EPISODE 30 OF WHAT WOULD THEY DO? THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE PODCAST FOR SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS
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In this bite-sized episode, I answer a listener question that will resonate with many new business owners:
“Selling in my business currently looks like this: I wait for someone to reach out and then I engage with them. How can I become more proactive in the way I support people before the purchase?”
If you’ve ever felt stuck in reactive sales mode, this episode offers a practical shift. I share smart, scalable ways to engage with your warm leads before they hit the “buy” button to build confidence, trust, and momentum at exactly the right time. From clever email triggers to personalised touchpoints and strategic storytelling, tune in to learn how to support your future customers without feeling pushy or invasive… with examples taken straight from my business.
What we cover:
What Proactive Pre-Purchase Engagement Actually Means
How tracking audience behavior and acting on buying signals can drastically reduce sales friction.
The Problem with Waiting for Leads to Reach Out
Why sitting back may be costing you conversions—and what to do instead.
Scalable & Personal Touchpoints That Build Trust
Ways to blend automation with personal outreach that feels supportive (not salesy).
Reducing Risk and Creating a Confident Buying Experience
Why pre-empting objections and offering tailored info gives your audience the clarity to say yes.
Soundbites:
“It all starts with paying attention to your audience, paying attention to the signals, then actually taking the time to piece together the puzzle pieces. What does the signal mean for me? What is that next logical step they have to hear? What signals and pointers do I need to send them to move along on that customer journey? Being proactive in your engagement and anticipating that next step, builds trust early and it demonstrates that you as a business owner care and you’re not just there for the quick sales.”
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Episode Transcript:
Hey, hey, and welcome back to the show. I’m coming to you today on a Monday morning, gloomy, gray. Doesn’t happen very often here in Sydney, Australia, but I’m trying to cheer myself up with a whole bunch of podcast episodes that I’m recording and it’s working because I absolutely love talking customer experiences and how I can support Hot Leads to become paying customers and beyond.
So let’s dive into this bite-sized episode. I am answering a question today that probably is on your mind as well, particularly if you’re a newish business owner who is still trying to work out how to sell effectively, how to be more proactive in your approach. So the question we’re going to answer goes like this. Selling in my business currently looks like this.
I wait for someone to reach out and then I engage with them. How can I become more proactive in the way I support people before the purchase? Fabulous question, right? proactive engagement before the purchase is so, so, so important to not only build a sustainable, successful business, because often customers don’t come to you. You need to proactively reach out. You need to engage with them. You need to give them the
confidence in your brand, in your offer and in you as the expert. So proactive engagement, proactive provision of information, of confidence, of trust is critical. But as I said, so many business owners still are not leveraging particularly the technology at their fingertips. And when I say technology,
that’s technology you have in your business very likely. Look at your email list and pay close attention to the signals your subscribers are sending you and using that as a way to become more proactive. You don’t want to wait for subscribers to hit reply, to complete your contact form on your website. You want to proactively provide them with the right information, the right material, the right
personal touch points potentially to go to that next level. So this episode is all about clever strategies to nurture your leads, your hot leads on your email list, help them to establish trust in your offer, in your brand, in your expertise, and also anticipate questions or concerns they might have before they become a deal breaker and before they start answering those concerns themselves.
Some of the ideas I’m sharing with you today are 100 % scalable with clever automations inside your email platform. Some of it leverages somewhat unscalable personal touches that are totally worth your while. And I’m going to give you some examples from inside my business. So what does proactive pre-purchase engagement actually look like? What am I talking about? So proactive pre-purchase engagement.
basically just means that you are using your audience behavior and the signals they’re sending you via engagement with your website, with your emails and acting on that. So rather than just letting all that slide, you are paying close attention to your data, to the signals and then deciding the next logical step to move them a step closer to that purchase.
That also looks like answering objections before they’re a deal breaker and before your hot lead has potentially realized that they’re up against them. And it also means leading with tailored interactions rather than generic content. So paying close attention to all those signals allows you to step away from mass marketing sending the same information to everyone.
and allows you to step into a custom sales path that really supports the individual based on where they are at on their customer journey. So some examples here, obviously again, just scratching the surface, but giving you examples from my business, I feel is the best starting point to make you think and consider what is possible inside your business based on your audience, your tech tools, et cetera.
