Understanding Different Buyer Types for Higher Conversions

Are you selling to the right people in the right way?

While there are many different types of buyers, I find it helpful to think of 3 overarching categories - "now buyers," "later buyers", and "never buyers".

I find that most people target now buyers.

The Now Buyer Type

A now buyer can be either a quick start who has an urgent need and makes a decision to hire you or join your program very quickly after discovering you. 

Who doesn't love a now buyer? The quick start. The person with an urgent need who makes a decision to hire you or join your program even though they just discovered you.

What's important to keep in mind is that we will occasionally get now buyers but not nearly as often as we'd like. And I am seeing fewer and fewer people make 'now' buying decisions.

So, it's both a risk and a mistake to only target those we expect to buy now. It's a recipe for disappointment and declining revenue.

A sign that you're inadvertently (or intentionally) targeting now buyers:

You can tell that you're targeting now buyers if when you launch something and don't get the conversions you had hoped for, you feel like a failure and pivot to completely reinvent your marketing and sales strategy or move on to sell something different.

Or you find yourself on the revenue rollercoaster, always dependent on your next launch and feeling like every launch or sales conversation is make or break.

The next category I find that people target most may be surprising.

It's never buyers.

The Never Buyer Type

The person who is never going to invest in your offer no matter how badly you know they need it. They may follow and watch, but no amount of marketing will turn them into a yes.

If you're thinking but why would someone target someone who isn't going to buy?!?

That's a great question!  I find it's because they haven't qualified their leads, so they don't know who's never going to buy.

Maybe their niche is too broad, or their messaging is too watered down or unclear to cause people to say 'no'.

Or maybe they believe in their product or service so much that they can't accept that there are people who don't want it even if they really need it.

A sign that you're inadvertently targeting never buyers:

You can tell that you're targeting never buyers if you feel like you have to do a lot of convincing in your marketing and sales efforts.

It can feel like pushing a boulder up a mountain to get people to see the value in what you do and why they should want it.

Whether you're targeting now buyers or never buyers, one of the common threads is that you often end up overmarketing and working way too hard for disappointing results.

When you want to scale your business, you need a sustainable strategy where you're not having to live launch-to-launch (the entrepreneur's version of paycheck-to-paycheck, and a side effect of targeting now buyers).

And where you're not having to try to convince anyone they need something they don't want (even if you know they really, really need it). This is a side effect of inadvertently targeting never buyers.

So what do you do instead? 

You target later buyers.

The Later Buyer Type

The person who has, or will have, the problem that you solve. They are someone who will be investing in a solution - the question is if they will be buying from you, or from a competitor...

People don't stay later buyers forever. It is an interim decision-making state...

Every later buyer eventually becomes a now buyer or a never buyer, but the way you market to them is different.

If we accept that we can't rely on everyone being quick starts and investing in working with us right after they discover us...

And if we accept that some people are simply never going to buy what we're offering, no matter how great it is or how badly they need it...

Then the majority of our marketing efforts should be focused on later buyers (with options for those who are quick starts).

What Gets in the Way of Effectively Marketing to Later Buyers

The reality is that later buyers take ongoing nurturing and patience (and patience isn't always an entrepreneur's strong suit :D)...

Effective nurturing takes a combination of the right strategy and a commitment to consistently show up for however long it takes, continuing to solve the same problems.

With buying cycles getting longer in a lot of markets, it's more critical than ever to commit to the long-game and get really strategic about how you'll nurture and support later buyers to make the decision if your offer is the right solution for them.

What you DON'T want to do is:

• Ignore them if they don't buy right away, never giving them the opportunity to buy when they feel the time is right
• Pressure them to buy before they're ready, trying to get them to buy on your timeline instead of their own
• Market harder & harder to try to convince them they want your offer

How to Approach Marketing to Later Buyers

What you want to do instead is:

• Strategically nurture them over time and provide value, which can take many different forms
• Remind them how you can help solve their problem and why your offer is the best solution to do so
• Re-invite them to take the next step, which could be scheduling a call, joining your program, or hiring you or your team

Here's the thing:

• If they resonate with you and your work and trust your offer will deliver on the promises you make, a later buyer will eventually say 'yes'.
• And if they (or you) realize it's not a fit, it's great to know that as soon as possible so you can wish them well and shift where you focus your precious time, money, and energy to those who are the right fit.

