Intelligent consumers influence sales, marketing tactics

You will have difficultly finding an organisation that gives you a non-biased story; they are not going to tell you the negative points about their product or service, only the positive points.

Being interrupted by a brand so that they can give you their sales or marketing pitch is a pet peeve of many consumers. Online media platforms, such as Facebook try and resolve this by offering advertisers contextual advertising, whereby consumers only see adverts that are relevant to what they are currently doing. And on the personal engagement front, how often do you have to tell a store assistant that you are “just browsing” when they interrupt you in a store, resulting in you being able to avoid the one sided sales pitch.

Let’s face it, people do not want to be sold to anymore, they want to feel like they are in control of their buying decisions. Even if you see a contextual ad on Facebook, you probably still feel irritated with that brand and may make a subconscious decision not to buy from them, like I do.

Online research

For most purchases, both for individuals and for businesses, the average buyer conducts a fair amount of research online to narrow down their choices and allow them to make an informed decision. This is why, so often, when you are approached by a sales person, and you ask an intelligent question, they then need to refer you to the product specialist to answer it, because they are not ready to deal with your intelligent questions.

The fact that buyers now turn to the internet and become educated before they begin looking at potential suppliers means the job of the marketer has changed. Marketer’s need to educate potential buyers through content that can be trusted, they need to add perceived value to the buyers and they need to capture the buyers attention way before they begin evaluating suppliers.

Marketing strategies need to evolve from incumbent outbound marketing whereby messages are pushed out that interrupt people, hoping to find someone wanting to buy, to inbound marketing strategies whereby buyers find brands through the outstanding content they have provided.

Likewise, sales strategies need to evolve from the outbound approach whereby potential consumers are approached in-store and hurled with the standard sales pitch, or randomly cold called and also flung a sales pitch.

Larger responsibility for revenue generation

With an inbound sales and marketing strategy in place, marketing teams take a much larger responsibility for revenue generation. Not only do they take care of creating awareness and generating leads, but once that lead is found the marketing team can nurture that lead until they are ready to purchase, and only then hand over to sales to conclude the deal.

Globally, inbound strategies are being adopted by marketing teams and in many cases the separate functional areas of sales and marketing are being merged to form a single powerful revenue-generating unit.

For these new content driven strategies, and particularly for those brands adopting them in Africa, special consideration needs to be given to mobile platforms. A large portion of research would take place on a mobile device, and so awareness building, lead generation and lead nurturing content must be mobile device friendly.

Sales rehab: how to make targets and rest easy

A lot of B2B companies are using the truculent economy as a scapegoat for many of the ills that plague them. At the end of the day, they’re not making as much money as they used to or perhaps they’re even running at a loss. The fact is, though, that an economy resembling a wounded sloth only serves to highlight and magnify the problems that already existed.

And every company has problems.

It’s no secret that, in times of plenty, companies are protected by the fat but when times are lean, there’s little lard buffering the harsh realities of retrenchments versus the unbounded joy of swelling coffers.

It’s also no secret that it’s then that sales managers begin to bald prematurely, wake up in the dark of night in a cold sweat, and quaff one consecutive coffee after another while chain-smoking like a legionnaire.

Needn’t be the case

The reason for their accelerated ageing is that they don’t know what to do to remedy the situation. But that needn’t be the case.

The causes for lacklustre revenues range from misalignment of sales people with sales management to few sales people meeting their targets, poor forecasting, underused vendor relationships, poor closing ratios, non-existent or ill-defined sales methodologies, and no or poor differentiation, or a poor sales strategy.

What sales and business unit managers in complex sales environments must do is gain visibility into their sales processes because it is then that they can start to take appropriate, relevant and effective actions to do something positive for sales.

They will know, for example, which leads offer immediate potential – if any at all – based upon factual metrics derived from accurate sales data, and distinguish them from those that will not be closed in the immediate future.

Where to focus sales effort

That will tell them where to focus their sales effort to get the maximum returns. They will gain the ability to differentiate their service or product.

It’s not as easy as it sounds.

Sales environments become increasingly complex as organisations grow in size. The larger the business, the more territories in which it operates or offices it maintains, the more sales people it employs, the more divisions it spans, the more products or services it offers, the greater the complexity. It can be an epic task to drill down into the data and learn what’s really happening.

And when managers do try to look into the reasons for poor performance, they are often stymied by the poor forecasting that runs riot through most businesses. Forecasts are typically based on past performance; they’re based on supposition, they’re an enigmatic brew of science and art, thumb sucks, bum covering, and the whole gamut of corporate ethics, mixed as they are.

The plan

So how is a sales manager or business unit manager (BUM) supposed to come up with a plan? And while they’re at it, how do they come up with a plan they’re pretty sure will succeed?

First, they need to know what’s going on. Without a sales methodology, process and proper tools in place, they cannot even begin. Those three components give them a common language and qualification that leads to qualitative selling. But not without coaching that will allow sales managers and BUMs to put the three components to proper use.

Take those steps and sales people ultimately end up with clear differentiators and compelling reasons why clients should choose them, which means they don’t have to resort to the unsustainable business practice of discount selling. Sales managers and BUMs gain visibility into where to maximise impact through focused, appropriate, and effective actions. Sales people cannot fudge forecasts and activities.

