|
Ask
yourself this: If your website were one of your salespeople, would you keep
that employee working for you?
Almost
every viable business today has a website that serves a number of purposes.
Even a basic Web presence ensures a visitor that the company is for real and
still in business. At larger companies, the marketing or Web department
controls the messaging, content, look and feel. Support may have a section
to offload customer service. Highly integrated businesses may even tie
distribution and the supply chain to the site, allowing customers to check
their orders.
It
doesn't matter if you're the only "salesperson" or you have a
dedicated sales team; brochures, product sheets and a shopping cart system
aren't enough to build any online or offline business. You want your website
to engage, enroll and compel customers. You want it to qualify prospects,
present solutions and close sales. You want it to grab a visitor's
attention, create some interest, build desire and get the visitor to take
some action. You know--the stuff that salespeople do.
Getting
Leads
Is your website getting good leads? Not all website visitors are created
equal. Don't assume that just because they happen to be on your website,
they're interested in buying your product or service. There tends to be four
types of Web traffic:
- Browsers:
people who might have arrived on your site by mistake, curiosity or
another form of general marketing. These visitors come with no
intent.
- Suspects:
visitors who have already made a decision to fix a problem but still
haven't decided on a solution. These groups are looking for something
but aren't sure what they want.
- Prospects:
visitors who know both the problem and the solution and are making a
decision regarding who is going to supply the solution. Where are they
going to access the solution?
- Customers:
those who have already made the decision to buy from you and want to
place an order.
Navigation
Does your website navigation qualify or disqualify your traffic? The
navigation of your site must be able to identify and direct the leads that
it receives into the appropriate part of your sales process. Does your site
map the accepted AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action) sales process to
each of the types of visitors?
Browsers
and suspects need to see a strong USP (unique selling proposition), have
their attention grabbed and interest created. Prospects want to know what's
in it for them. You want to build desire by conveying real benefits.
Customers want a fast and simple way to do business with you online.
Presentation
Does your website give good presentations to the right people? Like any good
sales presentation, your site has to be tailored to its audience. The
content that builds desire for one personality style may confuse or bore
another. Your sales presentation, the content, should be specific to the
various buying styles of your visitors.
Closing
the Sale
So your site does the presentation, but does it ask for the order? There
must be a point of action with a specific decision for the visitor to make.
Is the purpose of the site to make sure that the visitor fills in a survey,
follow-up or request-for-info form? Is it to make sure that they join the
mailing list by subscribing to a newsletter? Perhaps you want the visitor to
call in to book an appointment with a live sales rep, or even better, to
complete the entire transaction online using your e-commerce system. Make
sure your site asks for the order.
If you
need help determining your website's weaknesses, there are many software
programs available to help you track page hits, page views, length of visit
and so on. Most important, you want to know where the customer was in the
sales process when they came into the site and where they left.
Imagine
the next sales meeting when it's time to look at the sales funnel and your
sales forecast. You'll go through the numbers, looking at the number of
current opportunities. How many new leads were added to the sales funnel?
How many of those suspects are qualified? How many presentations were done
to the qualified prospects? Finally, how much business is going to close
this week, month or quarter?
Salespeople
aren't paid for what they know. They're paid for what they sell. Should you
include your website on your sales team, or should it be replaced?
|
