Getting your customers to say yes

The second part of the sale process is the “during” the sale stage.  This is where the customer or client has found you, and now needs to feel comfortable enough with you that they actually take out their wallet and makes a purchase.  They want to buy from people that they “know, like and trust.”

Similar to the “before” stage of the sales transaction, this is both an online and an offline process.

Online, if they have found you as a business, the customer will be looking for signs that you are the right choice. A definite starting point is your website.  It doesn’t have to be the fanciest or the prettiest, but it does have to be there and be relevant to what they are looking for.  It also has to have some key functionality to be effective.  This would include;

• Phone Number to reach you
• Directions if appropriate
• Alternate contact information such as a contact us form, email, fax, mailing address
• Hours that you are open if appropriate

Additionally, your site needs to allow them to feel comfortable with you.  While you want to tell all of the products or services you offer, remember, the customer is looking to buy solutions to a problem.  So be sure to tell the benefits of the product, not just the specifications.

At Local Media Marketing, we find that an introduction video is very important to a website.  As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, and a video is a collection of pictures.  If you are comfortable on camera, great!  That will really let the customer get to know who you are, but if you aren’t or there really isn’t a face of your company, a voice over video can be just as effective and show what your business is all about.

Another important thing that a potential customers will be looking for online is social proof. Social proof is the belief that if others think something is good, then it must be good for me as well.  Online reviews, testimonials, and social media are the three primary forms of social proof.  Search engines such as Google, consider online reviews very highly in determining the ranking of a website.  We have seen companies that have little or no information on their websites come up very highly because they had a number of high quality reviews.

As far as offline customer engagement, you will want to look at what the customer sees when they come to your location.  This would be everything from the quality of your parking area to the first words that they hear either on the phone or by the front desk. While every business is different, every customer wants to be treated with respect and feel like they are important. Little things can make a big difference.

Just think of the difference in your impression of a company that you are calling for the first time if they answer the phone “Hello” versus “Thank you for calling XYZ company.  How can I make you smile today?”.  I bet you smiled just reading the second one.

If you would like to discuss how we can help you make your customers get to the “know, like and trust” stage sooner, give us a call today.