I just bought a new filter for my furnace. Don't get too excited. This means next to nothing to your company's marketing strategy.
It was transactional. It was need-based. And it was immediate.
I identified the need. Within minutes, I was searching online for the replacement. I found it. Put it in my shopping cart. And checked out. Done.
I can't even remember the name of the supplier, and it's only been two days.
There was nothing emotional about it. (No wonder you're not excited about my big news.)
But that's not how prospects are shopping your professional service, in all likelihood.
Pivot to You and Your Furnace Filter
Some 98% of the addressable market is NOT looking to hire you right now. There will be no search. There will be no shopping cart. There will be no instant transaction. And you can't market to folks that way. Even though YOU want it to work that way. THEY don't want to buy that way. And won't.
There is no link you can send these folks. No "lead magnet" will put this 98% of the prospect population into market. You can't force them to need you. But 100% of that 98% MAY need you at SOME POINT. And that's the point.
When that need genuinely surfaces, there WILL be emotion tied to it. Likely pain. Sometimes aspiration. That's when the will to buy becomes heightened, both in intensity and in immediacy.
What are you doing now to become the provider of preference tomorrow?
Are you educating the market? Are you earning their trust? Are you demonstrating your value?
Because that's how the business is earned. It's also when.
Yes, you may get hired EVENTUALLY, but you must start earning the trust that leads to the sale NOW. Not immediately, mind you. Over time.
That's the natural sales cycle of the buying population for most business-to-business professional services. And you won't change it by chasing clicks and screaming calls to action.
Would that it be as easy as selling a furnace filter to a Midwesterner in the dead of winter. But, alas...you're going to have to work for it.
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