Are you ignoring 97% of  your clients? How to get long-term results by looking in a different direction?

If you look at the online business benchmarks, you'll realize that the purchase conversion rate (meaning the percentage of visitors to your website that purchase your product/service) is around 6%. It varies depending on the industry, product, price point, etc. However, that's where the average would land. 

And if you listen to the online approach to building your business, everyone will tell you, "this is the way it is," "just a numbers game." It's become a norm - the funnel converts at X%, which is within the industry benchmarks. Most online entrepreneurs agree with this and accept this "industry benchmark." They put more work and more money into their business to make it work based on the industry benchmark of 6% conversion rate. 

Has it ever occurred to you that you are leaving 94% of your visitors behind if you agree with this approach? You are spending time, money, and effort to be ignored by 94% of those exposed to your products. Isn't that crazy? What if the "numbers game" would be more effective than a 6% conversion rate? What would that mean to your business and life (I sound like a guru on a webinar now, lol)? 

There are a couple of reasons why 94% of people ignore you and do not buy and a few ways of fixing it. 

Reason #1 Your strategy sucks. You are so focused on getting "cheap leads" that you forgot about your business's ultimate goal - providing value in exchange for money. Instead of looking at how much it costs you to get a "lead" (I hate this word, btw), you should focus on how valuable that relationship can be. Instead of building a quiz lead magnet to get cheap leads, focus on creating something that will attract your perfect clients. Yes, it will be more expensive to invite them to join your email list, but the relationship between both of you will be so much more valuable. They will like what you sell, trust you, and they will purchase your stuff. That's in comparison to the "quiz takers" who provide you with fake emails just to see the quiz results. Focus on the Value Per Lead (VPL) instead of the Cost Per Lead (CPL). CPL is NEVER a good indicator of the quality of the relationship you're about to build. 

Reason #2 Your strategy sucks. Yes, you read it right. This point is also about your strategy. Most online entrepreneurs focus on ways to "go for the kill" immediately. They want to sell to those who are hungry and ready to buy now. Or they build sales funnels that create fake urgency and scarcity to make people pull the trigger faster. Yes, you should focus on those who are actively looking for the solution you have to offer. And on those who have the money to spend on your solution. But, at the same time, you should not forget about those who are not there yet. The remaining 94%. 

According to Chet Holmes, here's the breakdown of the buying phases (for the record you will find various studies on this, with different percentages and numbers, but a case in point is the same):

• 3% of people will buy now. They were ready to purchase when you showed up and waved your offer in front of them.
• 7% are open to buying your product, but were not necessarily looking. They will purchase if they trust you and see value in what you have to offer.
• 30% are kind of neutral, they haven't thought about buying your offer, but they don't mind if it makes sense and if they like and trust you. You need to keep top of their mind and remind them that what you have to offer is something they might need, something valuable and something that works. Show them case studies and testimonials to prove your point.
• 30% are happy where they are, but they are not close to buying at some point. These folks need education on the benefits of the new solution that you have to offer. It will take time for them to do the research and understand your points. 
• 30% entirely not interested in buying. Period. 

10% of the people will give you short-term revenue. An audience that is actively looking for a solution AND has the money to buy your offer. Just remember that "fighting" for that 10% of the audience is a blood-bath. Everyone is going after them. 

Out of the remaining 90%, you need to forget about the 30% who won't buy. They just won't buy. No matter what. Don't try to convince them. 

So you're left with 60% of people you are not attracting if you ONLY focus on the 10%. 

And to "capture" the 60%, you need to spend time and effort, as the gain will not be immediate. You will need to educate the audience and stay top of mind. Your content and marketing tactics need to be adjusted and applicable to ALL of those segments if you want to build a long term business. 

In a nutshell: 3% of people just need to see your offer and trust the brand. The "workable" 67% needs more information and valuable content.

Some people will classify those who are willing to buy as "fast lane" "mid-" "slow lane" purchasers and will look at their purchasing behavior from time perspective of when they will buy. The fast lane folks usually buy in the first 90 days, but the mid and slow can take even 2 years. I've worked with a client whose audience was on her list for 5 years before they purchased from her for the first time. Not saying this is the norm, there are ways to decrease that timeframe, but there are people who just aren't ready yet. So you need to get work on getting the fast cash from the 10% fast and invest in the long-term strategies to capture the remaining 60% by building a brand, the know-like-trust factor and making sure you deliver an amazing value. 

Reason #3. Your strategy sucks. Yeah, I know 🙂 This is not a typo. I'm a strategy freak, so what did you expect?

You're not presenting your offers. When I chat with my consulting clients (especially those who provide services) and ask them WHY they don't present their offers I get to work with a lot of mindset issues. Fear of failure, fear of success, fear of judgement, to name a few. But let's focus on the tangible: strategic and tactical part. 

If your clients struggle to find and understand the services you provide or the products you sell, you will not sell them. It's like inviting them to your store and hiding products in the back-office. One popular example is offering a lead magnet and showing a thank-you page to your new subscribers without telling them what you have to offer. They just ASKED you to show them, they knocked on your door, and you need to tell them, "hey, here's what to expect from me." Instead of saying "thank you for subscribing," tell them, "thank you for subscribing, here's what we have to offer in case you're interested." 

There is a concept of increasing the PAOV - Potential Average Order Value. When you show your potential customers what you have in store, the potential they will purchase something (or more) is higher because they are exposed to more. That is why approaching your online funnels from "building a marketplace" perspective makes a lot of sense, because when you do that you can expose your clients to various offers. 

(Approaching it from a marketplace perspective vs the value ladder/ascension model has lots of advantages, but I will cover that another time. In the meantime, make sure you check the hourglass model I wrote the other day.)

A simple example of increasing the PAOV might be showing multiple offers on your lead magnet thank you page or incentivizing your email subscribers to visit your marketplace.

To sum up, if you're only focusing on the few percentages of potential clients, you are fighting for the same customer with hundreds of thousands of other online entrepreneurs. At the same time, you're leaving money on the table, not taking care of the remaining population of potential customers.