Ep 5 - The Customer Journey - Why You Need to Understand Sales Psychology

Have you ever wondered what goes on in a customer’s mind when they decide that YES – they want to buy from you? (Woo hoo!)

Or, more curiously, why they sometimes don’t? 

When you’re growing a successful business, understanding the psychological steps that potential clients take before they make that yes or no decision is crucial.

(Especially if you want more of the YES ones!)

As healthcare professionals, most of us weren’t taught business or sales skills…

So it’s completely normal if you feel like a vital piece of the puzzle is missing when it comes to making sales.

But don’t worry, I’ve got you!

When you understand the inner secrets of the customer journey, everything will click into place.

If you’re ready for some big AHA moments, keep reading… 

Because I’m about to guide you through the 8 key milestones of the customer journey – and show you how to optimize each step to:

• Attract more clients
• Make more money
• And grow your business

(Go you!)

Why Understanding the Customer Journey Is Crucial

Did you know that the journey a person takes – from hearing about you for the first time to becoming a loyal client – is full of psychological milestones?

Now, these aren’t just random moments. They’re opportunities for you to build trust, connection, and value.

Without understanding this journey, you risk losing potential clients before they’ve even had the chance to see how amazing your work is.

So let’s make sure that doesn’t happen!

The 8 Key Milestones of the Customer Journey

Let’s break down the customer journey into its 8 key milestones. 

Each step represents a critical point in your client’s decision-making process. (And you don’t want to miss any!)

1. Attract: Getting in Front of New People

The first step is visibility: how you introduce yourself to people who have never heard of you before. 

At this stage, potential clients may not even know they have a problem.

Example: A Guest Training

Imagine you’re a baby nutritionist giving a guest training with a baby sleep coach. 

The parents tuning in might feel frustrated with their toddler’s picky eating but haven’t yet recognised the deeper issue. 

During your talk, you explain sensory development, nutritional needs, and quick wins for mealtime battles.

By the end, those parents are thinking, “Wow, this was helpful. I need more! I’ll follow her on Instagram for tips.”

Your goal at this stage is to provide value and attract new eyes to your business every day. 

Whether it’s through guest speaking, social media, or collaborations, this is your chance to make a great first impression. (Your important work deserves this.)

2. Educate: Showcasing Your Expertise

Hooray – your audience now knows about you!

Next, they need to understand more about their problem and how you can help.

You can:

• Provide educational content: Blogs, social media posts, and videos that deepen their understanding of their challenge
• Share stories: People remember stories better than facts, so use storytelling to demonstrate your credibility and skills
• Show evidence: Share case studies, testimonials, and client results to prove your methods work

By educating your audience, you position yourself as the expert they can absolutely trust.

3. Engage: Building Trust

At this stage, your audience is starting to like you and trust your expertise. 

But trust isn’t built overnight!

So we need to make sure you keep earning it – through consistent, meaningful interactions.

The Role of Lead Magnets

To keep the conversation going, offer something valuable in exchange for their email address. This could be a free guide, checklist, or quick-win strategy tailored to your niche.

For example, my lead magnet in The Children’s Nutritionist could be a step-by-step guide for peaceful mealtimes with fussy eaters. 

When parents see results from your small wins, they’re more likely to trust you with bigger solutions.

4. Nurture: Deepening the Connection

So many businesses lose potential clients at this stage! Let’s not be one of those.

Research shows that it takes up to 28 touchpoints for someone to feel ready to buy from you.

Your job is to stay visible and provide value consistently through:

•  Social media posts, long reels or videos, and lives
• Blogs
• Podcasts
• Email newsletters
• Masterclasses, free challenges or webinars

 Remember, people buy from people. 

Let your audience see your face, hear your voice, and get to know you as a real person – not just the brilliant professional you are.

5. Invite: Making the Offer

Once you’ve built enough trust, it’s time to make an invitation. 

Present your audience with an offer that ties in with their needs and desires.

Some people will say yes immediately, while others may take longer. 

Everyone’s buying journey is different, so don’t be discouraged if someone doesn’t say yes right away. 

My best advice? Keep nurturing the relationship and trust the process. It will happen for you.

6. Delight: Delivering an Amazing Experience

Your work doesn’t end when someone becomes a client. 

Because it’s even better if you can turn them into a loyal fan!

Here are 2 winning ways that you can do exactly that: 

•  Exceed expectations: Go above and beyond to deliver value
• Encourage action: Support your clients in implementing your advice so they see results

When clients feel cared for and achieve the outcomes they desire, they’re more likely to come back to you for more. 

