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Fear is the most powerful motivator in the animal kingdom and make no mistake your prospective clients are in a decision-making jungle when selecting among the many providers in your market. Your ability to overcome buyer resistance will have an immediate and positive impact on your website sales.

Before we dive into a discussion of a few tools to overcome buyer’s remorse let me say that you must first be confident in the quality of your service and the way you deliver that service to have the confidence to put these tactics into motion. Consider the following as you build or revamp your website copy:

1. Guarantee:  Offer a no questions asked money back guarantee or a make-right deal for your customers.
2. Free trial:  Let prospective customers try your service before they buy.
   Bite sized chunks:  Similar to the free trial offer you provide prospects with a free piece of your offering. For example if you run a paid employment site offer prospective employers 5 free resume searches.
3. 24 hour customer service: Knowing that there will always be someone a phone call, email or forum post away from solving their post purchase problem goes a long way toward comforting the resistant buyer.
4. Referrals:  People look to others to help them make decisions, so get ahead of the process by building a referral system that proactively introduces your company to the friends of your clients and business partners.

Fear of wasting money on a bad decision overrides the interest generated by your stated benefits.  To bring prospective customers around you must be prepared to overcome their resistance.

How do you overcome the resistance?

Have you ever known a successful business owner who didn’t know a lot about their products, service and industry? Communicating your knowledge through text, audio and video content is your single best opportunity to build authority that leads to explosive sales and adding a blog to your website is the most efficient tool for building your business’s content library.

Mastering The Rule of 8:16

Friend and mentor Steve “Doc” Yankee taught me the rule of 8:16 which states it takes 8 communication touches over a 16 month period before the person who wants to do business with you actually pulls the trigger. By blogging consistently (3 times per week, minimum) you can get to that magic 8 touches far more efficiently than picking up the phone 8 times.   Blogging also gives you valuable leverage allowing you to reach hundreds or thousands of people with the same piece of content.  Try doing that with a telephone call.

Efficient Publishing

Writing and posting pdf and Word documents to your website is an ineffective and clunky publishing solution. First, visitors must have the proper plugin installed. In addition readers can’t search, comment to or otherwise organize downloadable files.  Blog technology with it’s simple implementation, categorization capability and interaction through comments is a far more elegant and efficient publishing process than uploading a bunch of files.

The fallacy of, “I don’t have enough time…”

I won’t lie to you; blogging takes time and commitment. Brainstorming post ideas, writing, editing and adding images is work; but doesn’t being successful take a lot of hard work? If your sales are through the roof then by all means pass on this opportunity but if you are struggling you can continue the cycle of lackluster performance or do something about it.

Whenever I hear people say, “I don’t have time to do all of that…” (after complaining about poor leads and sales, mind you); I tell them “You don’t have a time problem, you have an organization problem.” Hire an employee to take over some of your tedious work; find a virtual assistant to do article research; outsource all the mindless busy work that prevents you from doing your art…engaging opportunities. You will be surprised by how much time you find.

Now When Will You Start Your Blog?

I am a hawk for selling through teaching; providing free educational content related to your focused expertise to engage prospects in a virtual dialogue that leads to a sale. “Teaching Sells”, as Copyblogger’s Brian Clark calls it is the best way to persuade prospective customers and clients to do business with you but the real key is to show your tribe creative ways to use the tools you uncover instead of merely pointing them out.

What am I saying?

If you sell hardware, instead of telling me about the diverse mix of hammers you stock on the shelves; show me the proper technique for hammering a nail without smashing my fingers (more difficult than you might think). Instead of limiting my education to listing the various toothbrush styles, a dentist might create an instructional video showing proper brushing technique.

In a post Google world it is much simpler to ask a search engine for lists of helpful resources. Become indispensable to your customers by replacing that tired set of outbound resource links on your website with teaching content that promotes creative ways to use the resources you uncover. In fact, your brand is no longer your logo, your corporate colors and tagline. In this new world your brand is defined by how you empower your customers and clients to be their best.

How do you teach the man to fish?

In his book Linchpin Seth Godin sites the death of cheap and quick, noting that you can’t get much cheaper than $.50 mp3 music download.  What this statement says to me is that technology is making the creation of any product or service an easily delivered commodity but it won’t make the product remarkable and it is the remarkable product, the one that truly works that markets will reward handsomely.

How are you remarkable…

There is some way your services are or could be made outstanding but because you are a perfectionist you always see your work as falling short.  In truth your customers and clients are in a better position to reveal your remarkable brilliance.

The one question to ask…

The next time you communicate with your best customer, your raving fan make sure to ask her the following question, “What did we do that is not easily imitated?” You are likely to hear such responses as you took the extra time; you helped me understand; you showed me. The one thing you probably won’t hear is the mention of price because being cheap is not exceptional; anyone can achieve it.

Now put the answer to work…

This is not survey data or a focus group exercise.  Once you have input from 3 or so fans; replace your dead tagline or USP with your customer’s answer to our question.  Because this insight comes from a source much like the people you are attempting to reach, the message is more likely to be heard and internalized.   Add your new message to the top of your website, to your case study page and build a testimonial video around the new theme. Remember there is a groundswell of people who will reward the remarkable, so don’t let your fears sidetrack you.

