Build A Customer Journey That Turns Prospects Into Fans With Desola Davis

Diane: hey everyone. I am so excited today because I get to introduce you to my biz bestie Desola Davis, who is a pro at creating raving fans with a customer journey. I Vox her multiple times a day to ask questions and work through ideas for my business. So I know that you are going to get some real talk and take away some great strategies that are gonna make your business lives easier. Hey, Desola, welcome to the show. Desola: Hi Diane. It's so good to be here. Diane: It's so fun to have you on. before we dive in and get chatting, like we do, I'd love you to start off by telling the listeners a little about your lifestyle business and what you do. Desola: Sure. hi everybody. I am Desola Davis. I am a digital customer journey expert, and I help online creators and coaches scale their signature products by contacting and connecting with that core group of people that can really maximize your income. I call them your raving fans. Everybody has them, and it's just your job to make sure that you're serving them so that they can continue to serve you and grow your business. Diane: And so has this always been your business model or has this evolved over time. Desola: Oh gracious. No, it has not always been, my business model. to be honest, when I first started out as an entrepreneur or I thought that I was going to be a productivity and time management coach The reason that started was because like my zone of genius is in, project design and program design, making sure that everybody's kind of on top of things. as time went on, I realized that I wasn't an incorporating my experiences with business building, into that model. also just in half adding a couple of clients, I realized that's not really what I wanted to do. so over time I started having more comments, patience with people, and I realized just the way the digital products industry was built. No one was really focusing on the true customer service aspect. I think we were more so focusing on how can we build a business that created passive income for us. So it was very much about the CEO, maybe not so much about. What it looks like as a new customer to experience your product. And so over several conversations with people, and even certifications that I was able to get. I realized that this was a gap in our business, space that I could really fill with my experiences as well. So transitioned over to digital customer journey and went really deep, had more conversations with people and had the opportunity to serve them well. And so I'm just loving this sweet spot that I've found, in helping people create a clear and profitable digital customer journey. Diane: I just want to be really clear that we are not talking about: I can't find my login, this thing doesn't work, I want a refund. That's not the piece that we're talking about, right? Desola: Exactly right. That's not what we're talking about. We're actually talking about and I call it the journey from stranger to fan. We're talking about when a person first interacts with you with a problem, are you able to identify and understand what that pain point is and when they decide that they want to spend a little bit more time working with you, or just getting to know ,you you're moving from just like someone that they, casually follow into a vendor or an option that they're truly considering. And at that point, you need to understand what their objections are so that you can overcome them and be that true solution that they're looking for, but the sale and the relationship doesn't end with just exchanging money. And so what happens is, we celebrate the victory of like, yay, I got a sale. Somebody trusted me with their business. But there's still more work to do, right? So once you accept the money, you still have to deliver on the transformation that you promised. It doesn't matter how passive your product is. It's still your responsibility to make sure that the person who has trusted you with their resources gets the transformation that they paid you for it. One of the things I also talk about is you know, a lot of people, they invest in courses or they invest in programs and those programs end up in the regret pile, essentially not because the person who created the program did a bad job, but because there was a disconnect between when they got the sale and what happened afterwards. And so the person who purchased the product doesn't understand how to use it. And what happens when you don't understand how to use a product, it ends up in your pantry. It ends up at Goodwill. That's exactly what happens with digital courses. So that's what I helped my clients do is to make sure that all the way from the first time they meet you. All the way to when they purchase your product. And even after they have a clear understanding of what success is and they're able to achieve it. Diane: that's so important for people to think about because we all have our own little course boneyard that hides in a folder on our computer, or, you're doing your taxes and you have to find the invoice for something. And I don't even remember that. I bought that. we forget when we're on the other side of it that we're trying to avoid that happening for our people. Desola: Exactly. We do so much work, I think, to make sure that this is like a, an amazing experience for our customers. we bonus on bonus on bonus bonus on bonus, especially like it's great, right? When you get to the webinar and you're like, and if you sign up today, you can get this and this. And what about this? How about this? and people are so excited and then they pay and. You ghost them and what happens after they pay? They realize that what happens it's been for Cassie may not happen for me. Now, I'm talking about the people that you highlight in your webinar. What happened for Sarah May not happen for me. So who's there to tell them that the people that I highlighted in my webinar are not unique. Who's there to tell them that I believe in you, not because of some, just weird, like rah, rah, cheerleader thing, I believe in you because I seen results with people just like you. And I believe that you can achieve those results too. I feel like we know what it's like when we're the customer, when we're on the