7. Expansion: Turning One Sale into Many

Once a client has a great experience, they’ll be more open to buying more services or products from you. 

Here’s your glowing opportunity to cross-sell and/or upsell.

For example, if a client took your basic course, you might offer them an advanced program or a 1:1 coaching package. 

Loyal clients are less likely to shop around because they trust YOU and they know you deliver results.

8. Advocacy: Inspiring Word-of-Mouth Referrals

When a client has a fantastic experience, they’ll naturally want to rave about you! 

This final step is all about turning clients into cheerleaders who:

•  Recommend you to friends and family
• Share their positive experiences on social media
• Align their values with your brand 

 Advocacy taps into powerful human behaviours like the desire to help others and the joy of sharing valuable resources. 

It’s also free marketing for your business – so please don’t miss this step!

Action Step: Map Out Your Customer Journey

Are you ready to take some action?

Fantastic!

Grab yourself 30 minutes to sit down with a pen and paper and map out your customer journey. 

Ask yourself:

• Do I have something in place for each of these 8 milestones?
• Are there gaps in the journey where I’m losing potential clients?

By identifying and filling these gaps, you’ll create a smoother experience for your audience – and bring in more of those profits that you deserve.

What’s Next?

In the next blog, we’ll dive into the various digital income streams you can add to your health business – and why they’re essential for your sustainable growth.

And huge congrats to you – because you now have a deeper understanding of the customer journey, and you’re well on your way to building stronger relationships and attracting more clients. 

Let’s keep the momentum going!

Grab The Master Plan!

Ready to build the business you’ve always dreamed of?

This step-by-step workbook will walk you through exactly what you need to focus on and when. You'll get my expert knowledge as a health business strategist.

This guide really is your master plan to business success! Grab your free copy, right here…https://www.sarahalmondbushell.com/master-plan

Connect with me here:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dietitiansinbusiness/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dietitiansinbusiness

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BeyondTheClinicPodcast

Episode transcription:

[00:00:00] Sarah Almond Bushell: Welcome along. Have you ever wondered what's going on in their mind when a customer decides to buy from you or doesn't for that matter? When I first learned all about the psychological steps that someone goes through when making a buying decision, it was like a light bulb moment for me because I could begin to see how I could actually Influence their decision at various points on that journey.

[00:00:26] Sarah Almond Bushell: And of course, no one teaches us business skills in our university training as healthcare professionals. It's assumed that we're all going to rush off and work in the NHS or work for someone else. So for those of us who decide that we want to be our own boss, it can feel like there's actually a huge chunk of knowledge missing.

[00:00:45] Sarah Almond Bushell: In today's episode of Beyond the Clinic, I'm going to share with you the psychological steps of the customer journey, which I really hope will shed some light on this for you as much as it did for me when I first learned about it. Let's dive in.

[00:01:00] Sarah Almond Bushell: The journey that someone goes through from right at the very beginning, when they've never even heard of you. Right through till after they've been a client and are then recommending you to all of their friends, is actually full of mini psychological steps that when you truly understand them, you can then start to optimise them because this is what will ensure that your business attracts more clients and customers and makes more money and.

[00:01:28] Sarah Almond Bushell: Essentially becomes more successful. So these psychological steps, these are in every single sales funnel in every single business. And it's important for you to understand them because believe it or not, people don't just stumble across your website or your social media pages and decide to buy. There's a journey and it's made up of eight key milestones.

[00:01:52] Sarah Almond Bushell: And it goes a bit like this. It starts with attract, then educate, then engage. And then nurture, then invite, then delight. Then Expansion and finally Advocacy. So I'm going to break this down and go through each of these eight key milestones one by one. So let's start with Attract. This is how your business gets in front of new people who've never heard of you before.

[00:02:21] Sarah Almond Bushell: So it's all about visibility and what you do or what you say to attract potential customers. At this very early stage, your potential customer might not even know that they've got a problem. They. They may not be aware that they even need your help. So for example, this might be you delivering a guest training for a colleague.

[00:02:43] Sarah Almond Bushell: As part of your talk, you might be educating them. So in my nutrition business, in The Children's Nutritionist, I might do an Instagram live, for example, with a baby sleep coach where we're talking about fussy eating. And then the parents who are listening along, they're being introduced to me for the very first time.

