopes that they will do so in a way that favors choosing their business.

That is a low to no chance.

The way top performing service businesses capture markets with far greater ease and predictability is by building an informational path that systematically converts prospects into delighted buyers.

According to data, only around 3% of any target market is “Ready To Buy Now”.

That statistic is consistent with the ≈1-5% average clickthrough rates on websites, ads and call-to-action buttons across all industries.

This means that in a room of 100 people who can benefit from a specific service, only 3 will have all the information they need to make a purchase decision immediately.

All they need to see is the service description and price to take action.

Businesses compete fiercely over this category of prospects because they are generally the easiest and fastest to sell.

However, this part of the market is also often the most expensive and least profitable to attract (especially at scale).

First of all, the way businesses compete over this 3% category of prospects is by marketing in positions of greatest convenience for customers (eg. ranking on top in search engines, appearing everywhere in ads, or opening offices in prime real estate locations). 

All of these initiatives cost a premium.

Second of all, prospects in this category are the most likely to shop by price as they know exactly what they want. They will simply shop multiple service providers and see who can deliver at the best.

While businesses can overcome this problem through differentiation and value-driven innovation (more thoroughly discussed in: 5 Ways To Ethically 10X+ Your Average Profit Per Client Without Getting Objections), the emphasis of this post is more about targeting and converting prospects that nobody else knows how to reach.

Instead of competing against a crowd, you can dominate in a space of your own.

That opportunity exists in the remaining 97% of any given target market.

Within that 97%, around…

17% is Product Aware – Interested but not urgent 

20% is Solution Aware – Not thinking about it (indifferent)

30% is Problem Aware – Think they are interested

30% is Completely Problem Unaware.

In every stage of awareness, prospects require a different layer of context and triggers to escalate into the next level.

By paving a path for customers to consume the right sequence of information that predictably escalates their tier of awareness level after level until the point of making a purchase decision, businesses can transform from being a “service for hire” to becoming a sales machine. 

Here is what that path of information looks like in sequential order of prospects with the lowest buyer awareness to prospects with the highest buyer awareness.

There is no need to oversell each prospect by treating each of them like they are all “Unaware”.

Meet them where they are at.

The higher the level of their existing buyer awareness, the less information they will need to make a decision.

Most Aware: Ready to buy now

Escalation Trigger: Offer & Price

The prospect has all the information they need to make a purchase decision. All they need to see now is the offer and price. As long as the service description and price fits their expectation, they will buy without any significant salesmanship needed.

Example:

An architect knows exactly how he wants his home to look like. He shares his design blueprint to multiple contractors in a request for proposals. Whoever can execute the construction reliably at the best price gets the job.

Product Aware: Interested but not urgent 

Escalation Trigger: Discounts & Deals

The prospect is interested in buying but is not in a state of urgency to take action immediately. Instead of relying on a critical event in their life to elicit a purchase behavior, you can expedite the sales cycle with incentives such as a limited-time discount or special deal.

Example:

If the prospect chooses to pay today instead of waiting, they can enjoy a special bonus, free upgrade or discount on price.

Solution Aware: Not thinking about it (indifferent)

Escalation Trigger: Claims & Proof

The prospect knows of a general solution they need, but has not been motivated to learn more or explore more deeply. Claims and proof can trigger these prospects into a higher level of buyer awareness by providing more clarity and certainty on how a particular service could be their best option.

Example:
An overweight individual knows that working out can improve their fitness, but they have not prioritized exploring specific options such as yoga workshops, gym memberships or dance classes. A personal trainer can show testimonials of impressive client transformations to demonstrate how their service may be superior if the objective is truly about peak performance.

Problem Aware: 

Escalation Trigger: Anxieties & Benefits

The prospect knows that they are experiencing a problem, but has not processed or understood the full extent of how the problem is impacting their life. Descriptively articulating the pains (emotional and tangible) of their current situation while highlighting a comparatively more desirable situation after using a specific service amplifies the prospect’s discomfort and desire to learn more.

Example:

Many of the service businesses we encounter survive and get by mostly from word-of-mouth. While their projects can be extremely rewarding, their lack of predictability in generating sales opportunities often cause severe cash flow problems. Many business owners accept this feast and famine dynamic as a fact of life. By addressing the anxiety and instability we know they experience while contrasting that to our clients who have been steadily growing their business in the years of working with us, we escalate the curiosity in these prospects to learn more about our solutions.

Unaware: 

Escalation Trigger: Stories & “Secrets”

The prospect is entirely unaware that they are even experiencing a problem that your service solves. As a result, they lack interest in receiving any information regarding the service, just like a teenager who hears a life coach talking about mid-life crisis would. One of the only ways to influence this type of prospect is to share stories and “secrets” of people just like them or who they aspire to be like. For instance, the mid-life crisis discussion becomes a lot more compelling if it involves people who have become successful in a career the teenager wants to pursue.

Example:
One of our clients sell training, facilitation and software solutions that are often sought after by project team managers, but are typically deferred away from C-Suite level decision-making. 

By changing the marketing narrative from emphasizing organizational productivity benefits to emphasizing success stories of companies that are achieving sector-leading profit margins at scale, the firm started attracting more CEO’s and Owners that treated their consultants like business advisors rather than “project management experts”.  This one shift alone immediately attracted a higher-end “market” that essentially no competitor competed with.

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A competitive edge comes from knowing or having something that others do not.

Understanding how to navigate these levels of market awareness has been a critical edge our clients use in turning some of their business into 8-figure enterprises.

This edge now belongs to you too.

Take these insights and integrate it with every touchpoint your business has with each prospect. 

This includes your website, ads, email follow ups and sales calls.

If you would like to learn more about how we transform service businesses into sales machines, schedule a free consultation with someone from our team below.