Looking for an easy sales tip to increase customers? It starts by asking yourself this question—what’s holding your potential customers back from buying from you today?
You might think cost. Perhaps it’s ease of purchase (online ordering), location, or not knowing about you. But there could be something much easier to fix than cutting your prices, moving, or rebranding/launching a huge marketing campaign. While all these things are important—pricing, location, and top-of-mind recognition—there is something else you could be doing to get more people in your business. You could be setting expectations.
What does that mean?
There is likely a need for what you sell or do. Or you wouldn’t have gone into business, right? Maybe your marketing is really great, and you’ve created a desire for your product or service among your audience. But unless you sell something that is an instant emotional purchase, doubt could set it and kill your sale.
This doubt occurs because the purchaser is unsure of your product or service, worries about the value, or is doing something they wouldn’t normally do/purchase (that includes purchasing from you for the first time).
To avoid this, you need to ensure they have the confidence to purchase from you. Help them imagine what you (your product or service) can bring them.
Do this by creating content. But not just any content.
An Easy Content and Sales Tip
Let’s say you run a Facebook ad for a new service you’re offering or a discount to try your business. Hopefully, you’ve used the targeting features well and you get a lot of clicks on them. Potential customers are reading the info, and signing up for whatever webinar, service, discount, or info session you’re offering (gyms, I’m especially looking at you here).
Congrats. That’s great. You’re probably ecstatic with those leads. But then they fail to convert to sales. What happened? The leads seemed interested.
Something made them change their mind. Or did it?
First, many people treat Facebook ads and events like a try-before-you-buy situation. Just like people tend to post the life they wish they had on “the Book,” they seem interested in events and services when really, they’re just trying out the idea in their head.
Moving Potential Leads from Maybe to Gotta Go There
To help close these leads, you need to send several reminders with the kinds of subject lines that scream “open me.” When they see you in their email inbox often, it will be harder to forget their commitment.
But more importantly…
You need to manage expectations. This person is new to your business. They don’t know what to expect from you. They enjoyed your ad, thought this is for me, but then doubt sets in. They start wondering, what will this be like? Can I do it? Is it really for me? And a hundred other concerns. As in Newton’s Law of Motion—an object in motion stays in motion—a potential customer stays “at rest” until a force is applied to it. In this case, the force you are applying is addressing their questions and concerns ahead of the potential customer voicing them.
Imagine someone signing up for a free exercise class. They were excited about getting healthier and made a step toward doing that. Hurray!
Then doubt set in. What is the gym like? Would the instructor and the class be too hard? What should they wear? Would it be a walk-through or a full class that might have them sucking air by the end in front of a group of strangers?
The more questions that pop into their mind, the more likely they are to cancel, especially if there’s a long lead time between signing up and going. They may dodge the business’ reminder phone calls and the confirmation texts.
But what about an email with an interesting subject line?
A friendly, encouraging email that answered all their questions and then some. This type of email can get them over their concerns without the embarrassment of having to raise them in the first place.
In your business content, you need to do more than tell who you are and what problem you solve. That’s the beginning of the sales process. If you want to move people down that sales funnel, turning them into loyal customers, you need to address things that might be holding them back. You don’t do that by having a perky employee call and say, “let me know if you have any questions.” They won’t ask.
Instead, you need to anticipate those hesitations, address them ahead of time, and serve up the answers easily in multiple formats (video, text, email. etc. because you don’t know their preferred medium yet.). If you follow this easy sales tip, they’ll not only be more likely to buy from you, but they’ll also see you as a business that “gets” them. And that’s the first step to building a loyal clientele.
