Making sense of the online sales process

2008/12/10 18:30 | Sam Raingill | Ecommerce Internet Solutions, Internet Marketing Campaign, Internet Marketing Consultancy, Internet Marketing London, Internet Marketing Results, Internet Marketing Sales, Internet Marketing Solutions, Internet Marketing Strategy

Would you build a great shop, fill it with great products, promote it to drive traffic in and then not hire any sales people? Would you expect those customers to choose products and buy them on their own? If your website doesn’t deploy persuasive or proactive selling techniques then that’s exactly what’s happening!

Whether in the B2B or B2C all succesful online selling essentially follows the same system, a 5 step system just like with the marketing process AIDCA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Conviction and Action) I mentioned in a previous post - sadly the sales 5 step process doesn’t have a nice and easy to remember acronym like AIDCA but involves the following steps:

  1. PROSPECT
  2. RAPPORT
  3. QUALIFY
  4. PRESENT
  5. CLOSE

It’s also worth noting that these steps are not necessarily sequential as feedback should be taken from each to influence the others whilst moving towards the final objective which is the close. I also refer to this in the online arena as persuasive architecture as that is exactly what you are doing you are designing, building and structuring your website to PERSUADE a visitor to complete an action.

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Increasing your conversion rates…not just a pipe dream!

2008/12/10 17:40 | Sam Raingill | Internet Marketing Campaign, Internet Marketing Consultancy, Internet Marketing London, Internet Marketing Results, Internet Marketing Sales, Internet Marketing Strategy

Anybody with a business website will have objectives and goals. Ultimately you will want your visitors to either purchase, subscribe, register, refer, particpate, recall your brand, be loyal or something along those lines. You’ve got their attention as they’re already at your site but now you have to create the interest and desire to convert them into whatever you want them to be i.e. a customer or a sales lead for example.

Conversion is a complex, multi-faceted process whereby the design, content and structure of your website persuade prospects to take the action you want them to take. Your conversion rate is a measure of your ability to persuade your prospects to take that action. It is a measure of both your website’s effectiveness and the satisfaction of your customers.

Marketing plays an important role in attracting people to your website but it is important to remember that this is not sales, it may create the desire and pave the way to the sale but marketing alone will not close the sale for you. I’ve witnessed too many people see the solution to not achieving their goals as to simply spend more on their marketing and it is a complete waste of time and money. Instead they need to be addressing the conversion rate of the traffic they already get and improving on the sales process. So whilst it is important that your marketing and sales are in harmony it is also improtant to address them separately and not to confuse them as the same thing…

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