[00:03:03] Sarah Almond Bushell: They may have a toddler at home who's a bit fussy with their food, and they certainly find this frustrating, but they don't actually understand the extent of the issue until I've talked to them about sensory, and skill development, and nutrition, and growth, and given them some quick wins that they can Go and implement straight away and see the impact.

[00:03:30] Sarah Almond Bushell: So after listening, this new audience might think, Oh my goodness, that was actually quite useful. I'm going to follow her Instagram account for more tips and advice. So by doing this guest session, I have gotten myself in front of a brand new audience who have attracted to start following me.

[00:03:50] Sarah Almond Bushell: Now. I'm not saying that you have to go and do Instagram lives, but you do have to think about how you're going to get new eyes on your business actually every single day.

[00:04:01] Sarah Almond Bushell: So the second step in that customer journey is educate. So now that these new people are aware of your business and that they potentially have a problem that you actually might be able to help them with, they need to know more. This is where it's your job to provide excellent content so that they become further educated on their problem, but also your content needs to show them about you as a person, your credibility, your skills, your expertise, and also about you as a human.

[00:04:34] Sarah Almond Bushell: And actually the best way to do this is through storytelling because people remember stories. And of course, your education needs to provide evidence. This new audience member, they need to know that what you do actually works, so they need to see evidence in the form of case studies, testimonials, results, so that they become fully educated, knowing exactly how that you can help them.

[00:05:00] Sarah Almond Bushell: Step three is engage. Now these new people know you, and they're beginning to like you through the stories that you're telling, and the educational content that you're sharing, they begin to build trust. Now, if you have done your job well at this point, and they like you enough, they'll want to keep in touch with you and learn more.

[00:05:20] Sarah Almond Bushell: And so they will give you their contact information, like an email address. And the purpose of this is so that you can engage in further conversation with them and they can deepen that relationship with you. Now, some people will love your stuff so much that they will happily leave their email address in exchange for your regular value packed newsletter, but other people won't.

[00:05:45] Sarah Almond Bushell: An email address has actually become a bit of a precious commodity, and so People don't part with them easily. If you think about it, there's so much spam in our inboxes these days, people are actually worried that they're going to end up with more, and so they tend not to give out their email address unless they can be absolutely assured that they're getting something really high value in return.

[00:06:07] Sarah Almond Bushell: So this is where incentives, such as a lead magnet or sometimes called freebie. Comes in really handily, but let me just say one thing. Your freebie, if you choose to have one, it needs to be awesome. It needs to deliver a quick win and it needs to encourage the recipient to do something different, to change their usual behaviour so that if they implement this new way of doing things straight away, they're going to get a really positive result.

[00:06:38] Sarah Almond Bushell: Again, to give you an example from my business, The Children's Nutritionist, my freebie could be the exact process to follow at dinnertime, and when the family's due, there's no drama from their fussy eater, who actually sits down and eats. Step four in this customer journey is nurture. Now this is so important, and I think it's something that many business owners actually just don't realize, but since COVID and the explosion of information in the online space, it takes actually up to 28 touchpoints before a browser can actually do it.

[00:07:15] Sarah Almond Bushell: decides whether they want to work with you or not. And so it's your job to provide these touch points and we do this through our content. So you need to be continuing to educate. You need to inspire, to entertain, to motivate, and form that deepening connection with your audience so that the relationship is nurtured and they begin to trust you enough to want to work with you.

[00:07:40] Sarah Almond Bushell: So Be it your social media posts, or reels, or lives, or your website blogs, or a podcast, or a weekly video show on YouTube, or your Facebook community group, or it could be webinars that you run, or masterclasses, or challenges, and of course, your consistent email newsletters. It's all there. All of this that helps grow the familiarity and the trust and build that relationship with your potential clients.

[00:08:08] Sarah Almond Bushell: I think it's worth saying here that people buy from people and so hiding behind your words on a blog or in a social media post often isn't enough. Many people just need to see your face and they just need to hear your voice so that they feel like they actually know you.

[00:08:26] Sarah Almond Bushell: Okay, step five. This is invite. So this is when you present them with an offer. You make an invitation to buy from you or to work with you. So some people will have developed that trust really quickly, and they're going to say yes to your offer, but others won't have done so, so quickly. They'll take a bit longer and they'll need more of that nurture content before the time is right.

[00:08:52] Sarah Almond Bushell: For them to make a buying decision. And actually, you know what, that is okay. Different people have different buying behaviours and different motivators. So just keep on building those relationships. Point six. This step is delight. This is all about making sure that those people who said yes and became your client.

