Are you losing customers at the final hurdle?

Businesses put an enormous amount of effort into attracting prospective customers.

Marketing creates interest. Sales builds the relationship. Questions are answered, proposals are written and eventually somebody decides they want to buy.

Then, just when you've done the difficult bit, something gets in the way.

The customer hesitates, disappears or simply doesn't complete the purchase.

And because they were so close to buying, it's easy to assume the problem must have been price, a competitor or a last-minute change of mind.

But sometimes the problem is much closer to home.

How easy is it to say yes to you?

I was reminded of this while queuing in a well-known supermarket.

Two tills were open. One suddenly closed, then reopened. Another opened and somebody else closed theirs. Staff moved customers between queues while tannoy announcements contradicted what people on the shop floor were saying.

Nobody was particularly cross, but you could feel the frustration building.

Everyone standing there had already made the decision to buy. The supermarket had done the hard work. The products were in the baskets and customers were literally waiting to hand over their money.

And yet the final part of the process was making that unnecessarily difficult.

Online, walking away is even easier.

A checkout that forces you through multiple upsells, a form that asks for information you don't understand the relevance of, a login process that doesn't work or an unexpected extra step can all introduce doubt at exactly the wrong moment.

In B2B, the final hurdle can be harder to see

The process may look very different, but the same principle applies.

A prospective customer might have spent weeks or months considering your business. They may have involved colleagues, compared suppliers, secured budget and persuaded other people internally that you're the right choice.

By the time they say yes, somebody may have put a considerable amount of their own credibility behind the decision.

Then the paperwork arrives.

The terms aren't what they expected. Nobody seems quite sure what happens next. There is an unexpected delay. The person who has been incredibly responsive throughout the sales process suddenly disappears. Or an internal process makes something that should be straightforward surprisingly difficult.

They may still go ahead.

But instead of feeling excited and confident about the decision, they're already wondering whether they've made a mistake.

Look at what happens immediately before the sale

If you're losing opportunities late in the process, look carefully at what the customer has to do once they've decided they want to buy.

How many steps are involved? What information do you ask for? Who needs to approve what? How quickly do you respond? Are there unexpected terms, costs or requirements? Does the experience suddenly change when somebody moves from sales into another part of the business?

Most importantly, does your process make sense to the customer, or only to you?

Internal systems and procedures often exist for perfectly sensible reasons. But if they make buying unnecessarily difficult, they can undermine all the work you've done to get somebody that far.

Don't introduce doubt when they're ready to buy

The point immediately before purchase is not simply an administrative step.

Your customer is still evaluating you.

They're noticing how organised you are, how easy you are to deal with and whether the experience matches everything you've promised so far.

Particularly with a significant purchase, reassurance matters.

Make it easy for them to understand what happens next. Keep communicating. Remove unnecessary steps. And make sure the transition from prospect to customer feels every bit as considered as the work you put into winning them.

Find out where customers are getting stuck

If opportunities keep disappearing late in the process, don't immediately respond by spending more money generating new ones.

Follow the journey.

Look at what happens from the customer's perspective, identify where friction is being introduced and understand why.

You may discover the marketing is working perfectly well.

The problem is that you're making it too difficult for somebody to finish buying.

If you're losing customers and aren't sure where or why, let’s have a conversation.