Where in the buyer's pyramid do we want most prospects to be when meeting them for the first time?

Here's how Chet Holmes describes the pyramid.

If you pick up a newspaper on a Friday you will see ads for automobile tire suppliers. They are directed at that 3% (but they do nothing to move those other potential buyers closer to choosing them when the time is right…which could be very soon). You never know when someone’s Maximum Motivation Date to buy may occur.

The goal here is to move any outliers into a place of choosing your solution sooner and to be sure that whenever the time comes, they think of your company first. To do this your message has to be powerful and it has to be education-based to resonate.

The lesson here is to teach your “prospects” what they need to know to make a smart buying decision and position your solution as the “obvious choice”.

One of the key ways to do this is to offer “insights” and “education” to help people make a better buying decision when the time comes (and to move them through the sales funnel rapidly).

I wish Chet could have been a presenter at IT Nation.

"Chet, the leads weren't qualified. Such a waste."  complained the MSP.

"These appointments were bad." yelled another.

Chet, looking out from the stage, locks eyes with an angry man in the audience.

"Not all prospects are bad, it's just that they aren't all "buying now."

Frankly, if the prospects were "buying now," you'd be in trouble. Your MSP would be at a major disadvantage because you'd have 15-30 days to overcome not only 2 referral contenders, plus the top-rated MSPs on Google and Clutch. Are you at the top of Google in your city?

So it's a mindset switch -- that's what Chet teaches us.  

We have to acknowledge that great prospects come in various stages of the purchasing journey and it's no one's fault where a prospect currently lands.

If a prospect is in "Not thinking about it" or "Open to it" stage, let's celebrate that! We're going to have a higher probability of winning this because we'll have more time to educate and influence them until the timing is right.