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Converting Prospects Into Customers

Written by: Corte Swearingen

Article Overview: Most small business owners are challenged when it comes to converting their prospects to customers. This article outlines three simple marketing strategies to help you move prospects into actual paying customers.

Converting Prospects Into Customers

Most small business owners are challenged when it comes to converting their prospects to customers. This article outlines three simple marketing strategies to help you move prospects into actual paying customers.

Strategy #1: Your Customer’s Goals Come Before Yours

The only successful way to approach a potential customer is with the honest desire to understand their problems and needs. The days of the “hard sell” are over. Customers have the ability, via the Web, to control the information that comes to them.

To ensure your customer’s goals are met, you simply need to repurpose your main marketing message. Instead of placing the focus on selling, explain how your product or service will make your customer’s lives better. Prove it through 3rd party testimonials, free downloadable product guides, tip sheets, and content-based newsletters.

What’s wrong with placing the focus on selling? Absolutely nothing! As a business owner, your ultimate goal is to sell. But you can’t sell unless you first warm up the prospect by showing them directly how they will benefit from your offering.

If you want to meet your business goals, you simply MUST focus on your customer’s goals first.

Strategy #2: Focus on Benefits, Not Features

You’ve probably heard this one over and over, but I still see web copy and brochures that focus way too much on product features.

Prospects are not going to care about that extra knob on the front if they can’t figure out how the product will solve a problem they are facing.

Strategy #3: Give Stuff Away

The best way to attract new clients and to convert Suspects to Prospects is to give away quality content. This means not only free content on your website, but also the creation and giveaway of free downloadable guides, tip sheets, white papers and ebooks. This also includes forms for sending out free product samples or scheduling a free demo.

The more quality stuff you give away, the more trust and credibility you’ll build and the more clients you’ll attract. Some aggressive marketers give away 95% of what they produce in order to sell the remaining 5%. This may sound like a poor strategy but it has literally made millionaire after millionaire.

My personal recommendation is to give away information in the form of ebooks, tip sheets or white papers. On the very last page of your download, you can add a little commercial about your products and services as well as your website URL and complete contact info.

I also recommend you capture the person’s first name and email address before allowing them to download your giveaway. Better yet, ask them to sign up for your monthly newsletter in exchange for the download.

Strategy #4: Develop a Compelling Guarantee

There are many ways to stand out from the crowd that don't rely on a particular product or service offering. Another way to do this is to create a compelling guarantee that no one else in your industry offers.

How about offering a 2-year product guarantee instead of the 1-year guarantee your competition offers? How about double your money back if not satisfied? How about a lifetime guarantee? Even if you offer a commodity-type product, you can easily set yourself apart by creating a compelling product or service guarantee.

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Article Tags: brochures, business goals, business owner, honest desire, main marketing, marketing strategies, product features, prospects, quality content, rsquo, small business owners, testimonials, tip sheets, web copy, white papers



Related Forum Posts
Simple way to avoid Cold Calling - Gary, A chiropractor I work with hates cold calling (me too!) and he uses a technique to warm people up to using his services - it's so simple! In Sales your dealing with 3 pools of people: 1. Strangers 2. Prospects 3. Returning Customers You need to move people from one pool to the next. We'll concentrate on #1 and #2 as it's most relevant to your question. My Clients does the following (you just have to tailor it to your situation - be creative). My Client (we'll call him Bob) Bob leverages his time and resources to only get people that need his offer (pain relief) to put their hand up. Dealing with Strangers can get expensive and they don't like to be told what to do as they have no trust or relationship built with him. So to get Strangers to put their hands up he writes up an offer with a free report on a particular pain relief - let's say lower back pain (note: he can simply just change lower back pain to neck pain and have a new report). and uses multiple marketing vehicles to promote the Free report - magazines, newspaper, forums, postcards, private clinics etc. The only people picking up this information are the very people Bob would like as customers as they have Lower back pain. Bob's Free report ends with him stating his services and includes a Free in-house Consultation with no obligation. You'd be surprised at how easily Bob converts Strangers into Prospects. Note: They become prospects when they ask for the Free Guide and in exchange provide their contact details. This gives Bob unlimited opportunity to contact them for the Free in-house consultation with no obligation to continue using him. At this stage Bob's ability to close the sale lies in his office providing good customer service, Bob's ability to help the prospect and provide value at the free in-house consultation. Notice, he hasn't had to pick up the phone to COLD-CALL his Stranger pool or his Prospect pool. Hope that example helps to increase your prospecting!
Re: Two Useful Books To Help You Focus On The CLIENT - Hi David, To add to your thread, I'd like to recommend Jonathan Tisch's "Chocolates On The Pillow Aren't Enough: Reinventing The Customer Experience". Tisch's book includes content on "Welcoming Customers", "The New Art of Customization", "The Challenges of Customer Diversity" and "Offering Something Extra to Your Customers" to name a few.
Re: Email Etiquette - [quote="jvprosperity":24jznj58] The P.S. suggestion is good but it depends on the type of communication (e.g. Autoresponder series verses one off emails to Clients or Prospects)[/quote:24jznj58] Andy, You are right. I was mainly referring to Auto Responder emails. To end a normal email, I attach signatures. Takuya
How to Do Great Marketing with (Amost) No Money - I've given this presentation to CEOs many times. Now i can share it with you. But I cannot because I do not yet have 20 posts. Jeff Ogden, President Find New Customers
Re: Are Business Owners too Old School to be Sold by a blog - [quote:140e27hj]Customers Pick Static Documents over Blog Entries 8 to 1 on Average[/quote:140e27hj] Interesting study. Just as a commenter said on your post... don't call it a blog. I agree.


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