Are you remarkable?

So your website has all the bells and whistles but only a trickle of business seems to be coming from it.  If this sounds familiar chances are during the development phase you made the all too common mistake of placing too much emphasis on the way your site looks, its design. 20% of your website’s success is a function of design.  Building trust in the minds of your visitors makes up the other 80% of the success equation. Trust building is where you should be focusing the majority of your effort if you want your website to deliver a torrent of hot leads desperate to do business with you.

Ever heard the statement, “people do business with those they like and trust”? It just so happens to be the one firm truth in business and by adding a few trust-building assets, your website will be fulfilling your expectations in no time.

1. Great Content: Teaching (not hard pitching) sells and adding useful, free information that helps your customers make better use of your products and services positions you as the market authority inspiring trust in the process. Interview your best clients at your blog, write an eBook detailing product use strategies or prepare a downloadable list of 10 great tips for using your services in PDF format.
2. Newsletter: Prospects must see your (trust-building) messages multiple times before they take action and sending a monthly newsletter filled with helpful, useful content (not sales pitches) simplifies this task.
3. Free Q/A Conference Calls: Use virtual conference services like Free Conference Calls or DimDim to answer your prospects’ questions about creative ways to use the valuable services you offer. Use these service’s recording tools to create audio versions of your sessions and add the recordings to your site or blog to reach an even greater number of prospects.
4. Social Proof:  The principle of social proof teaches that humans are genetically wired to shortcut the decision making process, thus we naturally seek the opinions of others to help us choose the right product or provider.  Proper use of testimonials on your site adds the social proof your prospects need to take the desired action, contacting you.
5. Media hits: If you actively pitch story angles to the media about your company (if you don’t, start!) adding press mentions to your site provides a stamp of approval from an authoritative and “objective” source.

As long as your site’s design passes the professionalism smell test, every dollar you spend beyond this point is money wasted. Shifting your focus from flash and pop to trust building is the best way to turn your site into a customer generating machine.

Do You Still Think Looks Mean Everything?

If you are a public speaker looking to land more speaking gigs or a business owner using speaking engagements as a way to reach new customers, you understand the impact of putting a visual spin on selling your speaking talents. You want would-be event planners to “see” you in action, right? Wrong!

Truth be told you might WANT your prospects to see you in action but what you NEED is for them to take action and book your services.  One can lead to the other but following the proven formula that we will walk through here is sure to land you more keynotes than a baby grand in a Ray Charles look-a-like contest.

The Formula

1. Your real audience:  The people in the seats, right?  If you are hosting your own event, then yes but chances are you will be considered by some organization to enlighten their tribe, in which case the event organizer is your client and you must rouse this person’s “buy” impulse.
2. Present the problem:  Whatever it is you talk about it is the Tylenol for someone’s pain and if it isn’t think up a new focus, after all desperate people buy. The first thing viewers should see and hear is the revelation of some dilemma that keeps them up at night. If you speak to sales teams try, “Is management hammering you about sales reaching a plateau?…Creating the best sales team is not about having the best sales people. No, its about using the right system so any person can succeed…”
3. The possibilities: Paint a picture of what your prospect’s world would be like if their problem no longer existed. “Instead of managing stomach pains from constantly trying to motivate your team, you will be spending more time helping your department grow…”
4. Your unique solution: Present the Tylenol for your prospect’s pain. “30 years of market testing and experience have gone into creating a five step system that makes your sales team feel like they aren’t even selling.”
5. Social proof:  In the presence of uncertainty, people turn to others to help them make decisions, “I wasn’t completely sure either but I had to get the department VP off my back…After seeing the results he even gave me a raise!” - Jane Customer
6. Time-sensitive action:  People are motivated more by losing a resource than its benefits, so a time sensitive offer activates the brain’s automatic scarcity trigger making your services appear far more attractive. Let me be clear here, do not lie or attempt to trick anyone. Relationships are your number one asset and anything that damages them must be avoided. “For a limited time our Phenomenal Sales System training is still being offered at our introductory rate but the window of opportunity is closing fast.  Book us today before the scheduled price increase…”

Make your speakers demo about them, not about you.  Playing motivational orchestral themes with shots of you running in the Boston Marathon might bring back your feeling of pride in accomplishment but it is not what’s keeping the decision maker up at night.  Follow this process and hit ‘em with your best shot…

What will you add to your speakers video?

Psychologists have understood for some time that our brains are wired to look for short cuts in the decision making process. In the wild, the faster we made a decision the greater the likelihood of surviving a dangerous encounter. Imagine the disastrous outcome of having an intellectual debate with yourself over whether or not to run from a snarling tiger?

Fast forward a few millennia

The remnants of our wild side are still with us and your would-be customers are bound by an innate drive to short cut their product search process and look to others to tell them what to do. Testimonials are just the social proof your customers need to swing their buy decision your way but there are a few things you need to keep in mind to make the most of your testimonials.

