The Ladder Of Engagement Theory To Increase A Prospect’s Commitment

What Marketers Should Be Focusing On

A lot of marketers focus on the things they can control, their copy, making their offer fit the market, the clarity of your message things like that.

However, there’s a lot of things you still can’t control such as how your message is interpreted. Part of that interpretation is all the prior experiences they’ve had in life.

When my company was planning our first live event we sent out a message to our list and a portion of our audience said they weren’t going to come because of bad experiences they’ve had at other events.

They said these events weren’t highly valuable and the whole time they were being pitched on an even more expensive offer.

Now I had nothing to do with these past experiences but still they were seeing my message and receiving the wrong signal. The audience was already starting from a place of “lack of trust” or suspicion.

Now, long time members of my list didn’t have this problem. They were higher up on what I call “The Ladder Of Engagement.”

I had built up enough trust and goodwill with them that they knew if I said that I explicitly wasn’t trying to sell them that I meant it.

Whenever you’re looking to make a sale you need two things. The first is a clear message, that you have a solution to your prospect’s problem as well as a high enough quotient on likeability, trustability, and ability to deliver on your promises.

This is really hard to convince someone of when you don’t have a relationship.

Imagine two scenarios with the same copy, “Come here I want to show you something.” The first is your best friend at a BBQ, the second is a weird looking stranger in a dark alley. Which one are you likely to go along with? Your friend obviously.

You have a deep relationship with that person. It’s not the copy, it’s the context!

The Ladder Of Engagement is all about controlling for your context with new relationships and how to build them over time.

You can’t push someone up a ladder. They have to choose to climb it. Each rung on the ladder represents a level of trust, investment, and relationship.

Now the person at the top is usually your best customer.

However, they can also be your best evangelist who’s never even spent a dime with you. People don’t only invest with their wallets, they also invest with time and attention.

It can be measured in how likely they are to skip out on other commitments to spend time with you. It’s really about leading with the non-monetary investments so when it comes time for a financial investment it’s a no-brainer.

If you want to start moving your audience up the rungs of your ladder you need to look at the lifecycle of their interactions with you, how they go from being a total stranger to coming into your world?

What are you asking them for at every step? What are they required to invest?

As well as what are you doing to show them that investing in a relationship with you is a good idea. It’s ok to push them a little bit to deepen the relationship, but just a little bit. Don’t give them an offer for a $50,000 commitment right off the bat.

Provide them enough value that it proves to them that they’ll be making the right decision to take that step with you.

 

Action Steps

1. Review your customer lifecycle and how they begin their relationship to your business.
2. What are you asking them for as an initial investment? Is it too high for the value you’re providing or it is just right?
3. Follow up with your prospects after they invest to ensure them that they’ve made a good decision.
4. Continue to provide value, and deepen the trust and relationship over time.

 

Result You Will Achieve

Better judgement on how invested and committed your prospects are to the relationship.

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