No, You Do NOT Have A New Customer. Sorry.

It’s possible that, for lack of a better word, I may have used the word “customer” elsewhere on this site to describe someone who has given you money. I might do it again as we go along.

That just goes to show how important this whole concept is, and how we’re so used to associating the word “customer” with “someone who pays us money” that there may not be a way of distinguishing the differences in one or two words.

It (hopefully) happens all the time – your smartphone beeps.

You check it.

There it is: e-mail from your shopping cart saying you just made a sale online.

Or, you worked your telephone sales game to the hilt on that prospect who called the phone number you displayed correctly on your website, and booked that new client.

The promotion is on its last day, and you just filled that last slot in your new mastermind.

You slowed down the sale and gave your prospect the opportunity and the space to make the decision to invest in you for THEIR reasons, assigning THEIR values, in alignment with THEIR truth – and they rewarded you with a big check.

Time to celebrate?

Actually, no. You really don’t have much to celebrate.

You do NOT have a new customer.

Not yet, anyway.

Already we can hear it…

“I Don’t Have A New Customer? What Do You Mean? They Just Gave Me The Money!”

Again, we turn to Dream Business Coach Jim Palmer. He explains the difference between

A “transaction” is the ka-chinging of the cash register, the prospect saying “yes, charge my card,” the mew mastermind member saying “hell yes”; versus
A “customer” is what you WILL have once you take a few more steps.

Make dollars and sense?

To lay it out in detail, here are

A Few More Things That Must Happen Before You Earn The Customer

Throughout this chapter, we will discuss the following:

After the prospect completes their online purchase of (erm… “investment in themselves by claiming”) your product or training course, do you have a follow-up plan to ensure they actually consume it?
Is someone going to call them and send them a personal email?
Once you book that new client, what’s the plan to ensure they feel the positive benefit of working with you? What are the measurement metrics, the check-in points, the objectives to be achieved?
What’s in place to make your coaching or mastermind member feel loved? What are the perks of being an “insider”? How are they now privileged, part of the elite, part of the upper-tier?
What will make them so happy with you, they’ll be dying to tell their friends? A “customer” tells everyone about their fancy new car; a “transaction” is merely relieved to no longer have to drive that clunker they just traded in.
Where is the next level of working with you? Remember, a customer you already have is easier to convert than a prospect who hasn’t given you money yet. How are you making a long-term relationship inevitable in the eyes of this customer?

Make dollars and sense?