Helping People Buy: The Not So New Rules For Selling
Helping People Buy: The Not So New Rules For Selling On The Web
Long long ago sales people were taught to build rapport present overcome objections and close. That school of selling has been dead for decades but its proponents still thrive today in telemarketing rooms around the world.
That school of selling has secured a foothold on the web as well. How many websites have you visited that open with a pleasant “welcome” on their home page followed by an indepth presentation of their products and services leading to frequentlyasked questions objection handling and finally a “buy now?
Way too many!
Legendary sales trainer Brian Tracy among others introduced the new model of selling in the mid80′s. Tracy’s new model of selling consists of these four steps:
Building Trust building rapport is a surface relationship. It’s essential to “break the ice” but it goes no where in establishing a basis for helping someone purchase your products or services. That requires a much deeper relationship. Building trust takes time and you can lose it forever in an instant.
Investigating Needs truly understanding your buyer’s needs takes time too. You need to ask questions listen closely to the answers and probe even more deeply to truly understand your prospect’s needs and wants.
Demonstrating Capability only after you have established trust and understood your prospects needs should you present what you have to offer. If you’ve been listening you can adapt your presentation to focus on your prospect’s needs rather than dumping your entire portfolio on them.
Gaining Commitment the final step is asking the prospect how you can help them buy. At this point in your sales process you will still encounter questions concerns and conditions traditionally referred to as “objections.” In reality all you need to do is answer their questions address their concerns and help them resolve their conditions. This approach not only leads to more sales but repeat purchases referrals and testimonials as well all built from a foundation of trust.
Is it any different on the web? Yes … and no!
The web produces some challenges. Everything happens so much faster. You can lose someone’s trust in 3.4 seconds and they are gone from your website forever. Your website has some limitations for human interaction matching the right answers to the right questions takes a great deal of sophistication but that’s true in a 1on1 sales interview as well.
Of course the web presents some opportunties as well. You are available to endless numbers of people 24 hours a day seven days a week. You can involve people in their preferred method of learning with visual verbal and kinesthetic information including your text images audio video and interactive applications.
What’s most often missing from websites is strategy. You need a strategy to attract people to your website. You need strategies to persuade visitors to take some small action. You need strategies to gain permission to continue to communicate and eventually help people buy from you.
Your website needs to build trust. Your website needs to investigate needs with a series of questions to explore the needs of your prospects. Your website needs to demonstrate why your products and services are capable of fulfilling those needs. After you have done all of that then you can gain the commitment of your visitors to become your customers.
The Not So New Rules of Selling on the Web aren’t much different from the not so new rules of selling offline. How does your website measure up?
About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Bill Merrow is a Principal at Marketing Department where he is responsible for content and sales. Bill has worked in Sales and Marketing since 1984 and his clients include American Express General Electric Walmart and hundreds of smaller businesses.He can be reached at bill.merrowwebmarketingdepartment.com or 602.821.7340. Visit http://webmarketingdepartment.com for more insights to Winning on the Web.
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