What buyers do while considering you, out of your sight

4 days ago
3 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

Introduction

Between hearing about you and contacting you, a buyer does a considerable amount of work, none of which you see. They look you up, read what other people said, compare you against two or three alternatives, form a view about what you cost, decide whether you handle their kind of job, and quite often eliminate you — all before any interaction that would appear in your records.

This is the least visible and most decisive part of the process. By the time an enquiry arrives, most of the deciding is done, and the enquiry is frequently a confirmation rather than an opening. Understanding what happens in that gap is the difference between competing for the shortlist and finding out afterwards that you were never on it.

1. What buyers do while considering you starts with looking you up

The first action, almost always.

Your name into a search engine, then whatever comes back: your site, your listing, your reviews, your social profiles, and anything else with your name on it. This composite is your consideration-stage presence.

2. They read what other people said before what you said

The ordering that surprises businesses.

Reviews, ratings and third-party mentions are checked early and weighted heavily, because they are not controlled by you. Your own material is read afterwards and against that backdrop.

3. They check whether you do their specific thing

The disqualification pass.

Their type of property, their sector, their size, their area. This check is fast and unforgiving, and ambiguity is resolved against you because assuming is riskier than moving on.

4. They estimate what you cost

Whether or not you publish it.

Every signal contributes: your photographs, your language, the work you show, the clients you name. Buyers form a bracket in seconds and eliminate on it, frequently incorrectly.

5. They compare you against two or three others

The realistic competitive set.

Not the whole market. A small shortlist assembled quickly, on which you either appear or do not. The comparison is usually shallow and based on whatever is easiest to find.

6. They look for reasons to eliminate

The nature of the process.

Reducing a list is easier than evaluating one, so buyers look for disqualifiers: no reviews, no examples of their kind of job, an out-of-date site, no clear area covered. Removing your own disqualifiers is the cheapest work available.

7. They ask somebody they trust

The step that overrides the rest.

A recommendation from a person they know can end the comparison entirely. This is why reputation and referral work outperform material you control, and why they are worth more than any website change.

8. They wait, sometimes for a long time

The pause that looks like disinterest.

Consideration can run for months with no visible activity while other priorities take over. Businesses read this as a lost buyer; frequently they are simply not ready yet.

9. They arrive already largely decided

The consequence for how you handle enquiries.

By the time somebody contacts you, they have usually chosen you provisionally and are confirming. Treating an enquiry as the start of persuasion rather than the near-end of it misreads the conversation.

Be careful about inferring too much from this being invisible. You can find out most of it by asking new customers what they looked at and what nearly stopped them, and ten such conversations produce a better picture than any amount of speculation.

Conclusion

Assume the deciding happens before you hear from them, and work on what they see.

Make sure a search for your name returns a coherent picture, recognise that third-party reviews are read before your own material, state plainly whether you handle their specific situation, be aware that every signal contributes to a price estimate, accept that you are compared against only two or three others, remove the disqualifiers that make elimination easy, understand that a trusted recommendation can end the comparison outright, and treat an arriving enquiry as a confirmation rather than an opening.