Today we will answer a few questions that should give you some clues on how to sell more online. So maybe you’re already thinking “I need more traffic!” or “higher conversion rates”. Then the question becomes how to get more traffic, and how to get higher conversions?

And that’s not the angle we’re taking here. It’s not just about you or your business, but about your customer. The person who buys. Let’s get started.

How To Sell More Online

1. Why people buy? (or don’t buy)

You have to know what they want. It’s not just about your product or offer but as an experience. Everyone has a different reason to buy, it’s personal. It’s your role to address your customer questions in your sales message. Sure if you have not any customer yet, it’s difficult to ask them what they want.

So you have to start with assumptions, and put yourself in their shoes. Actually it’s even better if you put yourself in their brain.

I recently saw a video of Frank Kern explaining why people don’t buy. Here’s what he said: people don’t buy because…

• they don’t want what you sell
• they don’t believe you, they don’t trust you
• they may not even believe in themselves: they don’t have the self esteem to make the effort

And the best way to gain some trust (for you and your customer), is to show them a solution that works for them.

2. Knowing your ideal customer.

It’s important to spot the “ideal” here. You should not be after the average one. So with your offer in mind, even if it’s not complete (because you can always make it better once you have enough datas and knowledge about your customers) it’s time to wonder who do you want to attract.

That means you could also search for your ideal audience first and create an offer once you have found what they exactly want. It can be custom solution, just for one specific client. If you sell to businesses, chances are their needs are different from other ones, especially if your clients are from various industries.

So how do you do that? Well, that’s what we discussed briefly in the previous part. Trust. This is what selling should be all about. Trust that you will gain by showing your customers your stuff works. Trust and confidence they will gain in themselves when they got results applying your stuff.

You need to interact with the market. HUMAN relationships, even online, is one of the best trust booster you can generate. And today, social technology allows you to listen to your market. There are many social media monitoring services that will tell you what and where people are speaking about your business.

People share their experiences through reviews, and don’t hesitate to say what they fee about a company, especially on social networks. It’s fast. You have to be fast if something goes wrong. If you’re getting started, dive in, and simply ask questions about their needs and fears. Or answer the questions they already have.

Approach people as if you know nothing about. Questions will come easily and you will already either get some clues or get the truth. People buy for different reasons, personal reasons.

So get social, listen, be helpful, send emails, present a solution that gets them results.

Ask! Search/Find. Listen Get social, help, strategy of preeminence by Jay Abraham (help, protect, without selling), Frank Kern results in Advance.

what does your customer see on the marketplace?

What is your competition offer, and why yours is better. If your offer remains inferior, there’s no point buying from you. This is the web, people search, filter and analyze in a blink, or a click.

As we said earlier, they share experience (reviews), help each others in order to save money, get the best deal, don’t hesitate to say how bad a product is or how great another one was.

Look, Listen, and be unique!

How do they feel? what are their emotions and feelings? Knowing this help you improving your offer with extra features/benefits.

Say it in words your customers understand. When you dig deep into your maket research, and figure out what your ideal customers want, you will know their language. If they can relate to your offer, more points for you.

Be confident. You have to know what you’re talking about. Don’t say too much as most people don’t want to be overwhelmed by informations or sales pitch. Remember to tell them why your solution is what they want and stand by your product.

3. Putting it all Together.

Crafting the perfect sales message becomes way easier once you know why your customers buy or don’t buy, and once you speak their language and provide them a solution that works for them.

Frank Kern (again) in many of his product launches uses what he calls the Results in Advance strategy which is showing the customers how to get the result they want. He gives his clients a solution they can take home, apply and see results. A week later, he will provide more, and the customer gets more results. He repeats this for a total of 4-5 times and then, if the customer wants more, there will be a fee, but that’s the perfect package they’re after.

So you could present an offer that explains:

• what your audience will gain,
• what losses they are prevented from.
• What guarantee do they have.
• how you address other concerns you have learnt from your research and social listening, or surveys, questions…

Also be available: be with them, they will like it. That may just mean having a skype or phone conversation and answer few questions. Even to perform the baby steps for them, this can only boost trust.

Conclusion (and final tips)

We saw that if you demonstrate to someone what happens when they apply your solution, not only they trust you from the results they get, they also gain self-confidence. Don’t you get proud, or feel a higher self esteem when you get rewarded the way you want, for the effort you made?

TRUST, TRUST, TRUST

Trust is huge. That’s also why e-reputation management charge high fees to businesses. If you have a product or a service to sell, you can’t afford to have a reputation that sucks online. And if you can, it’s costly, either in money or time to recover.

And because trust is huge that is also why you can sell more, and at a higher price. I already blogged about “convenience”. Think about the “comfort” you bring them. We naturally like comfort, in any way it is presented. And for comfort or convenience, we will pay more: smartphones, cars, traveling…

How do you apply it to your offer? Well, though it depends on your offer, you should ask yourself this question: what can I offer that allows my customers to make the least effort or NO effort to get the results they are after?

create done for you solutions

You do the work for them! If you’re an information marketer you certainly have seen these offers. That’s actually what OTO are, very often. And you can of course use multiple OTOs. If you’re an affiliate marketer, then this could be your bonus.

People who buy these complete solutions can afford to pay more and you can assume their lifetime value is higher. They also understand that they will save time and money, which is crucial for growth.

Example: you’re a PPC marketer and consultant. Businesses could consult you for keywords or websites to advertise on. You can also work on a deal to manage their PPC campaigns for them. You not only control their spendings, you also rework their landing pages. They won’t need to test campaigns and pray to see if those will be successful.

That’s convenience: making the purchase a no brainer, the transaction as smooth as possible.

To sum up this how to sell more online post, you should engage with your audience to learn more from them and establish the highest level of trust by showing them a solution that works for them. Once you present them an offer in their own language, you can also eliminate all the friction by adding more convenience, and thus charge more.