[Step 3 of 6] – Connect, Captivate and Convert

“Son, one question that will help you win more business is: ‘If I can show you a way to [fill in the blank….e.g increase your sales/solve your number 1 problem/achieve your goal] would you be interested?”.   A question that he used countless times to great effect.

I was still at school and Dad was encouraging me to learn about business and selling.  Selling was his life.  Time and again he would share stories of business or techniques to make more sales.  Earlier in his career Dad was a commission only salesman working for the UK arm of an American company.  He was good at it. He was persistent, he cold called, he demonstrated the products, built rapport and asked for the order.

Whilst demonstration, persistence, building relationships and asking for the order are effective techniques, today we need to do more to grab our prospects attention and nurture the relationship so that a sale can be made.

We have to do more to convert potential prospects into customers and then raving fans.

Over the last two weeks in my blog I shared the first two steps of ‘The Growth Code’ my business growth system to create predictable business growth:

Step 1: Compelling Vision – build a compelling vision for you and your teams

Step 2: Culture – create a high performance culture

This week I am going to share with you Step 3 in how to create predictable business growth: Convert.

How to connect with your prospects, grab and keep their attention (i.e. captivate them) and then convert them from prospect to customer.  The techniques that are not only effective but crucial to increasing your sales conversions in the current market place:

i.Connect

Talk to one person
Your marketing should speak to one person, your ideal target customer. Good marketing should turn off the people you do not want as customers for your business and engage those that you do.  It should pre-qualify the kind of people that you want as your customers.  To do this, you and your teams need to have a clear ‘customer avatar’ i.e. a clear description of your ideal customer, their challenges, interests, aspirations and drivers.  The more you know about your ideal customer, the more your marketing messages will grab their attention.

Meet them where they are
If you know clearly who you are targeting then you will know the kind of problems that keep them awake at night, their frustrations and aspirations. When two people share an experience together it bonds them.

Your marketing should meet them where they are.  It should describe the problems that they are likely to be grappling with and the results they aspire to. The better you do this, the better you will connect with a potential customer.

Put deposits in the relationship bank account
So much of advertising and marketing used to be “buy this”, “buy this”.  As customers we are not just resistant to this, we are anaesthetised to it.  Leading internet marketer Ryan Deiss says that every time you make an offer/ask for a sale it is like you are making a withdrawal from the relationship bank account.

Instead, put deposits in the relationship bank account by delivering value first. Produce high quality content (written, audio or video) that addresses the problems and desired results of your target customers.  Lead with value.

ii. Captivate

Once you have caught their attention and connected then you need to captivate them in order to keep their attention.

Build the brand of the personality
The companies that are standing out in the market place right now are the ones that not only build the brand of the product and the brand of the company, they also build the brand of the personality or personalities in their business.  They have someone who is, in author Daniel Priestley’s language, a “Key Person of Influence”.

In order for your business to be the ‘go to’ company in your market place you need to consistently deliver high value content as explained above and do it where the key people of your business show up authentically in your marketing and interactions with your (prospective) customers.  The old adage of ‘people buy off people they know, like and trust’ is as true today as ever.  As consumers we crave authenticity and want to know the company we are buying from are the real deal.

Build assets to move from prospect to customer.
To demonstrate your company is the real deal and as part of “putting deposits in the relationship bank account” create high quality marketing content such as a video series, infographics, insider tips, ‘how to’ articles. These will be assets to your company because they demonstrate to your market place the depth of knowledge and capability your company possesses.

Copious Content.
Be consistent. A relationship is not built off one act.  For your company to earn the trust of your target customer you need to provide a consistent stream of good quality content that speaks to them directly, addressing their problems and aspirations.  In the words of Daniel Priestley “Prolific is better than Perfect”.

iii. Convert
Once we have put enough deposits in the relationship bank account, once we have built a relationship based on delivering value first, we can then make an offer, an invitation to buy your product or service.  To convert, first you have to have built trust.

Your Promise.
What will your product or service deliver for your customer? By buying our product/service you will get ….
A customer does not buy your product or service because they want the product/service.  They buy it because of what it will give them, get them, do for them.  Be sure that time is spent on getting clear on what the promise of your product or service is.  The clearer and more compelling the promise, the more you will convert.

Convincer
Whether we are consciously aware of it or not, we all have decision making strategies. Specifically, we all have buying strategies.   There are the conscious and often unconscious patterns we run as we evaluate and then make the decision to buy.  The last stage in everyone’s buying/decision making strategy is the kinaesthetic i.e. the gut feel, ‘does this feel right?’.

Your sales process needs a convincer that helps those that are ‘sitting on the fence’ get that desirable gut feel ‘this feels right’.

Two very effective convincers are offering a money back guarantee, also known as risk reversal and customer testimonials.

A photograph of the author of the testimonial is better than just a written testimonial.  A video testimonial is even better still.  A customer case study is better than a testimonial.  These demonstrate to your prospective customer the actual results your product or service delivers. This builds trust and converts.

If you would like to increase the conversion rate of your sales team then use Step 3 of our Growth Code: Convert.  Put into practise the Connect, Captivate and Convert.

For more details about my six step business growth system “The Growth Code” go to www.growthcode.co.uk.