4 Stages Of Online Business Development: What To Do, When

Welcome To My World!

Do you ever wonder what happens to someone when they click on your website?

What is it you want them to feel the moment they enter your world? In a way your website is like your online home, right?

A lot of people sell from opt-in pages or sales pages but your website is where you send customers who want to develop a deeper relationship with you.

This is key if you want to create repeat customers and start to build your own tribe.

There are so many different contexts in which you can do sales and marketing and they are available to us all the time. This is why I’ve created my own definition for sales and marketing that will put the four stages of business development and their website optimizations into greater perspective.

 
Here goes: “Marketing is helping someone develop the beliefs, conditions, and mindsets they need to say yes to something they want in their lives but haven’t been able to say yes to before.”

So with this definition in mind, marketing is not just about getting a conversion it’s about giving a gift to your customer.  
It’s time to have a look at the four stages of business development. Which one you’re in determines where your focus should lie right now.
 

Stage One – The Blue Sky Stage

Most people know they need to have a website, but they haven’t really thought about what purpose the website will actually serve in their business.

It’s time to have a look at the four stages of business development. Which one you’re in determines where your focus should lie right now.

This first stage is the exploration stage.

You’re still figuring out your unique selling benefit and what your business is going to bring to the world. In this stage you’re not making much money so I actually don’t recommend you spend time building a website.

The reasons behind this are:

1. It’s going to cost too much money for little return.
2. You’re just going to have to rebuild the website in six months to a year so it’s a bad use of time.

If you do build a site, focus on a simple one page site that gives you credibility without taking much time or energy.
 

Stage Two – The Call Me Business

Stage two is called the “Call Me” stage because most of your business is coming from customers getting on the phone with you. You’re not quite making money while you sleep, but you’re making money while you’re awake.

A lot of people skip this stage and jump right into stage three – this is a huge mistake.

With a Call Me Business, most of the value on your site will come from getting visitors onto the phone with you so you can convert them into customers.

At this stage it may make sense to start going for bigger ticket sales because you don’t have the traffic to support a lower price point product yet. You need to find out who’s dying to work with you and willing to pay a premium.

Now your pipeline is beginning to fill up with clients who already have a high probability of converting. If you enroll 20%-50% of those leads that’s 2-5 new clients a month.

This focus, if done correctly, will propel your growth much faster than jumping right into stage three.

The best way to set up the “Call Me” site is to have the entire above-the-fold portion of the site dedicated as a call to action to get on the phone with you.

Another great way to do this is with a diagnostic quiz that will help filter out less qualified leads so your on-the-phone conversions are even more optimized.

A great question to pre-qualify prospects through your quiz or the application process to get on the phone with you is, “how ready and willing are you to change your life.” And anyone who’s less than an 8/10, don’t get on the phone with them, they’re not ready.  

Stage Three – The List Build Business

OK now in stage three, this is where you focus the site on building your list and leveraging customer relationships into products and programs. These can be informational products, or group programs like a membership community.

What a lot of people mess up at this stage is looking at their free gift in isolation. They might have an amazing lead magnet, but they’re not thinking about how it fits into a future buying event.

You have to understand the psychology of your gift and make sure it’s paving the way for that next offer. Reverse engineer the question your prospect is asking when they come to your site and turn your gift into that answer.  

Stage Four – The Authority Website

At this stage you’ve transcended the need to build your list in order to get more business. You either use a high ticket model or you run the business like an agency.

You get to focus on your long term relationships and maintaining thought leadership in your corner of the market.

You still have the calls to action, but the brand messaging becomes more important than conversions. At this stage, you have built a reputation and new business comes naturally based on the authority you’ve built.

Each stage has its own approach and key point of conversion to focus on. Take a look at your website and check if you’re optimizing for the right stage.

 

Action Steps

1. 1. Determine which stage of business development you’re in.
   2. Follow the relevant instructions to optimize your website.

Blue Sky Stage: Focus on getting clients so you can move to stage two.
Call Me Stage: Optimize for phone calls.
List Building Stage: Optimize around email opt-ins and great lead magnets.
Authority Stage: Focus on long term relationships and maintaining thought leadership.

 

Result You Will Achieve

Turning more website visitors into subscribers and more subscribers into buyers.

 
This article is based on an EHQ interview with the mentor.