Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

How come people don`t buy something? How can we increase their desire to buy it, right then...not later...on a Web site?

I can come up with a number of reasons, and the problem is how to overcome those issues. Maybe we can get some freebie training in sales from some of the community? :-)

Categorically, I think we can say that when something isn`t selling there are two broad reasons. One has to do with something you`re doing. The other has to do with something the customer is doing. This is more about the customer side of the problem.

We`ll assume that you`ve examined the pricing, laid out a fine display, your product has real value, it`s appealing, and so forth. There`s nothing wrong with the product, in other words. You get lots of people coming in, checking it out, saying it`s nice....but they`re just looking.

Here`s what I`ve listed so far, not in any order of priority:

1. "I don`t have the money right now, but it sure does look nice!"
2. "This really isn`t necessary. I have to stick with things I really need."
3. "This is cool, but I don`t need it today. I`m gonna come back later."
4. "I can get this somewhere else, way cheaper!"
5. "Oh, these are all over the place. I don`t really feel like buying one now, I`ll get it later.
6. "I can`t figure out why I would want this, but it`s definitely interesting!"

Are there other reasons? I mean on a high-level basis. Not having the money right now includes not having one`s purse or wallet, being short of cash, thinking it`s too expensive, and so forth.

I also see a relationship with "need" and "fear," looking at some of the world-class sales situations. One would be the car salesperson.

1. If you don`t buy this car, you`re never going to see a deal like this again, ever. Your car is going to break on the way home and you`ll probably die!
2. This is the best car ever developed, and you won`t even have to be awake to drive it and arrive at your destination. It reads your mind, uses GPS technology, and actually flies when the ground traffic is too heavy.
3. No money? No problem! We`ll Finance it!

That third one is important. It`s why the US is overdone with debt nowadays. "Make it easy to buy," would be the solution. Handling credit card transactions on the site would be a helpful implementation.

We can create a perception of need based on lust and greed, or fear of disaster. Personally, I don`t like selling on the basis of fear, and prefer selling because of use and benefit.

The problem we`re having is lots of viewers, a few sales, much like plenty of "Lots of clicks, few conversions" threads that pop up routinely here on SuN. This isn`t about how to get more viewers, or really even to increase transactions.

It`s more a basic question of how to "close the sale" when your only real venue is text and graphic Web sites. We can`t hold a real-time conversation with someone who`s looking at a Web site or catalog ad.

Personally (not professionally) ... if I`m going to buy, I`m going to buy regardless of what someone does to market or sell me.
In fact, the more "tactics" someone uses, the less likely I am to buy.

Let them look,

 

Many times when a customer says that it’s a gut reaction or they just want some space. So let them look, but before you leave them let them know you are available to them and tell them where you will be:

 

Customer: no thanks, just looking

 

You: ok well if you have any questions I will be right over there

 

After that, let it be, don’t push the issue, even change the subject. Doing this puts people at ease, and lets them know they can ask you a question without you trying to “sell” something to them.

 

It is just my opinion, but in my mind this moves someone out of the sales person status and into the role of helpful member of the community.

 

-Daniel

-------------------------

Inspired artisan chocolates-www.chokolajchocolate.com

That`s why some people like to buy online.  They don`t have to worry about you being "right over there". They can take their time, they can read about what you`re offering. They can make up their own minds whether they believe your message, or see it as a sales tactic.

But if you can`t see, taste, feel .....an item, you`re going to have to sell them with that text and graphics. I really think customers testimonials and reviews help close others.

Kathy`s making the main point. In a brick and mortar store, of course you let them look, and have someone easily on hand if or when they have a question. That being said, there are still huge differences in sales.

If you only wait until the customer has a question, you`ll likely make a living, but not a very good one. The great sales people know how to limit the just looking time, qualify the customers, and overcome all objections. I worked with a woman at Penney`s, the national salesperson of the year, over and over again.

I did what I could, and sold electronics enough to make a living. I brought in around $30K/year. She routinely brought in $150K per year. Same stuff, same department, same location, same everything....except different sales skills. She had the qualify the customer part down, AND the closing the sale. Very few people were "just looking" by the time she`d talked with them.

HOJ-Jane has a point that you first try to sell them with the site. We all do this, and part of the "Me" side of the equation is clearing up the copywriting, presenting a fine site, making it easy to buy, and so forth. Again...that`s going to be assumed for this post.

• Testimonials are a new suggestion for this thread. That`s great! Remember, we`re trying to convince someone to buy in an online environment.
  

Nikole is saying she`ll buy or not, and the site isn`t going to do all that much. Okay, that`s fine, and a percentage of customers know what they want, search and find it, go in and buy it. Not a problem. Another percentage really has no interest at all, finds the site by accident, and immediately clicks away.

But the percentage I`m interested in are those who are searching, sort of looking to buy, but they`re just not totally convinced. In a real-world situation, you can talk with them. On a Web site, you can`t.

Craig, Is your website down?  I couldn`t get to it. I want to know what you`re selling.

You could try live help.  If they want to ask you a question, you would have a chance to talk with them then.

