All posts in Sales

From the moment we are born we start using our natural instintcs to influence other people in order for us to survive. As we grow older we still need to influence others to get to help us or to sell.

Long term success in sales needs your own values to be aligned with the products or services you sell, the clients and industry you are dealing with.

The are 3 very important concepts we need to be aware of:

1. People prefer to do business with people they know, like and trust- sales are mainly relationship driven. We can use several  tools to build instant rapport with our clients, including our visual appearance and body language

2. Ensure you are always giving value to the client. If you believe in your product or service and that it will actually benefit the client then you will make more sales.

3. All behaviour has an explanation- everything we do is driven by our thinking, values and belief systems. There is always a reason why a person is not buying. As salespeople we have to identify and resolve that barrier.

The market is impressionable and doing business is all about people. There is a time facfor when building a solid relaitonship, and following up is the most important factor when it comes to sales. Statictics show that 48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect client, 25% make only a second contact, 12% make three contatcs and only 10% make more than 3 contacs.

Now statistics also show that 2% of sales are made on the first contact, 3% are made on second contact, 5% of sales are made on the third contact, 10% on the fourth contact and 80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact.

The conclusion here is that for us to secure the sale the most important factor is the relationship we build with our propspect clients might take few contacts.  You can use your image and body language to connect with your prospect clients in the first 30 seconds, get their entire attention and be able to share with them the benefits of your product or service, then it’s entirely up to you to follow up to create that relationship full of trust that will proceed with a perfect sale.

You’ve invested hundreds, if not thousands into getting online and creating a webstore. It’s launched, and now you’re sitting back waiting for the promised results to start rolling in…

Why isn’t it working?

Most websites I see these days are pretty, but not functional for sales. Selling online presents a unique set of challenges for the vendor – firstly, there`s tangibility – people can`t touch and feel your product. Then there`s trust and rapport – something you can`t establish directly simply through a page. Then there`s the challenge of how easy it is to simply click away from your site to price browse.

Having your online store set up as a pretty marketing piece is not going to provide you with a meaningful income from the store itself. Sure there are other methods you can put in place to generate sales from it, but as a standalone tool, it’s unlikely your store will perform.

Most online stores I see these days are wasting money.

Without a back-end sales process (i.e. telesales) Your website is like a leaky bucket. The leads come in, and fall out the bottom.

The good news is, there are lots of little things you  can do to fix your sales funnel on your site (Note I said sales funnel). Every experience your customer has with your website should be a gentle yet compelling nudge towards the Pay Now Button.

1 - Not Investing in things like optimum site design product photographs, shopping cart setup, and simple things like how your customers communicate with you make a BIG difference to your bottom line. These days, you truly get what you pay for, and it’s worth investing in a professional to do it for you once properly, rather than waiting to discover the cheap option really didn’t perform.

2 - The biggest mistake most business owners make, is selecting a web developer who has no background in sales. You see, by no fault of their own, web developers are wonderfully, talented, creative types. They are not sales people. They’re generally not even marketing people. If you want to know more about what your web developer NEEDS to know, check this out.

And yet, they are the people we trust to set up our online sales funnel. It’s kind of like letting your gardener do your plumbing. He might have a general idea of what’s meant to go where, but it’s a job you really ought to entrust to an expert!! (I’m going to tastefully leave out the excrement jokes)

3 - Wasted Space… Possibly the biggest reason that website don’t convert, is the ‘above’ the fold space on the homepage is used for pretty design. Pretty design looks good, but doesn’t sell anything for you.  If you have selling space, it should be used to tip your customers into your sales funnel.

Here are a few tips you can action straight away:

Compelling Copy this is where you should invest in your business. You truly get what you pay for with copy writers. If you can’t afford to invest in a copy writer, invest your time into learning how to do it and do it well.

Good Product Images – from all angles of your product. Again, invest in your business, have some great images taken. A good photographer will pay you a million times over for over-coming the tactile issue.

It may seem like a small thing, but you truly should have a picture of yourself on your site. It shows your customers that there IS a real person behind the website, which establishes trust, and helps to establish rapport.

Online sales aren`t rocket science,  but you`ve got to give your customer a compelling reason to buy from you! Trust, tangibility, and a gentle push to your shopping cart will get you a long way.

Photo by:  Andres Rueda