WDTalk

Know, like and trust are terms relative to - sales, not just face-to-face with a sales representative, but also the Internet. Billions of dollars are spent online every year, much of that with businesses we’ve never heard of – so if you’re missing the know, the like and trust need to be that much more compelling.

Social media sites – most noticeably Facebook, use the “like” button to convey trust, but most business websites rely on professional design, solutions content and competitive pricing to carry the day. And this is where online buyers can sometimes get into trouble.

The ‘lock’ icon and https: lend credibility - to the security of financial transactions, but even fraudulent (or less than honest) businesses can obtain SSL certificates. There are things to look for on sites that imply trust, like a brick and mortar address and phone number. It’s amazing how many ecommerce sites have NO contact information other than a general email address, or contact form. Plus, some use Domain Privacy to hide ownership information about the site itself.

Testimonials convey trust – but not so much if only first names are used, or if the hyperlink points to the site you’re presently visiting.

I once visited a site where the owner was inquiring - how to improve his ranking on Google. One of the first things I noticed on his site was that it had two testimonials from different individuals, but listing the same URL for each.

The first testimonial raved about a service they didn’t even offer on their site, which immediately seemed strange.

The second raved about their customer support. I was curious, so I did a WHOIS on the URL that was listed on the testimonials, and it turns out that domain has never been registered, and the site I was on has only been online for four months.

Would I trust my credit card with that business – not in a million years, and not because the site itself wasn’t professionally designed, or offered solutions that matched my specific requirements, or were even attractively priced. Their trust factor had been compromised.

Beware of red flags when – pondering whether to share your credit card info with businesses online. The Internet is littered with scammers like a minefield .. be careful where you step.

Have you ever heard the term - “Sell the Sizzle, not the Steak”? Buying means making a decision, and that decision making process begins with a need to ease some pain, then logically progresses (in person) through stages of talking, thinking and actions toward closing the sale.

Online though, there are no body clues – no sales representative to nod their head up and down, looking for a yes response, cueing the prospect to follow suit. Online, compelling landing & checkout pages are vital to your success.

Buying anything is an emotional process – for some much more so than others, like me. Using the five senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell to evoke an emotion (tied to your offer) helps reinforce your solution in the eyes of your prospect.

Closing the sale – isn’t simply a yes or a no. It’s a logical progression from a search query to the point “Add to Cart. “ The term, “Always Be Closing,” applies to each and every page the prospect touches until the order is completed, and really should continue beyond that, with either a survey or recommendations for other products and services based on what they just purchased.

Giving your prospect too many choices – or making the navigation from Point “Search” to Point “Buy’ difficult, is just as bad.

I read this morning that an idea without execution is worthless – meaning that you can have the latest greatest widget in development, but until you build it, ship it and let the idea see the light of day, it has NO value. On some fronts I would agree, but value is really about perception. Research and development has real value whether the original idea ever sees the light of day.

A common icon for fresh ideas – is the light bulb (I see the light), but commercially available light bulbs were the accumulation of hundreds of failed experiments. And then you have offshoots that spawn billion dollar industries, like a popular ED medication that was initially being tested for hair restoration.

Should you wait – for perfect market conditions, or until each and every bug is worked out? Of course not! Real world testing is essential. Virtually all major vendors do test marketing, to sort out what works from what doesn’t.  Once you settle on what works, do that over and over and over until the market dictates otherwise.

Whether you’re designing websites – or formulating search engine strategies, you can never really measure your efforts until your work is out there.  Development doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Sometimes, there’s a competitive advantage to being on the ‘bleeding edge’ or ‘leading edge’ of ideas, products or services.

I was talking to one of my friends a few weeks back - just before she was to give a business presentation about paper. I know – exciting stuff. Anyway, she was a little apprehensive, as a lot of us are just prior to addressing large groups of prospects.

This was a presentation to a local IAAP (administrative assistant professionals) meeting addressing how to keep costs down, new products, workplace wellness, and how her company could help them. I knew she’d be fine because she’s a pro.

After the presentation, she wrote, “I have to tell you, the “No matter what kind of job you have, we have the paper for it” and the toilet paper has been a big hit and icebreaker.  I’ve had to leave it for people who weren’t in – I’ve gotten phone calls from people that heard about it.  I tell them it’s the sample of the month and their smile for the day!

I don’t know if she used a story board to compile her main point of view, but she did have hand-outs that definitely broke the ice – the tension between her prospects and herself. And those hand-outs were relevant to her business.

She engaged her audience and made them part of the experience.

Involve your prospects in the process - A large part of giving successful business presentations is involving your prospects in the process – asking questions, looking for a show of hands or positive response. Get out from behind the podium and move about – be accessible, make periodic eye contact, pause for effect and emphasis – take command so that all eyes are upon you.

Pattern your presentation to resemble a conversation. Look at your audience as you would in normal conversation, pausing at the end of your points to allow your audience to process what you’ve just said.