I have no Web site right now. Kathy has one, and that`s been doing pretty well, but this is a discussion based on the many previous posts I`ve seen along the same lines.

I see SuN as an astonishing font of combined wisdom, experience, and a source of training from some community members who have skills to others who don`t. This problem of overcoming the "just looking" scenario is global. But it affects the micro-business, low-budget owner, and e-commerce business people in a big way.

"No thanks, I’m just looking." I think that says it all.

Although I`ve never done this well maybe on a boat or car show, many people (women mostly) spend a lot of time "window shopping". I`ve always been astonished by the amount of people that go to a mall and  come out of there with nothing. Sure, some work there but most just go to the mall "window shopping" they never had any intention of buying. I wonder how much of that happens on the net.

I know before I buy on the net I will invariably visit several sites comparing prices, products, services etc. also (more often than not), educating myself about what I`m going to buy. In the end the site that offers me the better deal gets my money, but if there is better deal pricewise I likely buy from the site that gives me the most info.

I know this is a thread about how to turn window shoppers into buyers not what not to do on a retail website, but I think they are related. Yesterday I was reading this report from Jupiter research, think many small businesses would benefit from reading it. For instance did you know that


if you think about it, that makes sense. These finicky affluent people are used to good service, poor site performance translates into poor service, and so, they go where they find the type of service they are accustomed to. Bottom line, good service sells products. In my opinion this service must include Chocolaj`s comment "let them look" people need to convince themselves that they need the product they want, that takes time.

I think ElidS has a good point, and something I was talking to someone about with my own website at about 2 am this morning (where ever that thread went) ....

When you see a site on the internet that gives you a contact form or a signup before you even see the product, the so-called "internet squeeze page", this is a form of high-pressure sales tactics and it makes me pretty much immediately click away from the site.

I would rather someone click around my site and make the decision themselves to buy (or at least contact me), therefore prequalifing themselves initially, and then contact me. So to answer CraigL`s question ... are you after quantity or quality? If you are after large numbers, then you make your site as EASY as possible to shop so that you can bring in the most ... provide them with all the info they need to make a purchase ... have it all right there so they don`t have to click away ... etc. I think Amazon is a great example of this. If you think about it, there are many ways to suggest an additional purchase (and increase your sales) ... here are a few:

1. Before your customers check out or before they go to their cart, show them some additional page of products they might want. This is Paypal`s method and the method of many domain registrars ... and I hate them for it.

2. Based on their current selection, show them a deal coupled with another selection (bundles!) or show them which purchases people bought with or instead of this one. This is Amazon`s model, and it does actually work on me quite well.

Based on these 2 alone, I have a very high opinion of Amazon`s no-pressure tactics and very low opinion of PayPal`s "are you sure you don`t want our credit card?" process. Amazon is an excellent example of how to get quantity without pressue.

If quality is the issue, as with my own sales (I can only take on the amount of work we can handle in any given timeframe, so my expansion is not limitless) ... then my goal is to let people shop around and only have the people contact me if they have seen my work and are truly interested in moving forward with it.

Quantity vs quality in sales and web sites ... Am I making sense or did I stay up too late last night? I seem to be stringing a lot of things together with ... this morning.

Alright, here are two additional solutions that I hadn`t thought of, from Nikole`s post, which also respond to Eli`s analysis:

• Do the shopper`s comparison shopping FOR them, right there on YOUR site so they don`t feel it necessary to click away.
• Offer various types of specials or combinations that would be difficult to emulate in a brick-and-mortar environment....OR...that simulate negotiating a deal.

Bringing forward to this page, from page 1:

• Testimonials are a new suggestion for this thread. That`s great! Remember, we`re trying to convince someone to buy in an online environment.

When I visit a comparison page on a site, the one thing that immediately turns me off is the lack of objective comparison. They`ll somehow be missing their biggest competitor`s product. Or they only compare versions of their own product. It`s why many opinion sites end up being third-party, without a vested interest.

However, I do see various sites with legitimate comparison grids. They list all the similar products, show you why their product has more, and in some cases, why their price is *higher* than other products. I often bookmark those sites.

Can we say that a bookmark is enough? If we can`t get a sale right at that moment, a bookmark is at least better than a click-view-clickaway. It`d be nice, though, to go right to the sale.

Eli, that`s a terrific link, and I bookmarked it. Excellent research, as usual, so thank you. :-) I tend to think it`s an article that returns more toward the "my" side of the equation, but that`s okay. It`s relevant.

Remember, we`re going to assume that a Web site is done entirely corretly. It`s taken into account all the problems such as those in the Jupiter report. It`s actually getting plenty of traffic and sales.

Within that traffic are the always-present window shoppers. Having seen it in real life, and having seen that some sales people are highly successful at converting those window shoppers, I want to know how to do the same thing on a virtual store.

I don`t think it comes down to quality v. quantity. Yes, some sites push for the quantity, and sell with high-pressure, fear-based tactics. They convert their window shoppers much like a snake charming a mouse. But it isn`t routinely that way. That woman I mentioned above had high-quality, REPEAT customers, and had the lowest number of "just looking" shoppers anywhere in the company.