[00:09:14] Sarah Almond Bushell: Get an amazing experience. Now, I am sure that if you are listening and you love being a healthcare professional, you will do this. However, I want you to think about how you can add value, how you can go above and beyond so that your clients, no matter how much money they've spent with you, they feel like they're getting their VIP treatment. Of course, you also need to make sure that you deliver the results that they want to achieve from working with you. And part of this may be encouraging them to take action on what you've taught them or advised. This is so important because we want them to be successful, and we also want you to exceed their expectations because If they are successful and they do feel this way, they're likely to become repeat customers, which leads us beautifully into step seven, which is expansion.

[00:10:12] Sarah Almond Bushell: So this is where your client becomes a repeat client. You might make them a second offer to cross sell them into something different or upsell them into something complementary. And The reason why they say yes is out of loyalty. So when your client has formed a psychological bond with you, they're much more receptive to recommendations for additional products or services, and they're less likely to look elsewhere for their next level of support.

[00:10:42] Sarah Almond Bushell: Because, Starting with someone new holds a bit of a risk. It might not work. But something I find absolutely fascinating is that when your client discovers and purchases a second or a third product or a service that complements the initial thing that they bought, it activates the brain's reward system and this little dopamine hit that they get is addictive, which actually encourages the brain to work.

[00:11:07] Sarah Almond Bushell: Even more repeat purchasing. And then step eight, the final step in this customer journey is advocacy. So this is where your customer or client tells their friends all about how amazing it is to work with you. And when they do. They actually do all the marketing for you, because the word of a friend is worth far more and has a higher perceived value than the word of a stranger.

[00:11:34] Sarah Almond Bushell: So advocating for a product or service or business that you like, taps into several deep rooted human psychological behaviours and emotions. When someone becomes an advocate for you, it's not just about them liking their experience. They've actually aligned your brand with their self identity. Sharing, this is part of who I am now, their values and the desire to connect with others by passing over something of value to their group of friends.

[00:12:05] Sarah Almond Bushell: There's also another mini dopamine hit or sense of reward that comes with helping people by making recommendations. And actually. This makes your client feel really good. So I hope you enjoyed this mini sales psychology lesson and it's given you lots of food for thought where you might be able to enhance your customer's journey.

[00:12:27] Sarah Almond Bushell: So just to recap, we've covered the eight key milestones, which are attract, educate, engage, nurture, invite, delight, expansion, and advocacy. So what I would love for you to take away from this episode is just grab a pen and paper and half an hour of quiet time and just map out your customer journey. Do you have something for each of those key milestones or actually are there some gaps?

[00:12:55] Sarah Almond Bushell: Now, if there are some gaps, make it a priority to fill those gaps. And as a result, I promise you, you will notice that you will get more clients and of course more money in your business. So join me next time where we are diving into the various different digital income streams that you can add to your health business and more importantly, why it is absolutely essential that you do have them.

[00:13:20] Sarah Almond Bushell: Before we wrap up today's episode, I've got something extra special for you. If you're a healthcare professional, like me, and you love helping clients, but perhaps something is niggling away at the back of your mind, making you wonder whether you're actually working on the right parts of your business at the right time and in the right order.

[00:13:42] Sarah Almond Bushell: When you set yourself up in business, you probably quickly realise that we never got trained in marketing. And so you're likely struggling to be 100 percent sure about what to work on a day to day basis to make sure that your business grows. And if this continues, you might find that you spend too much time on social media or blogging and actually it doesn't have the impact that you really hoped it would have, and you might end up wasting a lot of time hunting and pecking around the internet looking for guidance.

[00:14:13] Sarah Almond Bushell: And in the long run, it means your business doesn't grow. But it really doesn't have to be this way. So to help you overcome the indecision and get certainty and take decisive action, you can download my free resource called the Master Plan. This step by step Sequential workbook is designed to walk you through exactly what you need to focus on and when so that you can build a business that you've always dreamed of.

[00:14:43] Sarah Almond Bushell: You'll get my expert knowledge as a health business strategist from the foundational steps so you can check you haven't missed any to the advanced strategies for when you're optimizing and scaling. This guide really is your master plan to business success. So if you're ready to take your expertise to the next level and build your dream business, head over to https://www.sarahalmondbushell.com/master-plan, and you can download your free copy. Thanks for tuning in. Bye for now.