If you ask a successful sales person to name the main component of a sale, they will give you the following list:
1. Build Rapport.
2. Find their needs.
3. Meet those needs.
4. Close the sale.
As an Internet marketer, or in any sales situation for that matter, be it an Email, Advertisment campaign or a face to face meeting following this process will produce a higher conversion rate. So lets take a look at each component in more detail.
Building Rapport.
Rapport building is all about getting to know someone as a person and to develop a relationship, in most cases empathising with a persons situation will start to build the all important TRUST, and people buy from those they know and trust. In a face to face meeting this is easier as you can get someone to talk about there favourite subject..usually themselves. With an advert or an email this will take more time, and you will need to set yourself up as an authority in your given market before someone will trust you enough to move forward, therefore a number of Ads or emails may be needed. Spending time at this stage to develop your relationship could turn that prospect into someone who buys from you a number of times, and an autoresponder for an email campaign is invaluable, although there is no substitute for the personal touch.
Finding their needs.
Adverts and Emails tend to assume someones needs within the headlines, for example “Tired of losing money with your AdWords efforts” or “You can live the life of your dreams….”, or, “not getting traffic to your web page!”, these kinds of things. They capture a persons attention and tease them into reading more, which is usually effective as in most cases those people reading the advert/email are doing so because you offer what they are looking for. In a face to face meeting though, you need to ask, and it is often an advantage if you have a written list of the benefits you offer and ask them which ones appeal to them, it is also a good way of steering the conversation in the direction you want.
Meeting needs.
Once you know what a person is looking for the remainder of your conversation or written content should be geared towards illustrating the benefits of your product and how they will meet those needs. Confirmation that they are being meet is a useful hint, or you can ask them how they think they will benefit from your product. Doing that alone will get your prospect to convince themselves that they need it, and your job is done.
Close the sale.
If you have followed the structure closing the sale is a matter of calling that person to action by either clicking a link to the payment page or asking them if they have any questions before you do the paperwork. An additional sweetener of perhaps a free report or review, a free video or a trial period will often get your prospect to act if they are not quite convinced, essentially you add more value.
So next time you write about or present a product to somebody, following this guide will have a huge impact on your conversion rate.