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Eight: Maintaining Persuasive Momentum

People may ponder what they would like- "it would be nice" for a problem to be solved or a goal to be achieved - and they may meditate on it for a very long time without taking action. But at some point, they initiate action and proceed to their goal. Even then, not everyone who starts something finishes it - the momentum of a prospect to become a customer must be maintained all the way to the goal.

The desire of the customer creates an initial momentum that may not carry them through the buying process. Vendors can create friction by various means, but they can also contribute to the momentum of the customer, and particularly, to be persuasive in channeling the momentum toward the purchase of our brand.

To contribute to momentum, consider three key questions:

Only those who have a clear and detailed answer to each of these questions stand a chance at successfully aligning the customer's buying process to their sales process.

Of particular importance, persuasion is most effective when people feel they are being guided toward getting what they want (not what others want of them) and have a sense they are making progress toward the achievement of their goals.

Persuasive Momentum Stalled

The author tells for stories of consumer woe in which the momentum was not only stalled, but derailed, but companies whose web sites did not have the information a customer needed, and whose phone reps were decidedly unhelpful.

The details of the specific stories are incidental - there are many stories in which people will express the difficulty and frustration of getting a retailer to sell them something they are highly motivated to buy, and countless untold stories in which customers who were interested in buying something found the process so difficult that they gave up.

The implication is that businesses should be nothing short of horrified when they turn away a customer who was eager to buy from them.

Maintaining Momentum

Most business stand eager to answer the question "how do I purchase this item from you?" but fail to consider that customers have many other questions before they are ready to ask that one. As such, they drive away many prospects who are on the path to purchasing but have not yet arrived at the final step.

The author refers obliquely to a 'scent trail" of information that customers follow to their destination, and the notion that when the scent evaporates, they become disconnected, sniffing about, and either giving up the hunt or chasing another quarry.

The issue is that brands are eager to get to the last step in the process, and wish to skip the rest, whereas the customer doesn't care to be rushed into a purchase they will later regret.