receiving end, but we don't take the time to make sure that we're not creating that type of space as well. And the other thing I tell people is. Just like you, invest in strategies to do things like, sell on Instagram or sell with whatever strategy you choose, you need to invest in strategies to keep your customers. If you don't plan for it, if you don't brainstorm around it, it's just not going to happen. You're going to take a lot of things for granted that you could easily solve with an additional five minutes of your time, literally per client. Diane: I think a lot of times we forget how much time goes into getting a new customer, how much costs. studies go from everything from five times to 25 times. More expensive to get a new customer than to keep one that you've already taken money from. So how do we do this? Desola: so as I mentioned, it's literally a journey and a pathway. everybody starts off as a stranger to you and. All you are as a vendor to them. So if you think about like, when you go back in the day, when we all used to go outside, when you go to a fair or like a marketplace, you walk in, you start looking around for products, you see something that catches your eye. You may go over to that vendor, pick up a little like tchotchkies or something that they have look at it, put it down, put something else up. That's where everybody meets you. So they're your audience and you're just a vendor to them. That's not the time to say hi, buy my product. Because they don't know you. And at that point also your job is to at least let them see that your possible option for them to solve their problem, which means your goal is to let them know, hi, I understand your problem. And I can be an option to solve it. And if I'm not that option, here's some other resources that could potentially help you. So that way they understand that you're not just there to sell to them because. Let's be honest. nobody really like wakes up and says, man, I hope somebody sells me something today. it just doesn't happen. So at that point you're thinking, okay, I can be an option, but if that doesn't work for you, here are some other resources because what happens when you do that, it also makes you an authority in that space. So they may not buy from you now. But they'll think about you later because you were able to get them to their level of success, which is what all they care about. Right. What's in it for me. how are you able to help me achieve success when you're just a vendor. Moving on in the journey, if you're thinking about a pathway, now you're moving into like the option phase where, okay. Now they're thinking about really working with you. they're a prospect for you, so they're not just in your audience. Like they've taken time to watch your webinar. They're on your email list. They're clicking things that you send out to them. So you can tell, they're taking you a little bit more seriously at that point. Your job is to say, I understand your objections. And so what objections do they have to taking the step to becoming a customer that's different from identifying their pain points? Sure you can bring their pain points into it, but now they realize that you could solve their pain points. There's still something holding them back from choosing you amongst their other options. So that's the type of language you need to be speaking to your prospects. See how that's different from the language you need to be speaking to your audience. So once you've. successfully overcome their objections. Now they're your customer. And now you're that solution that they were looking for, but that's not the end of the journey. The end of the journey is when they're able to. Identify or they're able to achieve the success that brought them to your door to begin with. So yes, you're a solution and yes, they're a customer and yay for the sale, but you should still be looking for ways to get them to that transformation that you promise them. So what are you doing inside of your course to make sure that they have the support? How can you get them to a quick win so that they realize that. The product not only worked for all of those, people in your webinar, but it's actually working for them. So thinking about it, when you have a personal trainer, if you hire a personal trainer, you're like, Hey, I'm looking to lose weight and things like that. And they're like, Oh, okay, cool. Well, here's a list of workouts that you can do. send me an email. If you have any questions, you're not going to hire them again. Like that makes no sense. So that's the same way. It's this business. This is what I tell people all the time. Business DNA is the same. Whether it's online business, traditional business, it's all the same, meaning that when they pay you for something, you still have to ensure that they're able to successfully complete the transformation. So how can you get them to the quick win fast? How can you get them to lose that first couple of pounds so that they can step on the scale and you can be like, Hey, it's working for you. Because once you get them, they're there just complete the rest of it. They don't have enough traction to even get to that first one. Your course, your program is going to end up in that junkyard that we were talking about. and if you do this really well, you're going to start seeing a core group of people that literally comment on every one of your posts. Reshare everything to their own stories, bring people along, every launch you get, and are constantly looking for ways to work with you. Even after the course or the program is over. Those are the people you're really looking to develop deeper relationships chips with, because those are the people that are going to expand your income. There are going to be the people that are talking about you, even when you're not launching anything and bringing more new audience members to your door. Without Facebook ads without any additional investment. it's like organic growth on steroids. So those are the fans that you develop from the customers that you successfully serve. And those are the success stories that you share in your future webinars, as examples of different transformations that have happened as a result of your product. So in some, cause I can talk about this all day or starting from