I recently wrote an article for the guys over at Digital Telepathy which outlined more than a decade of sales knowledge into five simple steps. It’s basically a cheat sheet for designing, marketing and selling kick-ass digital products! #You’reWelcome
It’s not hard to see why a company would want to hire a bunch of people like me and send them out in the streets to sell their products in some sort of sales assembly line. And honestly, it’s proven to be a profitable way to build a business. Just hire a bigger sales team and throw some advertising at it. Find a way to interrupt the public with your product and the profits will just pile in.
But if I’ve learned one thing after more than a decade in the world of sales and marketing, it’s that those days are fading fast. The consumer is getting smarter and the slow, stubborn companies are being devoured by new companies that just “get it.”
Partly because they stay agile, but mostly, because they understand the concept of starting with a great product and letting it sell itself. Just look at a company like Evernote. They’ve spent next to nothing on marketing as a percentage of their revenue over the last seven years, but they have a fiercely loyal brand following.
Not only that, but their most engaged users are also their biggest brand evangelists. Not to mention that the more people use Evernote, the more likely they are to continue using it. It’s as if Evernote has found a surefire path from adoption to addiction. But it wasn’t always that way, they must have started somewhere…
And what better place for you to start, than with a simple roadmap to the entire sales process itself. So here it is, 10 years of sales, broken down into five simple steps. It’s like a cheat sheet for designing, building and selling kick ass digital products.
Evernote spends very little on marketing but they have a loyal brand following: How did they go from adoption to addiction? Answer: A great sales process!
Every sale has to start somewhere
There are many ways to gain a buyer’s attention, but when it comes to the web, people are particularly impatient. To design an effective online sales process, you need to deliver your value proposition as quickly as possible while giving the prospect all of the information they need to make a buying decision.
Your call to action might be the desired reaction, but your prospect may not be ready to buy. They might need to know more about you, your product or what you stand for before making a decision. Your design should allow for that.
You may not be hard selling online, but you can control the users flow with great design and strong information architecture.
A well-designed marketing website balances storytelling and user choices (scroll, click, tab) that keep users engaged. It’s OK to give me options, as long as the entire flow is nudging me back towards the pitch. The point here is to give the user the information they need and keep them engaged so that we can move on to step No. 2!
You must captivate your audience
Businesses need to start thinking more like media companies. They need to understand that storytelling is the most effective sales tactic and then learn how to leverage their story into the perfect sales pitch.
Remove the selfishness from your sales process and watch as your online conversions increase.
To make an impact, reach consumers and change their behavior brands must adopt these characteristics: Content, Relevancy, Recency, Omnipresent and Agile.
Forget about promoting your product and focus instead on showing-off the people and processes behind it. Tell me why you built it and how it will help simplify my life. Show me how to use it, answer all of my questions honestly and tell me what others think about it. Now we’re getting somewhere!
Focus on connecting with your audience and giving them a reason to cheer for your brand as opposed to thinking about them as just another bump on the road to boosting your bottom line. Remove the selfishness from your sales process and watch as your online conversions increase.
Effective online selling is based on trust
The path from prospect to purchase can be a delicate journey, especially online. People no longer care what you have to say about your own product, after all, it’s your job to sell it. Of course your pitch is going to make everything sound perfect.
But a smooth sales pitch is no longer enough, today’s buyers demand social proof!
To overcome this, reassure your buyers with signals of credibility in the form of personalized social interactions, positive reviews and compelling testimonials. Let others do the selling for you by making it easy for them to share, love and engage with your brand. And remember, it takes a long time to earn credibility online, but just a few seconds to lose it.
Drive your audience to action by asking for the sale with purpose
People don’t buy products, they buy better versions of themselves.
According to KissMetrics, there are a number of things that the highest converting websites do differently than most. Much of what they talk about in that article has to do with testing and ease of use, but all you really need to know is that it is imperative to get the right feedback from your users.
Designing for sales is about recognizing and taking advantage of every opportunity to build a community, drive engagement and develop online trust. Create real value in the idea of becoming a part of your brand, and asking for the sale becomes the only logical next step. Because at the end of the day, people don’t buy products: They buy better versions of themselves.
Can you deliver what you promised and validate the buyer’s decision
Be sure to ask these follow-through questions:
Your post-sale procedures can go a long way to eliminating buyer’s remorse and validating the buying decision.
Both of which are important because it is in that moment when the buyer decides whether or not to tell their friends about the experience they just had with your brand. This is also where the lifelong customer and brand evangelist is born.
You are going to have to start exposing the soul of your product in order to let people connect with it at a core level. At least if you are looking to win over the long term. Because if you can find a way to connect with the consumer’s emotions, then you are well on the path to winning their trust.
If you can win their trust, then you don’t have to sell. You just become the guy who has the thing that other people want. And in the world of online sales, that’s the perfect place to be.
The Best Sandwich in Sarasota?
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!