So what does an effective marketing strategy look like when targeting later buyers?

First things first, it takes understanding a critical rule of marketing and sales.

Just because someone did not buy does not mean that they're not interested.

As much as we wish people bought when we wanted them to, it doesn't always work that way.  Our launch may not align with their needs. 

There are incentives we can provide and things we can do to encourage people to say 'yes' but ultimately people buy on their own timeline, not ours.

That means every launch* we do, we need to keep the following in mind:

The things we are doing for THIS launch are the things that are actually selling the NEXT launch.

​​*Please note: Launch does not need to mean an actual launch event such as a live launch, webinar, or workshop.  Launch refers to any targeted effort focused on selling an offer, in whatever want you approach it, whether evergreen or live.

Understanding Your Buying Cycle

Have you ever assessed how long it takes for someone to invest in working with you? 

What you will likely find is that the people who buy during a launch? A very high percentage of them have been watching for a while. 

They may have participated in past launches.  Read your emails.  Watched your videos.  Listened to your podcast episodes.  Engaged on social media.

They may not have been ready when you first made the offer.  Or they may not have fully built up enough trust in you and your offer yet.  But they stuck around until they said yes...

And they can only say yes if you continue to make the offer to them.

Success is cumulative.  It is a series of consistent actions taken over time.  All the marketing you're doing for this launch is preparing your buyer of tomorrow more than it is preparing your buyer of today.

When you approach things with this mindset, it allows you to approach things more strategically and sustainably.

As much as we wish people bought when we wanted them to, it doesn't always work that way. Our sales cycle may not align with their needs.

There are incentives we can provide and things we can do to encourage people to say 'yes' but ultimately people buy on their own timeline, not ours.

An Example of Marketing to Later Buyers

So what might this look like?

Instead of treating a launch as a one-time event where you hope for the best and then pivot if it doesn't convert the way you'd like, schedule a series of launches with targeted nurturing that happens in between to keep your solution top of mind.

This could look like selling the exact same thing over and over again, like I have done for more than 4 years now with Simplify to Scale.

Or it could involve new offers or programs BUT ones that continue to solve the same problems in similar ways.

For example, I am getting ready to launch a brand new AI program called Simplify and Scale with AI. But even though it's new, it's also not...

• I am still solving the exact same problem - eliminating unnecessary complexity, overworking, and too much being dependent on YOU.
• I am still providing the same solution - simplifying and streamlining operations, upleveling your team, and scaling profit and impact.
• I am even leveraging the same strategies - it is rooted in my Simplify to Scale framework and pulls key pieces from my Simplify to Scale program.

What's different is that I am sharing how to strategically leverage AI capabilities to work smarter not harder, simplify and scale your business, and achieve your vision and goals faster, better, and more efficiently.

For those who have considered joining Simplify to Scale (S2S) in the past but didn't, this may be exactly what they are looking for.

• Maybe the timing wasn't right before and now it is...
• Maybe the 6-month commitment for S2S felt like too long but the 8-weeks for Simplify and Scale with AI feels just right...
• Maybe the $8k investment for S2S was out of reach, but the beta pricing of only $1500 for Simplify and Scale with AI is right on...

Or maybe none of those will be the case and they will remain a later buyer, for now.

How to Effectively Sell to a Later Buyer

To effectively sell to later buyers, go into things expecting things to take multiple cycles.

Sometimes you'll be pleasantly surprised and get a quick start who buys now, and sometimes someone who has been watching and waiting will say 'yes' this time.

But for those who don't, implement a nurture strategy that includes value-add content strategically crafted to help them achieve quick wins, shift perspectives, or understand that there is a solution to their problem, and that your offer is that solution when the time is right for them.