A couple of weeks ago, I shared an episode all about how we move through the change process. I talked about how we go from not thinking about change to maintaining habits and all of the steps in between. If you haven't listened to that episode (episode 6), i recommend pausing this episode and returning to this one later. That episode will cover the basics that are needed to understand this content.
In that episode, I focused primarily on educating you about the stages of change and what you could do to help yourself move forward. After the episode launched, I realized that I missed an opportunity to talk about how we can help our CLIENTS (and potential clients) move through the change process too.
If we understand basic principles of change, we can use this information to support clients and move them from disinterested to committed fans for life.
To show you how, I thought I would use an example from one of my favorite brands, Primally Pure.
Primally Pure is a natural skin care line "with a passion for real, recognizable ingredients". I personally love this brand because all of their products are full of simple, easy to understand ingredients --- and they work!
But I wasn't always a customer that cared about "safer skincare". So how did they help me make the transition from not caring about what I put on my body at all to devoted customer?
Let's start with one of the most difficult stages of change to move through, pre- contemplation.
In this stage of change, client's are often unaware of their need for a particular product, much less the product itself. So how do we go about raising awareness for a need for our product. You can do this by providing education and information on your website, but it's often more effective to try to think about where your ideal customer is already hanging out and speak to them there.
Primally Pure does this by connecting with influencers to share about their products. I first learned about Primally Pure through the "Colorful Eats" podcast. Caroline Potter and Justine Campbell hosted a weekly show about nutrition and wellness. On the podcast they shared about how many products that we use day to day could be contributing to poor health by disrupting our body's hormonal communication system. They mentioned a lot of the things that I wanted to change (low mood, anxiety, general body pain) could be impacted by changing what I put on my body as well as in my body. They shared a few of their favorite safer skincare brands (primally pure was one of them). I wasn't sold, but I filed that away in my brain.
A few weeks later, I saw a post that Jenna Kutcher shared about the five things that she did to improve her fertility. She talked about changing her skin care to improve her hormonal health. She shared about primally pure too.
Another one of my favorite bloggers shared a similar story. At this point, it was getting hard for me to ignore the connection between hormone health and topical products. So I did some research.
I found tons of articles and read a few books that made this connection too. I even asked my doctor about it.
Primally Pure didn't do all of the heavy lifting (I recommend doing independent research into anything that you are unsure about), but their influencer network got the ball rolling. The information provided piqued my interest and encouraged me to do my own research.
Then that moves us to Contemplation. I bought into the idea that what I put on my body had an impact into my mood (sort of), but I wasn't ready to make a change. How did I know this stuff was really going to work? Was it really that big of a deal?
Enter hundreds of articles on Primally Pure's blog that answered a lot of my questions, and really solidified that I did need to make a change.
Here are a couple of examples,
"Why You need to break up with your lipstick" "Activated Charcoal: What is it and why your skin needs it" "What's in your deodorant and why you should care".
All of these articles helped provide education and tipped the decisional balance toward change. They achieved the goal of contemplation which is to decrease ambivalence and help customers decide that change is necessary or that they need a product or service like the one you are offering.
After reading a few of their articles, I was in the preparation stage. Remember, in this stage, the goal is to educate customers and provide them with the knowledge or skills they need to move forward into action.
Again, I turned to their website for information. There I found a series on "How to balance Hormones Naturally" , "How to cleanse your skin with oil" "What you need to know about using natural deodorant"
In each one of these articles they answered questions that I had about making the transition to natural products. What did I need and what special information did I need to know to make the transition successful?
When I was finally ready to make the jump to natural products, Primally Pure was an easy choice. They had helped me along every step of the change process, and they earned my trust through education. Their website was simple and easy to use, and they even offer a subscription service to frequently purchase products like deodorant so I never run out.
SUMMARY
Overall, this company is a great example of how we can authentically support clients along every step of the buying process. We can make them aware of their need by hanging out in places that our ideal customer is likely to be. We can provide education on why making a change or investing in a product or service is worthwhile. We can continue to educate them on how to make the transition to working with us. We can support them by making the buying process simple and easy, and we can offer our clients continued opportunities to buy from us.
I'M HOSTING A GIVEAWAY!
Anyone who leaves a rating and review in the month of March will be entered to win an Activated Charcoal Deodorant from Primally Pure!
To enter, simply leave a review during the month of February (2019) and I'll randomly choose a winner at the end of the month.
This is just my way of saying THANKS! for all of your support.