strangers to prospects, to customers, and then customers to fans. And as long as you're having the conversations at the right stage of that journey, you're going to continue to bring the right people down that journey so that they can then pour back into your business and spend more time and more money with you. Diane: that sounds like a lot of work. And, people who have developed digital products have usually developed a digital product to fill a gap, to leverage their time. there's no such thing as passive. we all know that, but , this sounds super active. can you maybe give people like a couple of examples of things that they could do that would, go that extra mile that isn't them showing up in person one-to-one to hug every customer. Desola: Well, and it's so funny because there are things that you can do that seem passive, but are very intentional, when you ask people to DMU, having quick replies in inside of your Instagram, DMS, or Facebook messenger, so that you can fire off a message that, people are asking for a specific resource, you already have the link handy, you fire off that link as a resource. It takes two minutes of your time, but those people never forget it. when you're in your webinar. And someone asks you a question and it requires a resource that you already have handy firing off that resource again, or asking your VA or a team member, Hey, follow up with this person that was in that webinar, send them that resource so that they know. I didn't forget their question the things that I'm talking about taking. Less than five minutes to do. whenever you launch something, asking them to reply to an email, like writing in your email sequence, saying reply to me and let me know what your biggest struggle is on this. And if you see a pattern creating a resource and then resending it to that group that replied to you, like tagging just that group and sending that resource back to that group that replied to you to say, Hey, it looks like you're struggling with time management around this. Here's a resource I created for you. Let me know how you feel about that. Blah, blah, blah. That was one mass email that they're going to feel like, man, you actually read what I wrote back. What's that going to do to incentivize them to continue the conversation with you so that when you have a launch in the future, they're tuned in and they're looking for, even if they're not your ideal client for that product, they're looking for people who are, because now they trust you. and then the beauty of it is not even just know, like and trust. They love you. And if you love somebody you want their business to do well, regardless list of whether you're an affiliate, regardless of how that's it, you're invested emotionally in that business. And so you're able to help grow that business. And that business owner is also continuously able to serve you. another, example. So I talked about, the attraction phase, the, conversion phase inside of the delivery. You can do things like, create a, timeline for them or let them know okay, well, this is how you can complete this course with 30 minutes a week. write down what you're actually going to do, or you can incentivize them. I've seen where a course creator will say, if you're able to complete the first module within the first 14 days of registering, I'll send you a gift card or you can take a 15 minute one-to-one call with me. It's just something that says, Hey, I'm here for you, but I want you to show up, and this is what is waiting on the other side for you when you do so these things don't take a lot of time. It just takes a little bit of time to develop that resource and then share that resource when it's needed. Diane: And as you become aware of the stuff, you can watch what other people are doing and you will see these things. I watched a master class, which had a workbook that went with it. And if you completed the workbook and you sent it to them, they bought you coffee as a reward. Desola: That's amazing. Diane: I'll do anything for a coffee, but now not only have I done the work to recognize that I need this person, but I have opened a conversation. Desola: Yes. Diane: And so then can have a different conversation with me than if I'm just sitting on their email list. Desola: Yes exactly. Right. It's like little things that you can do it. Doesn't take a lot more money and it doesn't take a lot more time, but it's just having the intentionality that, you know, what's going to be a stop gap for these people. how can I get them over the hump? Maybe it's not coffee. Maybe it's gift boxes that are like $5 a piece. Hey, if you get this done, I'll send you a surprise box in the middle who doesn't want surprises in the mail. Right. Like people are still human, even though they like things automated that little human touch, or just, if you have a little bit of time sending a DM to one of your customers just saying, Hey, I see that you're doing the work. Keep going. You have two minutes Instagram. Doesn't even let you talk for longer than a minute. Send an audio message and say, Hey, I see you're doing the work. Just wanting to let you know. I see you. It really opens up possibilities for your customer. definitely I agree. There are certain parts that we need to automate. There are certain parts that we can continue to make passive, but two extra minutes of your time. Literally I have seen this happen two extra minutes, has earned one high ticket program, but it earned her an additional. $30,000. And the person that I was talking to basically said, I was on an IgE live with her. I sent her a wave. She sent me a wave back, and that was my sign that I needed to join her program because she's that personal. Now I know two other people that I can bring on to this program because this program is so good. So not only does she earn the first $10,000, she's earning an additional $20,000 because she took some time to send a wave back to somebody during the life. Diane: we get caught up in the Oh, I'm gonna have to give someone like five bucks for a coffee. but if you're selling high ticket, if you were told you had to pay five bucks for a Facebook lead, that would convert , you wouldn't even think about it. And that's super impersonal. a lot of this stuff can also be automated. It can be as simple