When your business relies on the internet to generate sales, making sales can become a lot easier if you decide to follow some basic principles of marketing. This blog post shares some not-so-secret secrets that can help you close your next deal faster.
This principles can be applied whether your medium of promotion is a face-to-face interaction or a more public medium like your website.
#1. Show a Strong Brand Culture
This can sometimes be achieved through repeated exposure of the product to your intended customer. Your brand is the most valuable aspect of your business. It is what your customers want to associate with when doing business with you.
You need to cultivate a brand culture that is strong, identifiable and trustworthy. This will make the rest of what you are going to be reading in this article easier to do.
#2. Show them the problem you’re solving
“If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it,” says Albert Einstein.
Most of the time, it’s not just about what you’re selling. People want to know the problem your product is going to be solving for them. You might be surprised to find out that majority of your prospective clients are not aware the have such problems.
Why do you think most companies go at great length to do market research before embarking on business? It gives them the data and resources needed to show their clients what their peculiar problems are and how they can solve them.
Take for instance that you’re an engineer who specializes in creating farming machines and equipment. You just created a brand new product, a machine that picks up grains. When you approach the average farmer, the typical response would be, why bother on fallen grains?
If however, before approaching this farmer, you’re able to present, preferably in figures, what ignoring fallen grains costs the farmer, don’t you think you have a better chance of selling your machine?
#3. Show How You’re Going to Solve it
Majority of the people seeking solution to a particular problem may not want to bother themselves with the boring aspect of how you get it done. What matters is that the job you’re paid to do is done. How many times have you asked the barber how the clipper works? It’s unproductive to show your clients how your product solves their problem, right? Well you’re wrong.
Contrary to what many believe about showing prospects how your products/services work, either in form of free content or which ever means: that they’ll be less likely to pay. The reality is that this singular act creates a business-customer relationship that is strengthened by trust and loyalty.
By educating your prospects on how your product will solve their problem, you’re bringing them closer to the purchase cycle of the transaction.
#4. Show Them What they’ll Save from Using Your Offering
When people are not thinking of money in any business transaction, they are most likely thinking of what they’ll save or might lose. By capitalizing on this, you’ll make closing the deal a lot easier.
When dealing with new business prospects, be clear in showing them the exact way they will be benefiting from using your service. If they are not going to be making money directly from what you’re offering them, what will they be saving if they decide to go for it? And if they decide not to, what do they stand the chance to lose?
#5. Make Them See Why You’re better than the competition
That your competition is going to be the reason they might not sign up under you might be a bitter pill to swallow. Given that you have no magic mirror that will reveal what your competitor might be telling your prospect, you should capitalize on the advantages you have over them.
Are you a new entrant into the industry? Then do you have any discount that the competition might find too ridiculous? Have you discovered how to offer the same services in a better way?
Making the prospect see all these aspect of your business might just be the last straw to break the camel’s back.
#6. Let them know what it will cost them
Finally, your prospect should know beforehand what signing up for any of your offering would cost them. This should involve as much transparent a process as possible. Nothing kills interest faster than discovering that there are hidden fees involved in using your business.
Be upfront with your prospects and let them know what they’re in for. Doing this may not necessarily scare them away, but it will present you as a trustworthy partner.
Do you have any inputs you would like to add? Share it with me in the comment section.
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Image Credit (flickr Jen Beever)
Feature image credit (Flickr.com Alec Couro)