If you’re still trying to “sell” from the stage, you’re doing it wrong.
Today’s buyers are smarter. They don’t want to be pitched—they want to be guided through the buying decision.
And if you want to close more sales at your event, in your webinar, or on your checkout page, you need to stop pushing your product or service and start leading people through the purchase decision process—one clear, intentional step at a time.
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The Buyer’s Journey Is a Process—Not a Pitch
The buyer’s journey is the process a potential customer goes through from initial awareness to making a purchase decision and beyond.
The 5 stages of the consumer buying process include:
Problem recognition – The customer realizes they have a need or a problem.
Information search – They start researching and learning what solutions exist.
Evaluation of alternatives – They evaluate which product or service best fits their specific needs.
Purchase decision – They decide to purchase.
Post-purchase – They evaluate if the solution is the best fit and whether the customer is satisfied.
Trying to sell at the wrong moment—before they hit the purchase stage—is like asking for marriage on the first date.
Guide Consumers Through the Stages (Don’t Skip Them)
The goal isn’t to pitch harder. It’s to guide consumers through every stage of the buying process by helping them connect their pain points to your solution.
Tailored to each stage, your message should:
Help a potential buyer recognize their problem
Deliver information that the customer needs to make sense of options
Clarify how your product or service meets their specific needs and behaviors
Show why your solution is the best among other potential solutions
Provide reassurance through post-purchase engagement, customer retention tactics, and customer satisfaction
From Pitching to Positioning: Types of Content That Guide
Your goal isn’t just to sell a product—it’s to help your audience confidently make a purchase.
Here’s how to map the decision-making process to the types of content you use on and off stage:
Awareness stage: Use stories that relate to buyer personas and build brand awareness
Consideration stage: Share real customer experience, address objections, and walk through your sales process
Decision stage: Offer personal calls, clear checkout process, strong call to action, and personal selling offers
Post-purchase stage: Focus on customer loyalty, customer expectations, and asking for customer feedback
The content you deliver on stage, in your email sequences, or on your checkout page should feel like the next logical step in the consumer decision process.
Align Sales and Marketing to Drive More Conversions
The most effective sales and marketing teams aren’t “selling”—they’re guiding buyers.
They use marketing strategies and tools to gather customer insights, identify the stage of the consumer, and then tailor content that reflects the needs and behaviors of customers at each phase.
This strategy leads to:
More informed purchase decisions
Stronger customer experience
Better event ROI and higher conversion rates
And it works just as well at a live event as it does in a virtual funnel.
The Power of Post-Purchase
Here’s the part most marketers forget: the post-purchase phase isn’t the end—it’s a multiplier.
Whether you’re launching a new product, building long-term customer loyalty, or upselling into higher-ticket offers, the post-purchase phase is where your customer may decide to buy again, refer others, or never return.
That’s why post-purchase engagement—through follow-ups, thank-you sequences, and access to new products—enhances customer retention and deepens brand awareness.
Shift the Focus: Every Customer Is at a Different Stage
Stop treating your audience as if they’re all in the same place.
The stage of the purchase they’re in determines how they’ll respond. Some are just becoming already aware of their problem. Others are on the verge of making a decision. A few are ready to click checkout right now.
Your job? Identify where they are—and guide them accordingly.
When you speak to every customer, you increase the chances that the right person becomes a customer… and stays one.
Wrap-Up: Don’t Just Sell—Guide a Decision
So if you’re up on stage pitching hard…
If your funnel’s all call-to-action with no customer journey…
If you’ve forgotten the importance of the decision process…
It’s time to shift.
Guide the buying decision.
Understand the stage of the buying journey.
Meet your potential buyers where they are.
And build content that moves them forward.
Because when you do that?
You don’t just get sales. You build trust, loyalty, and long-term impact—leading to higher conversion rates and stronger overall business results.
