It’s one thing generating a lead, but then being able to turn that lead into somebody that actually buys something from you is a whole ‘nother process in itself. I see a lot of people that are great at generating leads, but they suck at sales. So hopefully if you suck at sales, make sure you get your pen and your notepad ready, because I’m going to teach you a few different things you can do in your business, very low cost, that’ll increase your conversation rates quickly and make sure you’re getting sales straight-away.
Having a Guarantee
The first thing I want to talk about is having a written guarantee. Now a lot of people are scared to offer a guarantee because they’re worried their potential customers or their customers are going to rip them off. That they’re going to claim against a guarantee that they shouldn’t be claiming against. Well the reality is most people don’t and by law in most countries, definitely in Australia, you have to guarantee your product or service. You can’t just sell something and have any liability or responsibility for delivering for what you said you were going to deliver. So you may as well write a guarantee.
Make it a guarantee that compels people to want to buy from you over your competition. Because what it does is it takes the risk out of dealing with you. So it creates what’s called “risk reversal.” So by having a written guarantee you can say to your customers, “We guarantee to deliver or…” And make it, “We’ll give you 100% of your money back,” or, “We’ll redeliver until you’re happy,” or whatever it has to be. No different in our coaching business here at MaxMyProfit. We have a guarantee that says we’ll coach you for free if you don’t get the results we both agreed you were going to get. So it’s about making sure you have something that sets you apart from your competition, but also reverses the risk. So people when they’re thinking about buying from you don’t have to think about the risk. You’re going to reverse that from them.
Have proper Sales Scripts
Now I’m not a big fan of reading scripts out as you’re talking to someone. If I was sitting here reading my notepad talking to you word for word, it’s not going to be spontaneous. It’s going to be a little boring, and you’re going to know I’m reading a script. But a script is a great training tool. So when you start a new person in your business, or even for yourself a new process for yourself, having a script will keep you on track and work through a specific process of asking the right questions, asking the things that are going to help someone make a decision to buy from you. By having a script you sort of stick to throughout your sales, means that you’re going to be asking the right questions at the right times. You’re going to stay on track, which means you’ll stay in control of the sale situation, and you’re more likely to get the sale. Once again, a very low cost thing to do. You don’t have to spend much money to create a script. You just need a couple of hours to sit down and write out what you think’s going to work.
Get some great Testimonials
Now you’ve probably got a bunch of happy customers. How about going and asking them to write a little testimonial of how they found the experience of buying or dealing from you. Even something like a video testimony doesn’t take too much. Everybody’s got a video they carry around with them these days, a camera, which is their iPhone or smartphone or whatever it might be, all of those devices now have fairly good cameras inside of them that will do the trick for off-the-cuff video testimonials. So you can bump into a client and say, “Hey, can I shoot a quick 30 seconds down my camera and tell what it is you love about dealing with me?” Get yourself some video testimonies. Of course you can transcribe those and use those in all other different formats, use them in the written format on your website or information pack or in sales literature that you send out. But I highly recommend testimonials because people are more comfortable buying from you if they’re seeing other people have bought from you before, and they’ve had a great experience.
Allow for different forms of Payment
Another one that I have got here, that I find quite an issue for a lot of businesses is taking all different forms of payment. As soon as you say, “I don’t take credit cards,” say, you’re going to limit yourself. Most people in today’s age are using cards to buy stuff. Have payment plans. Make it easy for people to buy from you. So take all different forms of payment, even PayPal, be okay with taking PayPal. And if you haven’t heard of Paypal, by the way, Google it. You should know about these different payment forms, and understand what it is you can be offering your customers to make it easy for them to buy from you. It’s no good saying you only take gold bullion, for example, because not many people are going to be able to come up with it. So make it as simple as you can, and your conversion rates will go up.
Have a Sales Process
The final thing I’ve written down on my list on my trusty notebook here is to make sure you have a documented sales process. Too many people don’t have a documented sales process of what they’re going to take their prospect through. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a retail store, a plumber, you’re an accountant, you’re a financial planner, you’re a mortgage broker. It does not matter. You still need a documented sales process so you can check your progress each step of the way throughout your sales process, and know whether or not you’re on track or not. Understand what it is your customer needs through the buying process so you can make sure you touch on every point, and have your process built so it’s systematized, and a lot of that stuff will happen without you having to worry about it. But going into a sales meeting or expecting to get more sales without even thinking about your sales process is not going to work. So make sure you do!
The Wrap Up
So there’s my five tips. A written guarantee so you can reverse that risk so people feel comfortable buying from you. Use sales scripts. Once again, don’t read them word for word, but use them as a training tool for you to get your head around new scripts, but also to get new people to understand what it is they need to ask and what they can say during the sales call. Get testimonials. You know, every week you should set a goal of getting 2, 3, 4, 5 testimonials every week. Just ask people, and you’ll find that they come in once you start asking. Take all different forms of payment, don’t just say, “I want cash only.” Take credit cards, take PayPal, take whatever it is you can find that’s going to be of asset to you, take it as a payment form. I’ve seen people take stock as payment. I’ve seen people do contra deals. Just be flexible. Work out what it is you need in your business and take it as a payment form. Of course those other types of forms you just want to make sure you’ve got your cash flow up before you start taking things like barter or trade dollars or anything like that. But certainly think about expanding the different ways someone can pay you. And finally, document your sales process. Not only will it help you along the way, but a new person in your business learning how to sell is going to find it much, much simpler because they’ll have a set process that they can follow.
So hopefully that’s give you a few ideas on how you can increase the amount of your leads that you turn into clients.
About the Author
Ben Fewtrell is a sought-after Business Coach, Keynote Speaker and trainer who has featured in Virgin’s Inflight Magazine and Entertainment Portal, SKY Business and “Secrets of Top Business Builders Exposed”. He is also the host of the popular Business Brain Food Podcast where he interviews leading experts on anything and everything business.