as somebody finishes a module in your course and they click complete and there's an automatic firing through your systems and through your emails that sends them a like little congratulations card, it doesn't have to be like perfectly handwritten or anything like that. Just an acknowledgement that like, Hey, I see where you are. And I know that you have dedicated time to this, and I'm impressed that you are continuing on. Desola: exactly right. And he lets even automate or systematize the people for a second. If you take the time to build the culture inside of your community, where you don't even have to be the person to answer the questions anymore, because people know what the answer is because you've preached it enough, then you don't have to do very much other than, Hey guys, we have some new people into the community. Make sure you welcome them. Of course I'll still be in there, but because your fans are already activated, they don't even wait for you to respond when someone's here and saying, Hey, I'm stuck. There's already three people in there. Like DME I'll, I'll talk to you. Let's talk for 15 minutes. And so before you even get into the group, question's already been answered. And so you've already done the work on the front end, like what you're saying, Diane, like you've systematized certain things. You created the culture and now it's reaping dividends for you and you can still be kind of passive in that way. Diane: it's almost like you just have to stop looking at that client or customer as a number in your revenue and be like, this is a person. If I was doing the course, what would I want to have along the way? The tiniest thing could be the difference between somebody finishing your program and not finishing your program. And if they're not finishing your program, when somebody comes to them and says, Oh, Hey, you did so-and-so's program. How was it? That's a really awkward moment for you, the course creator, it's almost worse that they bought it and didn't finish it then that they just decided it wasn't for them at the beginning. Desola: And the difference is like a $5 Starbucks coffee. That's the difference between you converting a lead organically with no ads and someone saying, yeah, I have it somewhere. I started it, this is how it ends up. Right. It's never, Oh, I wasn't able to finish it because I didn't have the motivation. It's it wasn't really, for me. Why? I don't know. It just, I just couldn't do it. that's how it ends up. And so then the fault it becomes you and your course, which is probably amazing. Otherwise you wouldn't launch it. It becomes your problem. Instead of, they just didn't have the motivation. It's not because the transformation wasn't there it's because they didn't have the motivation. No one was there to push them or motivate them or believe in them when they couldn't believe in themselves. So then they look for another option, which is crazy to me. Now they spend all this money on your course. Then they look for another option, which may or may not even be as good as your course to begin with. And they still have your course in the back burner. Diane: in my group program, the thing that always hits me is there are certain modules where I know people are going to fight me. Because they know what they need to do, but they just don't really want to do it because it's hard. if you're not there as a person in that moment it's very easy for them to be like, well, she just didn't explain it enough. So I'm going to leave. Desola: Yeah, a hundred percent, a hundred percent. And you'll see people who do this well and you'll know for anyone who's listening in your experience to people that you feel like are doing this well. Somewhere in that journey. They'll say this one's good going to be hard. So these are the additional, the resources I've given you. I have office hours to talk about this. I'll be going live in the group to ask if you have any questions, send me an email. This is where like the additional, the support comes in, but it's very apparent from the course. I already know this is going to be a problem. So I've taken a little bit more time to give you a little bit more support, things like poster your success inside of the Facebook group so that we can look at it, all the things, because they want you to keep going. That's not the time to go silent. That's not the time to just wait for the course to do its magic on its own. It's time to really like dig in and say, Hey, I'm with you. Diane: So let's think about two different kind of case studies at the moment, the person who is thinking about building a digital product. do they start with, Hey, I've got content. And now how do I wrap that into a customer journey? And then the person who already has a digital product, how do they step back? And go where do I need to add things for the customer journey? Desola: let's talk about the first person. So this is something that, I'm playing around. I'll give two examples. one thing that I have learned from is one-to-one, so maybe as you have content offering some kind of one to one service so that you can fully understand what the pain points of your customer. Are before you create a whole course. The reason I say that is because sometimes in our minds, we know we have the solution, but there may be a problem with the delivery or understanding in their words, what their pain points are. So I would say they one to, one another thing that I, have had actually tested that has worked well for me is, smaller workshops. So saying, Hey, I'm really good at this thing. Do you want to learn something like that from me? Because then you can get an idea of whether that really matches the pain points of the people you're trying to attract before you create this grand chorus, have a launch where nobody comes to. So start with the customer journey. Start listening to what pain points are start offering, perhaps a couple just one-to-one or like at least marketing calls where you're able to say, Hey, these are concepts I'm playing around with. do they match what you're looking for in the industry? If not why and build your course from there, because by the time you're ready to launch, not only will you have a base of people who already have heard of it, or at least already have heard of you you'll