The most likely reason is your small business marketing
materials aren't answering the questions your prospects are asking about
your goods and services.
Imagine you wanted a new car and walked into a dealer's
showroom. You spot the sleek looking model you re interested in and go over
to take a look. It's at this moment that a salesman walks up to you and
introduces himself.
You start asking him questions about what makes this car
worth so much, what it's good for, what features are included, guarantees,
etc. Then you ask him if you can take the car for a test drive. now imagine
that the salesman responded to each question with a shrug and said, 'You'll
just have to buy it to find out if it is what you want.'
If the salesperson couldn't or wouldn't answer your
questions, you'd most likely walk out and head for a car dealer where they
could give you detailed answers to all your questions.
You don't want your prospects to walk away and possibly
turn to one of your competitors do you? Of course not. But if your marketing
isn't answering your prospects' questions you're going to continue to see
most prospects walk away from your marketing materials and look to make
their purchase elsewhere.
My small business clients generally report that once they
meet with a prospect, they can close 20 to 50% of sales. The problem is
getting prospects to contact you or selling services and products without a
sales conversation at all, through the Internet or direct mail. Your
marketing has to be as good as you are face-to-face. Is it?
Bob and Dennis from Kansas called with just this small
business problem. Once they meet with a prospect and present their
information, their closing rate is almost 50%. The problem was that despite
getting ten thousand visitors to their web site in the last couple of
months, only a handful of these had contacted them. You can't close more
sales without qualified leads.
When you're face-to-face with a prospect, you know how to
get a conversation going and to answer all the questions they have about
your products and services. Prospects reading a sales letter or your web
site or listening to an ad also need their questions answered. No answers,
no sales.
Once I explained to Bob and Dennis how to focus their web
site marketing and use it to answer their prospects' questions, and they
made the necessary changes to their site, they saw their leads and sales
surge.
So what are the questions your small business prospects
would ask if you were meeting with them? What do they want to know in order
to be convinced you can help them? What are the questions your marketing
needs to answer? What information should your marketing materials give
prospects in order to make a sale?
Whether you're marketing a product or a service, your
prospects want to know:
- Who is it for?
- What's the primary problem it solves?
- How will I be better off with it?
- Will it really do what you re telling me
it will?
- What specifically will it do to solve my problem or answer my
concern?
- Is this information for real?
- Is it the newest or latest model?
- Who else has bought it? What did they think of it?
- Why should I trust
you?
- Is yours the best company to get this item from?
- Is it a fair
value?
- I really want it, but how can I justify spending the money?
- Do I
really need it now?
- Why should I make this purchase today, or this week?
- How can I make sure I'm not making a mistake?
- Okay, I m ready to get it,
but tell me again why I should want it?
- If I buy it, how complicated will
it be to use? What kind of help will I get?
- How long will I have to wait
to get it?
- Yes, I made the purchase, tell me again why it was worth all
the money I spent?
- I own it, now how can I get the most of out it?
Want ten times as many clients? Start by giving your
prospects ten times as many reasons to contact you and buy from you and
you'll see your sales soar.
If your small business marketing isn't generating all the
clients you can handle, it's not giving prospects the information they need
to make a decision to contact you or buy.
You can keep using the same small business marketing
strategy, the same marketing materials and the same marketing copy and get
the same results or you could discover how to give your prospects the
information they want and see your sales skyrocket.
About the Author:
The author, Charlie Cook, helps service professionals,
small business owners and marketing professionals attract more clients and
be more successful. Sign up to receive the Free Marketing Strategy eBook, '7
Steps to get more clients and grow your business' at
http://www.marketingforsuccess.com
