There’s a natural way to attract profitable clients. But if you’re reading this article, you probably haven’t discovered it yet.
That’s because there’s a seed of doubt in your mind, isn’t there? Deep down, you know you might be making it hard for people to buy from you. But you don’t know why.
A report by PWC revealed that speed, convenience, and great service are most important to customers. But you can only nail each one of those as a business if you get your offer creation right.
Because, without that, you’re simply placing hurdles in front of would-be customers.
It’s time to ask yourself some pretty tough questions.
What’s on your website right now?
When was the last time you visited your website with the eyes of a customer?
Try it. Put your customer hat on and pretend you’re looking for one of your products or services.
What’s the first thing you find? Is it an immediate revelation of what’s in it for you? Or is it a long, rambling passage about how wonderful this company is?
Are you met with original product imagery that draws you in and makes you want to explore, or are you hit with a barrage of award logos, generic stock photography, and industry lingo?
Come to think of it… can you even work out what’s on offer?
This is one of the most important tasks you’ll undertake this week, and it’ll be one which reveals some tough truths about your web presence. If you can’t immediately work out what’s in it for you (as a customer), or quickly find out a method to get in touch, you’re turning away thousands of potential customers every year.
Scary, right?
How to motivate customers to buy from you
Don’t get me wrong - it’s important to talk about your business. At some stage, prospective customers are going to want to know a bit about who you are, and whether or not you have the experience needed.
That stuff matters. But it’s part of the long game. Right now, that prospective customer wants to know one thing: what’s in it for me?
Your website is for future and current clients - not you. It’s not a trophy cabinet or history of your business; it’s designed to deliver a solution to someone’s problem as quickly as possible.
Think about your own mindset when you decide to buy something. All you care about is what’s relevant to YOU. The fluff that surrounds the products you discover is of zero interest to you at that stage - you simply want a solution, and you’ll award your attention to the company who can answer it the fastest. Simple is best here.
How to convince customers to buy from you
Pricing matters. It’s why there’s plenty of advice on this blog about value-based pricing. But it’s not the be-all and end-all.
Customers want to know if you can help them, we’ve established that. But how can they tell if you can? Unfortunately, your experience and qualifications don’t answer that question.
There are a few ways you can prove you’re worthy of their time:
- demonstrate that you understand their situation - speak their language and reveal that you’ve helped others with the exact same question;
- share examples of where you’ve helped others;
- add ‘social proof’ in the form of customer testimonials (in both written and video form); and
- make your clients the hero.
That last tip is the most important. While your prospective customers are looking for a solution to their problem, they’re a star in their own right; the spotlight is on them. Crank up the spotlight’s brightness - make them FEEL and play on that emotion.
It’s important that your prospective customers feel some kinship with you and your past customers. Help them join your club and get access to the solution they need.
Seeing the results
With the aforementioned spotlight placed firmly on your prospective customer, they’ll begin to ‘see’ themselves getting the results they desire.
So… what do you do at that point?
You make it as ultra-simple as possible to buy from you - that’s what. And this takes us back to the time you spent as ‘the customer’ on your website earlier. If it wasn’t quick and easy to buy from your business, you need to fix that - quickly.
If you’re making it difficult to buy from you, you’re making everything harder work than it needs to be.
