Whether you’re an advocate of New Year’s resolutions or you don’t believe the hype, the start of a new year really is the perfect time to think about what you want to accomplish in the months ahead and what you’re going to do to make this year better than the last. In that spirit, it’s time to stop just thinking about how you’re going sell to your clients and start thinking about how you’re going to create the ultimate client experience for them in 2012 and beyond.

If you went to the websites of four or five of your competitors, you would probably notice that when it comes down to it, you all are saying pretty much the same thing. In the mind of a potential customer, if you all say the same thing, you all do the same thing. So, you end up getting evaluated on price alone because you’re not setting yourself apart. And that’s a situation that few (if any) of us like to be in because it doesn’t let our true colors and strengths shine through.

According to marketing strategist Kelly Weppler Hernandez of Weppler, Hernandez & Associates, whom I had the pleasure of chatting with recently, the best way to differentiate yourself and your business is by creating an experience. This experience starts when someone first hears your name, sees your ad or reads their cousin’s post about you on Facebook, and it carries through the seven stages of the buying cycle:

1. Know
2. Like
3. Trust
4. Try
5. Buy
6. Repeat
7. Refer
 

Those seven stages make up what Kelly and her fellow Duct Tape Marketing Certified Consultants refer to as the Marketing Hourglass™. You’ve probably heard of the tried-and-true marketing funnel – which illustrates that lots of people will get to know you, but only a small portion of that group will buy from you – and maybe you’ve even been practicing what the funnel preaches. But, as Kelly points out, that trusty funnel is broken.

You don’t want your relationship with a customer to come to a screeching halt after they’ve purchased your goods or services (funnel), you want the relationship to grow and expand so you have lots of repeat business and lots of people giving you referrals (hourglass). “Don’t let it be ‘buy once and done’,” says Kelly. Trade your funnel for an hourglass and, whether it’s through repeat business or referrals, use yourexisting client base to grow your business.

So, is that all there is to creating the ultimate client experience? Hardly! We’ve just scratched the surface. Stay tuned for my next blog post when Kelly and I delve deeper into the seven stages of the buying cycle and share some ideas for things you can do in each of the stages to boost your business by creating the ultimate client experience.

In the meantime, talk to me. Have you said sayonara to the marketing funnel? How has it helped your business?

And if you’d like to talk to Kelly directly, you can contact her at 949-633-6341 or kelly@whandassociates.com.