Do you hate selling online? Some people have a negative feeling about it, and really dislike 'pitching' a product or mailing their list with a special offer.
Perhaps you don't like sales, period. Sure, you would like to make sales! But maybe you compare any type of selling to a smarmy, pushy used car salesman.
Nobody wants to be that person! 😛
Let's turn the tables for a moment, though. You buy products online, right? Sure you do! So you have at least some experience from both sides of this fence...
Imagine for a moment that you log on to Amazon.com and there were NO order buttons. How frustrating would that be? Or maybe there IS an order button, but they give you no clue at all about which accessories or related items you might need to accompany your order. It would totally ruin the Amazon experience we all love!
Amazon obviously ENJOYS selling online, and they do it well. As an example, if you're in the market for a new digital camera they will tell you what's new, what's hot, what's on sale - basically everything you need to know to make a SMART purchase:
What if Wal-Mart avoided "selling" their products?
Imagine walking through unorganized aisles and finding that none of their products had prices on them. And to top it off, there are no checkout lanes to be found! How much effort would you put into trying to make a purchase there, when you could just go over to another store where things are made EASY for you? Right.
Selling online is all about creating a good customer experience.
Imagine reading a great how-to article that gets you pumped up and inspired, ready to tackle the project, and the author just ends the article - leaving you to do all the research yourself for which products to use and where to get them online.
That's just rude! They're the expert. They should tell you exactly what you need AND recommend the best place to get it. Don't you agree?
Consider your own research and buying experiences when you're working on your online business. Who do you buy from, and why? Weave those best experiences into your own content, product pages and sales copy!
NOT selling is a major disservice to your visitors.
You're in business to make money. Embrace that fact, and do not apologize for it.
The fact is, people come online to do product research and to BUY products. This is obvious if you do any keyword research at all.
So don't be afraid to SELL to them. And definitely don't make it difficult for your visitors to buy. That's just downright frustrating!
Would you rather be known for presenting a great product, or for annoying and frustrating your website visitors? The answer should be obvious. 😉
Also see: Apology Marketing is KILLING Your Sales!
Best,
p.s. If you're ready to start making consistent sales online with a highly profitable online business, make sure you see my post here: Step-by-Step Blueprint for Success Online. You'll learn how to target buyers in your niche that are ready and waiting with a credit card in hand, and how to sell to those buyers in a way that makes them LOVE you for it! 😉 Click Here
About Lynn Terry
That's great advice Lynn and agree wholeheartedly, but think a service can be a tad more challenging to pitch ... if I'm not selling anything specific on a post I invite readers to contact me for an informal (introductory) chat but am not sure it's working that well! What are your thoughts on that?
That will be very hard to scale, Jane. Ideally you will get them on an email list instead, with a very personable autoresponder series that walks them through the information you would offer in the "chat" you offer now.
Or if you need specific information from them to help them with the next step, have them fill out a brief application - which has specific responses set up depending on the answers.
Just a few ideas, but keep in mind you are *always* selling, even when you're "selling" a free newsletter. 😉
Thanks for the ideas Lynn 🙂 ... nice to get an inpartial opinion!
Good advice, we are in the internet marketing business to sell and make money. I just think that the way we go about it is important. If you are in the internet marketing niche selling information products for example, I feel that it is important to give good content(on your blog for example) and give your readers value. This way you build a relationship with them and gain their trust. When this happens they will more than likely buy from you.
Thanks for great post.
Gerald.
True Gerald. Content marketing is great for any niche, as a means of reaching and engaging with your target market. That said, certain types of content can be a distraction on some sites (such as an ecommerce style site), so it's important to have a solid strategy in place - and give the visitor exactly what they need in any given situation.
Love the opening graphic
LOL, Thank you. I thought it was a good choice to illustrate this topic. 😀
I think the online marketing is just a little over whelming for me, and I do feel like the guy in the pic. But reading this really helps so Thank You. I'm gonna try it your way.
One of my biggest issues has been moving from this mentality of being an incredible "resource" for things to asking for the sale. But I'm doing the work writing posts and time is money. I think it had to do with starting off with my blogs being just for fun and having static sites with shopping carts going for what I considered business.
Now that everything is a mesh of it all I'm still working on it. Selling doesn't have to be in your face but I get a lot better response when I ask them at the end to do something. Reply with an answer to a question, sign up to my newsletter, or buy a product or service. Honestly, people don't know it's there until you smack them upside the head with it. I learn this daily from my husband who is super untechy 🙂
Val - Also remember that your readers ARE buying stuff already. It's just a matter of having them buy through you. 🙂
Lynn - this is great advice although I do truly hate selling. Approaching it the way you have described above makes me feel so much better about selling in general. Thanks for that. Also, I have an offline photography business ( part time) and people tell me the reason they like coming to me is because I don't try to sell to them. Is that good or bad? 🙂
It depends on how successful your photography business is. 😉 You should at least make sure you're giving them clear options so they can make a smart buying decision. People appreciate knowing their options!
I love this illustration:
"Imagine for a moment that you log on to Amazon.com and there were NO order buttons. How frustrating would that be?"
Like you, Lynn, there have been times where I've actively searched a site to see what the owner had for sale for me and found nothing. Very discouraging when I really wanted more.
Over the years, you've been very helpful to me to see that we are the intermediary (at least when promoting affiliate products) - to help our readers to make an informed decision as to which product is best and whether they should (or should not) buy a certain product.
This is a great post and it has really made me look at things a lot differently! Even though selling is not the most enjoyable thing in the world, it has to be done! Thank you for the share!
Selling products and services online includes a lot of factors that cannot be ignored. The online marketing system is the trickiest one as there is no face to face dealer and customer interaction here and all the needed information has to be listed down altogether in the online website or advertisement.
I must say this blog post has changed my entire perspective about internet marketing. To be frank I too don't like pushy people who get on your nerves trying to sell their products. Maybe this is why I couldn't take up marketing as a career. But after going through this post I could see marketing from the broader point of view and am thinking of opening up my website. I really could never think marketing could be this easy as well as respectful. Thanks for sharing the post.
I don't like pushy salespeople either, so I can relate to that. But there's a difference between being all-out annoying, and "serving your market." 😉
I think a lot of it has to do with confidence. You have to learn to believe in your products and if you already do believe in them, why wouldn't you tell people about them? I think a lot of bloggers and writers think that if they write great content for their site, visitors will magically find the products they are selling on other pages. Our visitors are busy, we need to tell them directly what we have to offer and how to get it.
It's like you wrote this article for me, and only me! 🙂 lol Wow, your right. It's not that I'm a scummy salesman. It's that I'm a person you'd want to listen to and trust overall! That I am here to help you. Not screw you over. Well, Done Lynn! - Scott Craighead
LOL Scott! I'm glad you enjoyed it. It came to mind while I was reading your thoughts over at your blog. The thing to remember is that people WANT help with their buying decision. They come online to hear opinions, reviews, to have their decision validated, to figure out solutions for what they want to accomplish, etc. People with experience (like you!) are who they really want to hear from - not just ads and pitches. 😉
🙂 Well Put. Yep, I'm putting this site on Bookmark. I'll...uh..delete...I'll download the FireFox Multi-row Toolbar. lol - Scott Craighead