Would You Buy From You?

One of the most common issues we have to explain to companies when reviewing their poor sales results is that they simply don't smell right. By that I mean that if I was a potential buyer of their services I would not be convinced by what I see and read on their website. This often means that all the hard work they have put into networking and getting their message out to the market can be undone in a couple of moments when the potential client decides that you don't look big, smart or professional enough for them to contact.

Typically people who are looking to buy a service or products from a supplier go to their network first (some do find you online but few) and when companies get recommended the first thing the buyer does is go online and review their website. Hey nothing new there, we all do it.

But when we look at their sales targets this is where the conversation gets interesting. Many of our clients wish to speak with medium sized businesses ranging from 2-10 million and above. At this point when reviewing what they are saying, what they look like and their sales collateral it just doesn't stack up. Often there is at least one flaw in their brand. Whether that be over selling (by this I mean trying to sell too much), not defining a clear differentiator (they often think they do but haven't followed the messaging through to all communication points), their business and therefore the sales people not defining a clear strategy to open doors and conversations or not thinking through the sales process and what will be required throughout the process to land the client.

So many things can go wrong in a sales process and therefore everything needs to be considered and refined and then processes put in place internally so that if it doesn't work you can spot why through measuring the process.

So here's a simple test to undertake. Gather four or five of your key people together and run the trust no trust process.

The simple way to do this is by going online and searching all the key words you would use if you were trying to find you. This will show up all the competitors you know of but also all of those you don't. Ensure you have around 20 or so.

From there print off the sites onto separate A4 sheets (A3 is even better) and play a game. Ensure everyone in the room understands that they are now the CEO, MD, owner of the business who is going to buy your services. 

Then hold the sites up in the room one by one. Give the room around 10 seconds to decide 'do they go in the trust or no trust pile'. People usually make their minds up much quicker but don't be mean. The last website should be your companies. Typically we find that the trust pile has around 5 businesses in it and the no trust has the rest.

You may find that yours ends up in the no trust pile...don't be shocked by this. The main reason to run through this is to see who you would trust. Then you can look at the ones you do and see why. What are they doing well? Why would people pick them over the others? From this perspective you can look at what they are doing right and what you need to do to ensure you stand out from them.

It may mean you need to redesign the website and hence your sales collateral. It may mean you just need to tighten things up. Most importantly you'll be looking at yourselves from the perspective of a potential client and this in itself should give good direction to make changes from an informed perspective.

You can then look at all of your sales collateral and apply the thinking to your sales pieces. Do be warned though, sometimes this can be very painful as often we find that this unearths a lot of changes required which can impact processes, operations and company direction.  You have been warned and forewarned is forearmed.

Good luck!