know for a fact that it's exactly what your people want because you live in, ask them and then just gave it back to them. for the people who are ready have digital products now is a really great time to look over your testimonials and look to see what your promise is and see whether the testimonials match what you're promising. A lot of times they end up on your sales page and things like that, but no, one's really looking to see, what am I promising my people and what are my people saying? That is what I'm actually doing. Okay. Because your secret sauce, which is what I call it, the one thing that differentiates your product or your service from anyone else's in the industry lies in the testimonials, Diane: you and I come from a corporate background, we're very used to kind of 360 feedback, which is this awful time of year where you have to critique your bosses, people who work for you and your peers, and the same thing is happening to you. in the entrepreneur space people. Are much more accepting of no feedback is good feedback. a lot of people don't want to have a confrontation with you. They don't want to say to you, I hated this. I didn't understand this. This was so complicated. You made this so awkward. It was a pain to try and do all of these things. And that's actually the stuff you need. It's all very well, having all the lovely testimonials, telling you all the things you did do well, but you also need those ones, especially for our customer journey to know like, where are you losing people? Desola: Yeah. And then unfortunately, they'll go tell their friends that, which is not helpful for you at all. So even though it's bribery. Let's call it what it is, but who doesn't want somebody to buy them coffee? Right. There's an additional, like just humanity to that that makes people feel like, man, see me and you value my time. And so you're not just asking me for a survey as part of the, you know, big email list thing you value my time. And you know that what I have to say is valuable. So when I do it, and especially when people are like, Really hitting those highs and getting successes. That's really, when you want to be like, Hey, I see you're doing really well. Tell me what your experience has been so that I can make this a norm for everyone else, because they'll tell you like, this was really great. This wasn't really great. Take this out, cause that didn't help me at all. And so you can then tweak your product to make sure that it's optimized for the next person. Diane: and then going back to what you said at the beginning, remember that these are the fans that are sharing everything you post. Amy Porterfield's great at this. She'll like regularly just do a Starbucks day for her followers, every single person. Who buys a coffee on her, posted in their Instagram stories. So think of it as advertising and just put it in your marketing budgets Desola: when you think about your Facebook, Instagram ads, budget, compared to the budget that you would spend on $5 per customer. That would get you even more returns because then they'd be able to share Diane: I feel like we have covered a lot and I feel like there's probably a good chance that somebody is listening to this being like, okay, I'm trying to like work more effectively in my business so that I can have more of my time to myself and have a life and all of those things. So where do they start with this? Desola: I did bring a gift. if you will go to Desota davis.com backslash free, you'll get a digital download that will give you all of the things you need to begin your customer journey, where your products fit in and where your customers fit in on that journey. Grab it. It's free and you can get started that way. Diane: Awesome. I'll make sure that that is in the show notes for everyone. So I always like to finish up with two questions for all of my guests. And so the first one is what is the number one lifestyle boundary for your business? That thing you won't sacrifice. Desola: I am very, very protective of my. Time with my family and then my faith as well. Like literally I don't work on Sundays ever. That's like a big rule for me because that's my time to rest. That's my time to pray. I'm a person of faith. It's my time to pray. And that's my time to just spend time with my family, because you have to protect the time for rest. And I would say that even on a daily basis, but my one non-negotiable is Sundays. We're not open. We're close. Diane: Okay. Finally, what is the worst piece of cookie cutter advice you've ever got as a lifestyle entrepreneur yourself? Desola: I would say the audience building part. So you have to have a thousand, IgE followers before you can make your first dollar, or you have to build your email list to a hundred people before you can make your first dollar. And then also. Insert my course that teaches you how to, build to a thousand followers or create your email list . Literally a sale takes place between one person and another person. You just need one person to believe in you and your product to begin selling. So definitely don't use that as a limiting belief for that. Just get out there and sell your thing. Diane: that's usually the first thing you hear about digital products. you can't launch until you have a thousand people on your email list. You need volume in order to make money. Desola: It's crazy. No, you can't. We sell a course to one person at a time until you get enough of an audience to where you can launch it's cause it's a product, right? Like it's just like anything else. It's a product. Sell it to one person at a time, get your testimonials and then get out there. Don't let that be a limiting belief. Diane: thank you so much for sharing all of your knowledge bombs with us today. I always love having a great chinwag with you. Tell the people where the best places to connect with you. Cause I know people are gonna want to continue the story and get into your customer journeys so they can see how it's done. Desola: Yes. Find me on Instagram at the solar Davis. That's where I'm spending most of my time, send me a DM and let me know the Diane sent you and maybe I'll give you something special. Diane: Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Desola: Thank you so good to be here. Thanks so much for having me.