This is the second entry in the series on the complete customer journey, and we begin at the very start of the journey: discovery. It’s the moment when someone who didn’t know you stumbles across you for the first time. It sounds obvious, but it’s the stage that gets neglected the most, because many owners believe that “the customer who’s looking for me already knows I exist” — and the truth is that most of your future customers today don’t know you exist.
Discovery is not the same as cold-calling prospecting
When I talk about discovery, I don’t just mean going out to knock on doors. I mean all the ways a potential customer learns about you:
- They search for you online because they have a problem you solve.
- They’re referred to you (a happy customer, a partner, a supplier).
- They see your content or your presence (social media, an article, your website).
- You reach out to them with active prospecting.
The key difference: in cold-calling you chase; in good discovery, you also build so that people find you. Both add up, but the second one scales; the first depends on how much you chase.
The underlying mistake: being invisible to those who already need you
There are customers who right now have exactly the problem you solve and don’t buy from you for one simple reason: they don’t know you exist.
It’s not a price problem or a product problem: it’s a visibility problem.
And visibility isn’t luck: it’s showing up where your customer searches (that’s why it matters that they find you when they google your category), being easy to refer, and making sure that when someone asks about you, there’s something to see.
What happens (or should happen) when they discover you
Getting discovered is only half of it. The other half —where many SMBs drop the ball— is what happens in the moment that stranger raises their hand: they visit your website, fill out a form, send you a message.
Discovery and capture have to be connected: every person who finds you and shows interest should be recorded and assigned to someone, not dependent on someone remembering to reply.
How it connects with Mexus CRM
Here the CRM’s role is subtle but crucial: making sure no one who discovered you gets lost. In Mexus CRM you can connect the forms on your site so that every interested person enters automatically as a prospect and gets assigned to a salesperson for follow-up — I covered it in detail in the prospect who arrives through your website. You build the discovery; the CRM makes sure that effort doesn’t fall through at the door.
In the next entry we continue the journey: what to do so that the person who discovered you goes from curious to a real prospect.
Most of your future customers today don’t know you exist. Making yourself visible to those who already need you is the first sale — and it can’t fall through at the door.
Frequently asked questions
What is the discovery stage in the customer journey?
It’s the first contact: the moment when someone who didn’t know you learns that you exist, whether because they search for you, they’re referred to you, they see your content, or you reach out to them. It’s the gateway to the entire customer journey.
How do I get discovered by new customers as an SMB?
By combining two paths: showing up where your customer already searches (your website and your category online) and activating word of mouth from your current customers, on top of active prospecting. The important thing is not to rely solely on chasing: build so that people also find you.
What good is being discovered if I then don’t follow up?
None, and it’s an expensive mistake. If an interested person finds you and no one attends to them in time, they cool off. That’s why it helps for every contact to be recorded with someone responsible; a CRM like Mexus CRM helps make sure no one who discovered you gets lost along the way.
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