Innovation and adapting to change aren’t just for old-school corporations. With the radical pace at which technology is rolled out, consumers are changing how they search for, buy, and use your product or service.

And if you don’t keep your eye on the ball, you may lose out. Here’s why it may already be time to look at your business afresh.

There are so many ways to purchase.

Customers have many different options for fulfilling most of their needs. The benefit your service offers may be filled by one or more alternatives in the market, in combination or on their own. You may need to hire a marketing specialist to evaluate your competitiveness and customer perception of your service/product and help design a marketing strategy.

Alternatively, investing in marketing automation tools and data support can help you keep track of things and get insights that may not otherwise present themselves.

Is it time for change?

So, how does your customer make their purchase? And is there a need for you to re-evaluate how you market to them?

For instance, if your clients make their purchases online, there may be an urgent need to divert marketing dollars from retail store promos to online offers and digital marketing. If they seek out reviews by established “expert” bloggers, reaching out to that channel for free trials may be better than a full-colour newspaper or magazine ad.

Equally, if customers see your product as dated, you may need to reposition how you pitch yourself. In some cases, this might even mean you have to go back to the drawing board and add a feature that will make your service or product up-to-date or more relevant to the new needs of your target audience.

Where is your target audience?

In years gone by, most customers have interacted with a company’s product or service for the first time in person. This could be through a retail store experience, a door-to-door salesperson, a demo or pop-up stall at their place of work or a mall, among other things.

The average target customer for most businesses, is online or on a digital medium. In many cases, especially in B2C businesses, customers are present on multiple social media channels – notably Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter.

They are also online, hunting down options and ways to solve their problem or fulfil their need on search engines or specialised portals catering to searches on specific segments like food or travel.

Break down the decision-making.

High-octane living puts tremendous stress on individuals, which can drive some segments to make indulgent purchases seen as “rewards” for their work. On the other hand, a volatile economic environment and unemployment make purchase decisions a little more complex than before.

A prospective buyer of your services or products will weigh off the benefits of your product against others, evaluate how much of their current needs it helps meet, and then the intangible aspect of how much they desire or “want” to buy what you are marketing or selling to them.

You may not make that sale if you fail to win them over on any of the three aspects.

You need to get in quick.

Decisions also come quickly for many types of products or services. Consider the time frame the customer has to make the purchase decision.

If it is an urgent-need product, are you enabling them to make the purchase as quickly and easily as possible? Are you present on channels or point-of-sale locations where they will likely encounter this need?

For longer-term decisions, can you reconnect with them via mailers or targeted ads online to remind them of your service or product?

Most websites have an integrated ad-serving system that can serve ads based on a visitor’s history. Google can even use a user’s history across sites to provide more relevant suggestions. Facebook has integrated ads based on user behaviour in a user’s newsfeed and elsewhere.

Is your business making the most of these tools?

How are you showing up?

Is your product or service being described adequately and correctly?

As a customer, a misleading or unclear description can put you off purchasing. The description must detail everything a customer may want to know – especially when you rely on them to self-select at a retail location offline or online.

Your description is your salesperson, so the brief must be complete. Supplementing descriptions online with FAQs or a link to an email helpline is a good idea.

Are your customers confused?

Customers may sometimes be confused about what to buy.

Can you do something to help them decide or evaluate benefits over alternatives? Mailers, additional literature, online chat or helplines can all help ease this confusion and help a prospect arrive at their purchase decision.

Is it about the money?

Sometimes, your product’s cost may not align with customer expectations.

Do you find that your product only sells when it is on sale?

Dig deeper to find out if it is because of the perceived value of your product or if your target audience has cheaper alternatives that meet the same need.

Can you do something by marketing or building your brand to command the price you want? Or should you look at lowering costs to make it available at a more customer-friendly price?

Getting them across the line.

Is the final leg of the purchase process really complicated for a customer? As someone with a need to be met, you would want to get through the process as quickly as possible once you have made your decision.

If you are made to jump through hoops by having to fill out long forms, or wait for confirmation or availability of the product or service, you may change your mind. It is important to have different ways the product can be purchased too.

As someone who is averse to credit card usage, would you have the option to pay online via your savings account? Is there an option to pay for the products on delivery? Can the product be picked up at a store after purchase online? Can I add on or make modifications after purchase?

Have a close hard look at how difficult you are making it for the customer to buy. Go through the entire process and see where the hurdles are, then go out and remove them one by one.

This great article by Mindtools.com, runs through ways you can comb through your current business systems to help identify problem area’s and tools to address them.