My wife is an instructor and excellent communicator. She’s always telling me to touch my prospects senses of sight, smell, taste, feel and hearing. Appealing to their senses engages their emotions. Give your presentation so that your audience will see, smell, taste, feel and hear what you’re saying.

The presentation itself - In the body of your presentation, tell them what you’re going to tell them, then tell them, and then tell them what you told them. And know what you’re telling them – have it down cold, meaning don’t read – let your words flow naturally. And smile – be excited.

Way way back, in the ’80s, I had to give a four hour presentation to a prospect in a bid situation. I knew the content inside out, but dragged my wife into the living room the night before and rehearsed the entire presentation with her. I still believe that preparation helped me win the bid – for a whopping $152,000.00 (including service).

What to avoid - This is a touchy subject. Have you ever filmed yourself giving a presentation? You won’t believe it’s really you on the playback.

• Avoid fillers – ahs, uhs and extended silence.
• Avoid nervous habits like scratching your head.
• Avoid concentrating on one section of your audience – spread the wealth around.
• Avoid excessive hand gestures.
• And don’t turn your back on your audience.

Call to action - Every successful marketing campaign has a ‘call to action.” That could be an offer that’s exclusive to your presentation, or to a deadline set by upper management. Combining value and urgency drives sales campaigns. A  call to action can be as simple as moving the sale forward by setting up appointments, up to signing contracts for immediate discounts or freebies.

Revised Oct 13, 2011

As a rule of thumb – broad markets invite fierce competiton. Search queries that return in the tens of millions of results are going to be hard to rank on page one of any search engine. Why is that important even if you actually are selling to a broad market?

Online buyers are spending billions of dollars annually – and if not with you, certainly with your competition. The good news is that broad markets can be broken down into niches, with each niche targeted to draw buyers to your site. The key here is to do keyword research to determine the exact niche prospects are (currently) searching for, then optimize your site (using those keyword phrases) to increase your conversions.

Tweaking your site – to take advantage of current trends can be as simple as adding a URL and title description to exactly match the extended keyword phrases that are ranking highest (today).

As an example, I just this morning did keyword research  – on fitness equipment, which is a fairly broad market. Apparently, fitness equipment is searched for 82,000 times per month on Google. Drilling down, I saw that the extended keyword phrase of home fitness equipment drew 4,400 queries. If my site targeted fitness equipment, I could create a page with the URL of www.(yourdomain).com/home_fitness_equipment/  and include “home fitness equipment” in its title tag. Time and time again, I’ve seen this SEO strategy help sites with low (or ZERO) PageRank and minimal backlinks outrank sites with high PR and thousands of backlinks.

If you’re running a WordPress site – beware. The default for creating URLs looks something like ?p=1237. Sure your site may be indexed, but how many buyers are searching for 1237? By simply changing the default to Month/Name, the URL could look like /2010/08/home-fitness-equipment. If you’re searching for a custom title tag plug-in for WordPress, read the comments first and check it’s compatibility with the current WordPress version.

Increasing traffic is key – but great content and compelling calls-to-action take the reigns once your site is found. To optimize your conversions, you need all three ingredients.

Image certainly impacts other’s perception - of your business. When you offer solutions, do your prospects actively listen?

Your company’s style of communication - can influence how prospects view your products and services, and can enhance or adversely lend to any long term partnership (alliance) possibilities.

Sales Diplomacy - When your sales department is challenged, overwhelmed or put on the spot, are they thoughtful and diplomatic in their interactions? Do they respond in a professional manner, even when clearly outside their comfort zone? How well they communicate directly relates to their close ratios. Closing  percentages need to be measured against your Return On Investment (ROI).

Professional image impacts sales - How prospects read your company impacts their perception of your credibility, and ability to deliver solutions. Your sales department needs to know when and how to use diplomacy, when and how to be tactful … and they need to understand the concept of credibility.

Your image as a company – to be perceived as professional, should be addressed in your business plan, measured and tweaked frequently.

Always provide value - The psychology of selling transcends to the psychology of writing online content for revenue producing websites. Essentially, every prospect is searching for what’s important to them and their organization.

Whereas in person, you can tailor - your pitch to their personality traits, like number crunchers or socialites – online it’s impossible to know who has found your site. The common denominator is always VALUE to the end user.

Tell them what’s in it for them - Reaching across a broad spectrum of personality types means touching as many of their senses as possible; sound, taste, touch, sight and smell (or the perception of those). Rarely does selling on price alone work.

Ok, so we can’t taste a dedicated server or smell shared hosting - but wording can sway a prospect’s motivation. Conor Treacy gave a great example in a thread on Hosting Discussion – instead of, “we sell lawn mowers,” use “buy a mower that will make your neighbour @#*^ themselves with envy.” Be descriptive without going over the top, addressing the basics of how, who, why and what. Show how your solution has helped other businesses or organizations just like theirs. Tell them what’s in it for them.