5 THINGS THAT'LL BOOST YOUR WEBSITE'S SALES
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Is hard selling required to be successful in sales?
The short answer is no. There’s no need to pressure customers to buy from you. It’s not necessary if you want to have great success with your sales.
What makes people buy?
People buy for emotional reasons. Unfortunately, most people trying to sell something using the features or the facts. This is the worst way to attempt to get a sale. All sales experts will agree that the majority of people buy for emotional reasons. They use the facts afterward to justify their purchase.
Have you ever bought something you know you weren’t supposed to? Perhaps it was too expensive for your budget or you didn’t talk to your spouse about it beforehand. But in your mind, you just had to have it!
Now you have to explain to your spouse in a way that makes it look like a good idea. Naturally, people use facts to justify the purchase. But this never works for the spouse because there is no emotional attachment to the facts.
Sell more of your stuff using an emotional connection to the fact.
For example, let’s say you’re a mechanic looking at a customer’s battery that’s five or six years old. It’s at the end of its life cycle. It could probably last another year or six months, but you don’t know for sure. You think that it’s in the customer’s best interests to replace it now before it dies and leaves them stranded. This is how I would present it.
“Mrs. Smith, I see that this battery’s five years old now. It’s past its expected life span. It could last six or eight more months—we just don’t know. You have two options today. You can take care of it now, or wait for it to die. The problem with waiting is it could leave you and stuck in an unfamiliar and possibly unsafe place. Now you’re waiting with your kids for an expensive tow truck to pick you up to take you to the nearest shop you don’t trust. I personally would rather you didn’t have to experience that stress. Let me know which option you’d prefer to take today.”
Compare this to saying
“Your battery is five old, it’s going to die soon. You should buy it before it dies.”
The first thing we’re explaining is that there is more emotional pain in not buying your service. More people buy Advil to remove a headache than they buy water to prevent one. Sell them on the idea that your water will prevent that headache in an hour, and you’ll sell more water.
Sell more by knowing your customer’s emotional story
Customers buy from people they know, like and trust.
The next question is: How do I learn that Mrs. Smith has kids? How do I get to know my customers and form a personal connection? This is when to take advantage of Facebook and other social media platforms.
Social media has made connecting with other people so much easier.
Friend your customers on Facebook and maintain a relationship with them through it. You’ll be able to form that personal and emotional connection. Spend twenty minutes a day and quickly throw a like, heart, or comment on your Facebook customer’s posts. If you engage with your customers’ lives, they’ll remember it. You are building know, like, and trust. Remember what they’re posting and take note of it. Maybe it’s their kids’ soccer tournament or their report cards. That way when you serve your customer in person you can ask “how did Johnny’s soccer tournament go?” first thing.
There is an emotional impact when you get into personal stuff before the sale.
Joe Girard is the record holder for selling the most cars in North America. From 1963 to 1968 he sold over 13,000 vehicles for Chevrolet. In 1973 for the record he sold 1,425 vehicles. What car salesmen do you know who’s selling like this?
Car salesmen today should be able to leave him in the dust with current technology and sales automation. Yet, no one has beaten his record yet. The reason why is that nobody is building know, like, and trust the way he did.
Girard focused on the relationship. Most salespeople are hiding behind their brand. Instead, they should be personally connecting with the customer. They leave it to the marketers to maintain the relationship beyond the point of sale. It’s really the least effective way to maintain the relationship.
Most businesses are not trying to connect to the customer. What Girard did differently was writing a newsletter for his customers. He personally addressed and signed each one. At the peak of his career, you’d have to book an appointment on his calendar to buy a car. Imagine being a car salesman who had a waiting list of people who wanted to buy from. This is a far cry from most businesses.
Personal and emotional connections create more sales opportunities.
Think about what Girard has done. You want to buy a car, and the sole man you trust the most to buy from tells you that you have to wait until next week to do so. Then you’re happy to wait because he’s the man you want to deal with.
This is the kind of personal brand you want to make in your business. Build your following!
Learn more about Joe Girard’s selling techniques with the books below.
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