Below you will learn how to use an easy 5 step process to convert occasional visitors into paying clients…. But first let me tell you a story:

About six months back I was crying on my friend’s shoulder:

“… I have an awesome product, I explain at length what it does for the prospects who come to my website searching for this very solution… and NO ONE bought anything today… What gives?!”

The crisis was existential and it made me question my product, the value of my work, my abilities as a marketer and a salesperson… it was so bad in fact that I could barely look at myself in the mirror.

My friend is an online marketer who, luckily, happens to know a thing or two about the industry. He sent me a link to a whitepaper from HubSpot that said:

“ 50%+ of qualified prospects are not ready to buy on their first visit.”

This statement hit me in a way so profound that I had to sit for a while. My buddy then unpacked it for me:

When prospective clients don’t buy that does not mean that they:

1. Will never become your clients
2. Are not compelled by your value proposition
3. Do not have a need for your product/service

What’s going on here is really just a mismatch of perceptions. If you are a hammer everything seems like a nail to you. If you are a marketer/salesperson everyone seems like a qualified prospect with a “my hair is on fire”-type urgent need and a checkbook (bottom of the funnel).

At the same time, the reality is that most of the people are actually in another mode: “…I came across your stuff, it looks mildly interesting and I might use this at some point” (top of the funnel).

The real danger here is that if the salesperson doesn’t recognize this mismatch and adjusts messaging, offers, expectations – the communication will break down because both parties will be acting out of their divergent positions.

To put this in another terms: imagine for a second a guy walking into a bar, approaching the first girl he sees, dropping on his knee and popping a little black box out of his pocket. After the first “no”, not be deterred, he moves to the next one… How many “yes” replies you think he’ll get?

Yet this is exactly how a lot of salespeople – me included – oftentimes behave. What do you think is the ROI of such efforts? Zero? No, the ROI if such efforts is actually negative because not only the goal of closing the sale wasn’t accomplished, now all prospective buyers are alienated making any future sales all but impossible.

So now we know what NOT to do. Great. So what SHOULD we do? I am glad you asked…

Step 1 – Stop selling.

You didn’t see that one coming, did you?

Treat your first contact – a visitor who came to your website and left a name and an email, someone clicked on your ad, “liked” your product on Facebook, sent a cold email, etc. – not as a selling opportunity, but as an opportunity to establish enough trust so that to earn a chance for the 2^nd contact… and a 3^rd … and a 5^th … you get the idea that we are going for a long haul here.

Now how you do that? Simply give them what they want and fast – a response, a whitepaper, a link – and then give them MORE.

Step 2 Provide value.

Don’t:

“I saw you downloaded our whitepaper. I am the VP of Business Development here and want to talk to you for 15 min about our product. What time next Tuesday is good for you?”

Do:

“I saw you downloaded our whitepaper on offshore customer support centers. I hope you found it useful – especially since I saw that you expanding your product lines recently.  As you may know, Acme Inc just went through a similar transformation and their three biggest challenges were…”

Step 3 Ask questions.

The reason to ask questions is to find out where exactly in the sales funnel they are so that you can tailor your communication, your offers, and your activities accordingly. By now you’ve built enough credibility and trust that this step should come naturally.

Step 4 Ask for small commitments.

So now we know to give MUCH more than we ask, however we still need to ask for small commitments from our prospects along the way. The point here is that by leveraging the principle of reciprocity (people are hard wired to give back) you gently walk the prospect down the funnel. Here are some of the examples of such commitments:

Time:

E.g.: Would you take 3 minutes out of your day to talk to your peer who is our current client?

Information:

E.g.: What is your budgeting cycle? Who needs to review/approve? What are your key initiatives for the next 12 months?

Introduction:

E.g.: Would you introduce us to your head of procurement?

Step 5 Calling in favors.

Closing the sale – this is the easiest step. By now the prospect received so much value out of this relationship, grew to trust you as an expert and an always-there friend, that this “ask” is not only not weird, but actually natural and expected.

It is all about sequence (give before ask) and amplification (give WAY MORE than ask).