1. One of us: Make sure the customers you select to sing your praises look and behave in similar ways to your BEST customer. People take advice from others who are like them.
2. Don’t get buried:  Don’t relegate your testimonials to some remote page on your website. Trust me, noone will take the time to find them. Add social proof to the header image atop your site, add  scrolling slides to your home page featuring your best client quotes, contextually insert testimonials within your web page copy and add them to employee profiles…
3. Use experts:  Win favor from experts in your niche and get their opinion on your goods. Reporters, trade group leaders and industry watch dogs hold sway with your prospects and can motivate a strong desire to do business with you
4. Add a picture:  Include a photo of your client along with their testimony. We are wired to respond to visual stimulus and an image of a person connects better than text alone
5. Trust assets:  Use testimonials to get site visitors to use your trust-building assets (register for your newsletter, subscribe to your blog, download your eBooks and articles

Make it a system

In the presence of ignorance people follow the example of those around them. Make testimonial acquisition one of the steps in your customer management process and insert them in just the right place and at the right time to make your website work harder.

What did I leave out?

Introducing your website visitors to helpful tools they can immediately put to use in their businesses and in their lives is a powerful way to build trust and liking in the minds of your prospects.  Just in case you didn’t know people do business with those they like and trust; so if you have adopted the strategy of offering useful content, the best way to accelerate your success is to show your prospects how to use the tools you uncover instead of simply pointing them out.

A quick break to make a point

Avoid the “now what” syndrome…

By stopping at simply identifying the resource you lose the game because anyone can do this and quite frankly you leave your prospects thinking, “That’s interesting, so now what?” For instance I can tell you that Feedly is a great gizmo for organizing the content from all of the blogs you read but if I walk you through the steps it takes to use Feedly to build strong alliances with influential people in your networks, this can have a bottom line impact on your business and is far more useful.

Always remain relevant…

Now replace that dead, lifeless page of resource links with a valuable blog or article database that teaches your site visitors to become master users of the resources you dig up. Finding resources, great….making them work for others, priceless.

How do you use resources on your site?

It is survivors law that if you are in business you need customers to buy but how you go about making this happen is the difference between a business that soars or sinks. Anyone who knows me understands that I live by the rule “you get what you give” and until you have made a meaningful investment in helping your prospects, you haven’t won the right to introduce your products or services. Thanks Mr. Rogers for the lesson.

The other day I started following someone on Twitter who from his status updates (Tweets) seemed like an interesting enough person; that is until he started sending me pitches for a service he recently launched.  That’s right not even a hello or how are you doing?

The strategy of help…

Up front if you live to serve, to help; you will be rich in relationships, trust, authority and not to mention restful sleep knowing that you are not viewed as the newest con-man on the scene. From a monetary standpoint the strategy is equally effective as reciprocity kicks in and those you helped really work hard to return the favor by offering referrals, service trades, helpful resources and purchases.

On your website…

Replace a few of those “buy now”, “order this immediately” and related pitches with free information that can help your customers and clients. A free ebook, educational article or tips sheet will serve as the necessary handshake giving you the right to make the ask.

The next time you get frustrated after receiving a bad report from your accountant, find a charity and donate your services. Its the cure for what ails you and your business.

Who is the last person you helped?

Let’s face it we can be lazy at times even when it goes against our best interest. I know I should add the grocery items my wife requested to a written list but I don’t and to my detriment (slap upside the head, ouch!) I invariably forget something. Your customers and prospects are no different and by doing the hard, dirty work for them; your prospects will quickly turn into paying customers and raving fans who sing your praises on Twitter; become FaceBook fans and bring you more business.

Good News Your Competition is Lazy Too…

Its a fact that the majority of your top competitors are really good order takers who with McDonald’s-like precision deliver just what the customer asks for and nothing more. Below are some tips to separate yourself from the order taking crowd and own your niche by empowering prospects to change their lives.

1. Review complimentary products and services: If you sell real estate add reviews of local hardware stores or lawn maintenance services to your website.
2. Interview industry experts: If your store sells toys interview a product safety expert for safety tips related to a hot toy category and include the Q/A in your next newsletter.
3. Provide how-to’s: Fitness experts partner with a local video producer to create a video teaching your audience how to shop “healthy” at the local grocery. Teach them to read product labels, select fruit, etc. “Wow, I never knew that…” I can already hear them saying.
4. Book summaries: Read every good book in your space and write quick one page summaries trimming the fat and speeding the learning for your customers (Hint: get a Kindle ebook reader). Most people don’t read but you should!
5. Find opportunities: My friend Felicia does a great job here by connecting minority vendors to “real” project opportunities at firms looking for help. Everyone wins!

Feeling Inspired?

Stop selling stuff and start showing people how to improve their lives with your products. Expose them to resources they don’t know to seek or are otherwise too busy to look for.  This is game changing stuff, so fire up your site’s content management system or blog and get to doing the hard work (ha!). How do you help your customers hack life and make the days easier?