Sales people become more productive and more effective – or they leave. It’s the ugly side of sales performance management but right-sizing can cost companies an inordinate sum unless the situation can be reversed.

Clear and factual metrics

Clear and factual metrics will identify under-performers and top performers without prejudice, and under-performers without the will to change typically leave of their own accord once it becomes clear.

Those that do wish to remedy the situation, however, will know precisely where to make an effort and how to do so and sales managers will be able to support them as they become more productive for the business. It’s the most attractive option for everyone because, ultimately, companies exist to make money and any working person, particularly a sales person, is no different.

Six simple test cases to help increase online sales

Test everything, assume nothing! This is one of the core values that I live by, especially when it comes to generating online sales. The reason being is that I have learnt that after all these years on the internet, you just never know what strategy or angle is going to work best for you until you test it. This applies even to your star-performing strategies, because there’s always room for improvement.

The bottom line is, testing is the only way to discover what works and what doesn’t on your website, and it’s the best way to start increasing your sales exponentially. And if you take the plunge and use just one of the following tests, you’ll learn just how true this is, especially when you start seeing a dramatic improvement to your bottom line.

Test #1: Rethink your headline. Adding in different benefits of your product / service in your headline has a huge impact on your sales ad it’s often the first thing visitors to your site will see so it must grab their attention and compel them to read on.

A successful headline should highlight a problem your target audience faces and stress the main benefit of your product or service in solving this problem. Let’s look at an example that illustrates how a headline can be changed for maximum impact: “PuzzBox – The Amazing Toy Storage Box For Puzzles.” The problem with this headline is that it tells you what the product is, but not what it does for you. It doesn’t give a visitor any good reason to continue reading the rest of the page.

Contrast that one with this: “Finally! Discover the Secret That’s Got More Than a million Puzzle-Crazy Kids Worldwide Actually LOVING Clean-Up Time!” This headline presents a major benefit of the product and a solution to a problem – in this case, how to get kids to clean up after themselves and actually enjoy it.

Relating to your audience

Test #2: Establish a problem and solution. In the first few paragraphs on your home page, you need to go into more detail about the problem you highlighted in your headline – showing your audience that you relate to them. (Only when your audience feels you understand their problem will they feel confident that you can solve it.)

Once the problem is established, you can then begin introducing your product or service as the solution to this problem. By emphasising exactly how your product or service will solve your reader’s problem, you’re guaranteed to see quite an interest in your product or service and this will lead to a boost in sales.

Test #3: Adding credibility to your copy. This will enhance your visitors’ trust in you. It’s through this process that your visitors come to trust you and feel comfortable enough to buy from you. There are several ways you can do this effectively and we’ll talk about two of the quickest and easiest ones here.

One of the best ways to establish your credibility is to include customer testimonials in your sales letter. These should be excerpts from genuine emails or letters from customers expressing how your product or service helped solve the particular problem they faced.

Please note that a customer testimonial that states how your product benefited them is much more effective than one that just says something like, “Your product is great!” or “I love your product.”

Secondly, also enhance your credibility by adding a section to your copy that outlines your credentials, experience and any background information that makes you qualified to solve your target audience’s problem. Your aim should be to effectively convince readers that you are the best person to offer them a solution to their problem.

Creating a sense of urgency

Test #4: Instill urgency in your copy. Achieving this will convince readers they need to buy now. The best place to do this is towards the end of your sales letter, near your call to action (where you ask for the sale). Here are a few of the most effective ways to create a sense of urgency:

Offer additional bonuses for free if visitors buy within a certain time frame, eg: a free service for a month or a free eBook containing tips and advice.

Offer only a limited quantity of your products or services.

Offer a limited quantity bonus.

Offer a limited-time price discount where visitors must buy before a certain date in order to qualify for the discount.

Test #5: Reposition your opt-in offer. Your opt-in offer is your tool for gathering your customers’ email addresses and building your email list, which allows you to regularly keep in touch with your subscribers, build relationships of trust and loyalty, become a credible source and sell them your products or services.

But did you know that where your opt-in offer appears on your site can have a huge impact on how many subscribers you attract? Yes, it’s true; you can boost your opt-ins and build a bigger list of loyal subscribers.

Test by placing your opt-in offer in as prominent a position as possible on your home page. According to usability studies, the top left of a page is where visitors’ eyes are often drawn first. At the very least, test placing your opt-in in the “top fold” of your home page – the area of screen first visible to a visitor before they scroll down the page.

You should also test placing your opt-in offer on every page of your site so it’s always in front of your visitors. Remember, the more sign-up opportunities you provide, the more subscribers you’re likely to get.

Less products, more detail

Test #6: Minimise your product or service offerings. Try offering just one product or service on your home page and if you sell a number of products or services on your website then I’d strongly recommend you test whether or not this is the best strategy for you. I’ve found that offering fewer products in one place with more copy describing those products always translates into higher sales.

Instead of trying to please everyone who visits your site by offering a large range of products with minimal detail about each one, offer just one product, or one set of related products or one key set of benefits and answer all the possible questions and doubts your visitors might have about that product. You don’t have to stop selling your other products as you can always offer them to your customers from your other web pages or by using follow-up offers.

Of course, the only way to find out for sure if this will work with your target audience is to test it! Write a sales letter for your lead product, and put it on your home page. Then run the test for a week or two and watch the numbers.