I believe that you deserve to have a sales process that you actually enjoy. And a customer journey that connects you with your dream customers every time you engage them.
My first business was as a time management and productivity coach. But, you know, for traditional business owners like people who I could see and touch. I was really into networking. I went to different Chamber of Commerce meetings, recited elevator pitches, the whole nine.
But somehow I stumbled on some content that opened up the world of online business to me.
And I was so excited to learn more.
Online Business Newbie, AKA How to lose $10K in One Year
So I did what a lot of people did. I bought all the things. All. The. Things.
They said Instagram was the way I should grow my business. So I bought the IG program.
Then I bought the blogging course, so I could learn all about the content you create now, but lives forever.
Then it was Pinterest, the most underestimated platform out there. So then I bought the Pinterest thingy.
Oh, and then there was the bundle wave. I bought so many bundles. You know, the ones where you paid a low price and had access to a hundred billion things.
And no one was there to remind me that for every resource that I signed up for, somebody would send me a 7-email welcome sequence. Dumped into yet another sales funnel to fend for myself. Looking for a customer journey that led to true transformation.
By the time I came up for air I had invested almost $10K into online learning with nothing to show for it.
But there’s nothing out there talking about something like how to make sure the business problem is actually solved, which is the whole reason that customers are paying you, to begin with.
It boggles my mind when people create sales funnels and the only destination is the sale. It’s never about actually solving the customer’s problem for the customer. We assume that whoever purchased the product automatically knows how to use it.
A “Customer” without a Customer Journey
It is crazy how much you invest, just trying to find a solution to a problem. As a part of the online learning industry, the truth is, I wasn’t learning anything.
I had entered so many creators’ sales funnels and fallen out the other end with nothing to show for it.
There was no way I could tell whether I was anyone’s ideal customer since I hadn’t actually experienced anyone’s customer journeys at that point.
Lots of Pomp, Low on Promise
I read all the sales pages promising to solve my problem, each online program promising to be better than the last one. But time after time, I was incredibly disappointed by the outcome.
I thought I would be with someone who walked with me through the process step by step, holding my hand (as the sales page clearly stated). I didn’t realize that meant you would get a login and a password and access to a Facebook community with no leadership and no direction in terms of where I could go with my questions.
There was a lot of pomp and circumstance before the sale, but not a lot of promise keeping after.
I kept looking around and all I could ask was, who is my guide for my customer journey? Who will help facilitate my transformation?
Then I started asking my online friends, “Is this real? Is this what online business is all about?“
And they would give me the same answer. “That’s just how it is, Desola. We’ve all been there.”
From “Industry Standard” to Unacceptable
And instead of being resigned, I’m not even going to lie. I got mad.
I could not believe that in a multi-hundred billion dollar industry, the consumers were just resigned to taking a risk. Hoping that the expert they sought to hire had actually thought through their customer journey to solve their problem.
Now, not only could they leave with a problem unsolved, they also risked losing money in the process.
If the coffee shop messed up your drink, you would burn that place to the ground until your drink was replaced. And, they’d give you your money back.
If a restaurant messed up your significant other’s food order, you would send it back and have it fixed.
But then you invest several hundred, sometimes thousands of dollars into an online learning experience that promises to solve a problem that you’re dealing with in your life or your business, and they don’t take the time to facilitate a customer journey that delivers on its promise?
And that’s just how it is? Well, that’s unacceptable.
Not Your Average Sales Funnel
I also observed that creators were essentially defining the sales funnel as “doing whatever it took to get to the sale, then patting yourself on the back as if you had accomplished something”.
Don’t get me wrong, hitting and crushing your sales goals is fantastic. But your plan to deliver should be a part of your sales process. Delivering on what you promised is a part of the customer journey.
Realizing that this pattern was being taught and perpetuated, I pivoted my business with the sole message that the customer journey doesn’t end with the sale. It ends when the customer’s problem has been solved.
And that’s why now I coach and consult for online businesses that want to leverage key relationships and expand their customer journey beyond a cookie-cutter sales funnel process.
Beyond the Customer Journey
This is an industry where leadership and service are generally not as sexy as hitting your first six figures or hitting the five-figure launches or quitting your nine-to-five. But these are the unsexy parts of business that are just as important, especially if you want a business that’s going to last longer than the next trend.
As the experts, it’s our responsibility to guide our customers through the journey to their transformation. We remain a resource for them as they work towards their success, their vision and their dream for their life. That is the cross you take up when you decide to become a business owner.
It’s not all about the laptop lifestyle, money in your sleep, or dollar signs with figures that have K’s and M’s on the back. It’s about every life that you sign up to change with your solution, whether externally, as a business, internally as a leader, or peripherally as a mentor.
The truth is, our fans aren’t just the people who buy our products and rave about it. It’s everyone whose life is better because we’re in it.