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Guest post by: Janis Pettit Become an Author

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When concerned business owners come to me and ask how they can increase sales or convert more leads to buyers, I start by asking them these five simple questions.

1. What are you trying to sell and what is your process?
2. What are the biggest benefit people get from purchasing this product?
3. What marketing message are you using to compel them to take action?
4. How do you know they need this product?
5. What is your target market?

From the answers I get I can usually figure out exactly what’s not working and how to fix it.
Converting prospects to buyers is not that hard if you are targeting a market that is:

- Hungry for what you’re offering.
- Willing and able to pay for it.
- Fairly easy to reach.

Many people create products that they believe in and that they are convinced others will want before researching what people are buying and searching for. Then they are disappointed when sales are slow.

The process needs to happen in reverse. First you find out what your market needs and
wants, then you develop a product or service that directly fills that need and offer it to them.

You can discover what people want by doing surveys, by researching what your most successful competitors are offering, by going to Amazon and seeing what the top selling books are in your market, or by doing keyword research.

Let’s look at two of these research tools.

1. Amazon—if a book is selling then there’s something about the title and description that compels people to buy. That should give you a clear message. Also look at the reader reviews. People will tell you why the book helped them or what they liked or didn’t like. This information is like striking gold if you’re trying to figure out what will sell.
2. Keyword research – most people think that the only reason to do keyword research is to find out what keywords to use on their website for the purpose of optimizing their webs pages for the search engines. But when you find a large number of people searching for a specific answer, piece of information, solution or product, BINGO! It’s like they’re talking to you and telling you what they want.

Customers are looking for very specific solutions to their problems and if you can provide it you’ll struggle less, save on marketing expense and sell more. The market place is becoming more “niched”. By that I mean that there is so much competition and there are so many choices that people look for very specific solutions. For example, if you need heart surgery would you go to a general surgeon or a general practitioner? Of course not, you’d go to a heart surgeon.

So giving people exactly what they’re looking for will greatly improve your odds of closing a sale. In future articles I’ll talk about the importance of creating the right marketing message and call-to-action, which are the next steps you need to master to increase your sales. Be smart and strategic about your approach to sales!

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