Selling on strategy A Step by Step Guide — part 1

The 6 Step Process for Success1. Know your prospect

2. It’s all about their business

3. Discuss how to achieve online success

4. Demo the solution

5. Build the value

6. Discuss next steps

1. Know your prospect• Do a little research.

E.g. industry trends, market terminology

• Tailor a strategy to suit their business.

See the 4 Cs, BC’s Strategies for Success

• Practice your presentation.

• Prepare a showcase

See product demonstration guide in Part 2.

• 1.Knowyourprospect

• Doalittleresearch.

E.g.industrytrends,marketterminology

• Tailorastrategytosuittheirbusiness.

Seethe4Cs,BC’sStrategiesforSuccess

• Practiceyourpresentation.

• Prepareashowcase

SeeproductdemonstrationguideinPart2.

Qualify your prospect• What are five other sites that you like (competitors sites included).

and why are they attractive to you?

• How much time will you be able to spend online

responding to inquiries that come in via your website?

• Are you planning to do Online Sales?

What is the product and how many items do you want to sell?

For more questions, follow this guide and make your own questionnaire: http://www.freelanceswitch.com/finding/web-design-client-questionnaires/ Credit: Martha Retallick, Freelance Switch

2. It’s all about their businessDuring the first meeting

• Ask them about their business (confirm strategy)

• Tell them a little about yourself

• Ask them about their Online Business goals and suggest some

How Clients Think from Designing for the Empty Handed Client

From the client’s perspective, I have truly appreciated the times someone has taken me by the hand and provided good guidance. As a client, I have no knowledge of anything on the web (I do now, of course, but it took several years), much less have concrete ideas

about suitable design. When I started, I didn’t even know what functions the website should have. And form follows function…

The most valuable web designer is someone who provides good guidance, visual examples and takes the time to elucidate the actual needs that I have. Then he will help me prioritize the goals so that he can provide me with a good result.

Six online business strategiesWhy Does Your Prospect Need an Online Business

•Amplify your voice. Blogs, Email Marketing

•Automate your customer service (self-service). FAQ, Webforms, Workflows, Secure Zones,

Customer Service Ticketing

•Sell online. eCommerce, Customer DB, Email Marketing

•Build your community. Blogs, Forums, Comments, Customer DB

•Generate new leads. Webforms, Workflows, Reporting Tools

To reach these OB Goals...Goals Should Be Measurable and Attainable – Demonstrate ROI

• Unique site visitors

• Online sales

• Inquiry forms submitted

• Free Secure Zones registrations

• Paid subscriptions

• Newsletter opt-ins

Online Businesses can measure all of these goals

3. Talk about Online Success (4Cs)• Client now understands what Online Business goals and strategies are. How do we get there?

• There is no magic “secret.” There is a winning process!

• Website design begins with great content and ends with satisfied customers

1Content

2Credibility

3Conversion

4Customer

Content (Motivation and ideas)•Win #1 Good content addresses your customers’ information needs.

•Win #2 Search engines and social media experts love fresh, high quality content.

•Win #3 The first two wins ensure you own your traffic. If you don’t own your traffic, you don’t own your online business.

Your client needs to regularly publish content on their site through these channels:

Articles and Blog Posts Establishes your business as a credible authority

• How-to

• How it works

• Product Reviews

• Latest Tips, Tricks and Hacks

• History-of, How-it-helps

Content from Social Media Sites Embed and Integrate videos, slideshows, widgets

•Host your own. Make download section with PDFs, Podcasts, Photos (photo gallery, literature)

•User experience becomes ‘more real’

• E.g Kelsey Humphries

Email Newsletters

Regularly keep in touch with past customers

•Cheap channel to push new products/services, price changes, news etc

• Share content between your blog and newsletters

Content Ideas In Action...• DelSol Construction

www.delsolconstruction.com

Credibility• Display Customer Testimonials (Web Apps)

• Display Customer Case Studies (Article)

• Allow Customer Feedback (Comments)

• Provide Online Customer Service (Web Forms)

• Create a Community (Forums)

• Write about yourself (Blog, About Us)

Testimonials Example

Make it easy for a satisfied customer to give you great feedback

•Don’t ever pay/bribe for it

•Customer gets something valuable (exposure, backlinks)

How might you do it?

•Track customers, send the most engaged ones an email follow-up.

Submit Your Online Business Story To Business Catalyst Today!

You’ve been selected as part of an exclusive group of Business Catalyst customers whom we’d like to showcase on the Business Catalyst site! We’re interested in how Business Catalyst has helped your business grow so here’s your chance to tell the world by submitting your own Online Business story.

ConversionConversion is the art of getting your customers through to your primary

Conversion Funnel (online business)

Email Newsletter Subscription and Site Registration

Online Sale

Website Visitor

Comments on Articles / Products / Services

Forum Participation

Customers• Your post sales processes and customer service ensures repeat business

• The cost of customer acquisition is significantly greater than retaining customers

• 3 concrete examples of using BC for better customer service…

Use customer reports• Find all customers who have made a purchase

• Find all customers who have made an inquiry before

These are warm leads – use them to your advantage.

Create Follow-up Emails• Write a follow-up series with informative articles. The aim is to stay ‘top-of-mind’, not sell (which = spam in customer’s mind)

• Use emails to link back to your site to drive traffic

• Hard Selling is permitted if they’ve signed up for ‘Special Deals’

Workflows, Live Feeds• Follow up on leads faster than your competitors

• Customer Service Ticketing for responding to sales inquiries?

Thanks• Just remember, life is not about building online shops using Monster templates.

• Throw some strategy in to make your work interesting and increase your value-add.