I’m a huge fan of segmentation, tagging, using trigger links to update custom fields, for example, it all sounds very technical, but it really isn’t. Instead of using regular links, I use trigger links a lot in my emails that allows me to track how many times someone has clicked on.
a particular offer, it allows me then to decide on the back end what classifies them as a hot lead for that particular offer and then target them with totally bespoke personal interactions, those unscalable moments, or add them, for example, into an evergreen nurture sequence that is very specifically designed to help them overcome objections, to answer their questions and to build trust in myself, my offer.
in my brand and the transformation that’s on the other side of that offer. So that could involve sending personalized messages to someone who has shown invested interest in your offer. That could be a standalone message or it could even be a message inside an evergreen funnel. So once someone reaches a certain goal inside that evergreen funnel that could then trigger a task for you.
Reach out personally via Voxer, via Bonjoro to just extend an invitation to start a conversation, answer questions, et cetera. Some people don’t love replying by email. So what you could do is send them an email saying, I get a feeling you’re interested. Why don’t you hit me up on Voxer?
no sales spiel on the other side, I just want to help you decide either way. Something like that works a treat and has also worked a treat in my retention lab funding member launch, for example, the conversion rate off the back of that personal outreach to people who’ve shown invested interest made a huge difference to my conversion rates. A big proportion of those people clearly were on the fence and needed a personal touch point with me.
You could also use a private case study podcast, which I do in my one-on-one client projects, where I need to show, client results, what’s possible if people decide to work with me one-on-one and what better way to do that than to get my customers share their story themselves. So this private case study podcast is not just any podcast,
It allows people to choose their own adventure. People can provide me with information that then allows me to send them specific episode suggestions, points them down a certain path and also reinforces certain messages that they need to hear based on their problems, based on the way they prefer to work with me.
and the outcomes that they want to achieve. And I’m sharing all my workflows, my strategy behind this particular Choose Your Own Adventure Private Case Study podcast inside my Client Cast Formula course. If you want to swipe my approach to Private Case Study podcasts and launch your own in a matter of days, that is all possible via this course that I’ve linked up in the show notes.
This is just to give you an idea how easy it is to be proactive. It all starts with paying attention to your audience, paying attention to the signals, then actually taking the time to piece together the puzzle pieces. What does the signal mean for me? What is that next logical step they have to hear? What little signals and pointers do I need to send them to move along on that customer journey?
And being proactive in your engagement and anticipating that next step, anticipating what they need to hear builds trust early and it demonstrates that you as a business owner care and you’re not just there for the quick sales. You actually want them to be confident in their decision. You want to support them. You are aware of their struggles and of the situation that they’re in and you’re ready to support them.
It also reduces that sales friction. personally reaching out to someone and giving them a platform to raise those concerns and, sense check whether that offer is perfect for them also helps calm those nerves. We all have problems with making decisions as human beings. We like our safety net, our comfort zone. Every time we make a
purchase, we’re leaving that comfort zone, we’re taking an element of risk on and giving that personal opportunity for clarification, for getting answers to your questions really means that that risk is reversed and people have all confidence in that purchase decision and can actually confidently take that next step. And
that means you’re shortening the time frame from curiosity to conversion to that first or next purchase. It just accelerates that journey because people are more confident, they have more clarity and they are guided by your personal support, which is so important in today’s fast-paced online environment.
So to recap this bite-sized episode, I would love you to have a think about how you can incorporate one proactive touch point where you are anticipating your potential customers needs into your customer journey.
Have a look how you can make your customer journey more proactive, involve your audience, and support your audience in that risk taking journey.
If you have enjoyed today’s episode and would love my custom experience brain or a guest expert’s brain on your little pickle that you’re stuck with, then absolutely submit your question via the link in the show notes. If you can do that anonymously or by leaving your details for a little shout out in a future episode.
Thank you so much for tuning in and I will see you next week.
