Tweet

How to Make it Easy for Prospective Clients to Say Yes

Guest post by: Stephanie Ward

Article Overview: What are the buying barriers in your business? What is keeping prospective clients from saying yes?

How to Make it Easy for Prospective Clients to Say Yes

What are the buying barriers in your business? What is keeping prospective clients from saying yes? Take some time and really think about this.

If you don't know, tell people about your business and ask them the main reason they would hesitate buying.

You can also ask clients who have already hired you what doubts or questions they had before they hired you.

Some common buying barriers are:

- Fear (fear of taking action, of making the wrong decision)

- Investment (price)

- Uncertainty (about what they'll get)

Removing buying barriers is not, I stress not, about discounting your fees. Because the value is either there or it isn't. It's about making it easier for prospective clients to say yes.

So how do you address buying barriers? Here are some solutions:

FEAR BARRIER: Create a way for prospective clients to sample your business to be sure it's the right solution for them. You can also offer a guarantee.

INVESTMENT BARRIER: Offer a payment plan and/or reduce the time commitment. Clearly communicate the value they will receive.

UNCERTAINTY BARRIER: Identify and communicate all of the details about what clients will get, how it will work, and the results they will experience. You can put this on your website and create a FAQ section.

One barrier I recently removed from my business is the request to work together for at least six months (now clients can hire me for one month at a time). Yes, I know that if you want to attract more clients and transform your business it is reasonable that it can take six months.

And often times, clients want to work together for even longer than that. But some prospective clients only need help with one specific area and don't require lengthy support. So by offering coaching for one month a time, they have an offer that fits their needs and allows them to get exactly what they want.

If it is important to the success of your offering to have a required time frame, by all means keep it and explain why it is relevant. You don't want to reduce the effectiveness of your offerings in order to make a sale.

An option to remove a buying barrier in this case is to offer a payment plan where you spread the investment out over a few weeks or months.

You can also choose to offer both fixed packages and cafeteria style offerings (selling individual parts of a bigger offering).

This is what's so thrilling about owning your own business. It's your business, which gives you the power to decide how to create, package, and offer your offerings.

To remove the buying barriers in your business: start by identifying what they are, take action to eliminate them, and then communicate your newly structured offer with prospective clients.

© Stephanie Ward

Related Articles
  Get To Know (No) Fast
  More Questions, Better Questions
  Stop “Handling” Objections
  Sales Training For Service Businesses - Why Should I Use You? - Part 1 of 3
  Even Engineers Sell
  Theyre Interested Now What
  The Forgotten Art of Conversation
  One Sentence Value Statement: Branding Your Business
  Uh-oh..Are The Vultures Circling Over You?
  Creating A PR Roadmap
  Proven Marketing Strategies for 6-Figure Business Success: Designing Creative Payment Plan Options
  Online Business Success: Attracting Ideal Advisory Board Members
  The Credibility Factor
  10 Warning Signs That Prospective Client Is Not Right For You
  Utilizing Your Press Coverage
  Sales Tip: How To Research Your Market to be A Sales Expert
  Don't Pursue Clients, ATTRACT Them
  Legal Marketing: 5 ways to find clients on Twitter
  Secrets to Advertising Your Business
  How to Speak to Prospective Clients Without Leaving Home

Article Tags: business growth, buying barriers, clients, packages



Related Forum Posts
Re: Who Did You Learn Most From and Why? - Hi Martin, You missed out on the most essential community that helps you grow - Your Clients. Well, I believe that my Initial Clients have been the ones who have given me the moments of 'aha' in my business. They have stood by me even when I was a starter and that has helped me shape and build my stand. They have helped me grow as an entrepreneur, learn to have loads of patience and make the most of what comes across. They have also helped me to strengthen me as a person. btw, personally speaking, my Grandfather always kept me on track and lent me emotional support when I was down in any matter - be it business or otherwise.
20% increase - One of my businesses uses a system to help business owners manage customer relationships and encourage more referrals. I'm finding that this economy is making business owners take a second look at their business and it's assets (aka customers) to see how they can leverage them. Make those Customers (one-time sale) into Clients (repeat sales). I'm finding them more open to having this discussion with me and the results are speaking for itself. Everyone I've worked with so far has seen at least a 20% increase in sales or referrals within 4-6 months all done by managing an existing relationship.
Re: Quote of the Day - "The only people witho - Thanks for sharing this Evan, there are some very powerful quotes in there, I particularly like this one:- You are now at a crossroads. This is your opportunity to make the most important decision you will ever make. Forget your past. Who are you now? Who have you decided you really are now? Don't think about who you have been. Who are you now? Who have you decided to become? Make this decision consciously. Make it carefully. Make it powerfully. regards, Mal.
Re: e-Commerce and e-Payment providers - When I came back to Japan in 1999 I sometimes used to ask my students if they would buy anything on the Internet and at that time most thought it was too risky. I'd encourage them to try by using well known sites such as Amazon.co.jp and also pointed out that using a credit card on a reputable site was safer than using it at a restaurant. I can't remember the last time I had that discussion or when the "tipping point" occurred in Japan. To answer your other question, I use Paypal for several reasons: 1. Brand familiarity 2. Easy to use 3. Free to withdraw 50,000yen+ to my Japanese bank account - a huge benefit (but maybe other systems also offer that...?) 4. Easy to cancel subscriptions On the down side, their transaction fees are quite costly, they are difficult to contact and when disputes arise you can sometimes lose even when you can prove via your tracking service that the disputed item was "delivered" to the customer's address!
Re: Domain name sugestion - Hi Anelly, Support-Box.com sounds very good to me. Easy and catchy.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Clues to Increase Sales -- Listen to the Buyer

How do you keep it together on a daily basis?

Counselling - Who Needs It?

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.