Freelance
Writers' Series
Career & Business Development Help
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Don't Overlook Prospects You've Already Attracted by Bob Leduc
1. Make A Memorable Impression: Create a reason for prospects and customers to notice you ...and to think of you when they encounter a competitor. Many prospects who do not buy from you the first time will come back to buy later. Existing customers will also remember you. They'll come back to buy again - and they'll send pre-sold referrals to you.
One easy way to establish a memorable
identity is to create an important reason
for customers to do business with you
instead of with your competitors. The advantage you offer doesn't have to
be dramatic to be memorable IF you promote
it aggressively. It can be as simple as
delivering faster results, more
personalized attention or a better
guarantee than your competitors. Tip: Combine several small
advantages like those described above to
create a big (and more memorable)
advantage over your competitors. 2. Follow Up Consistently: Most prospects do not buy the first
time they see or hear about you. But they
will if you follow up with them. Your follow up can be as simple as
contacting them occasionally with a new
offer. Or it can be more complex such as
publishing a weekly newsletter with useful
information and articles. If you don't already have a way to
collect their address, you can get it by
offering a valuable gift that you deliver
only by email or postal mail. For example, offer a special report, a
list of sources or some other valuable
information they cannot get anywhere else.
These are valuable to customers and
prospects - but they won't cost you much
to provide. 3. Make Sure You Answer These 7
Buyer's Questions: Prospective customers will not buy from
you until all 7 of the following questions
are answered. Customers may not
consciously think about these questions.
But they will not buy until all 7 are
answered in their minds: 1) Exactly what are you offering? Make sure you answer all 7 of these
buyer's questions in your web site, sales
letters and other selling tools. Tip: Present everything in term of the benefit it provides to customers. For example, don't just list testimonials from satisfied customers (your answer to question 3). Point out that those testimonials prove you really do deliver what you promise. 4. Keep Your Ordering Procedure Simple: Use an uncomplicated and fast ordering procedure. Every additional action you ask customers to perform and every additional decision you ask them to make after they already decided to buy can cause them to reverse their decision. For example, many online marketers use a shopping cart to process their orders when they could use a simple online order form. Each unnecessary step in the shopping cart process is an opportunity for customers to abandon their order ... a sale lost needlessly. Tip: Don't ask for unnecessary information during the ordering process. Instead, send a personalized "thank you" message after the sale and include a brief request for the additional information. Don't overlook the easy sales you can get from old prospects that are almost ready to buy? Use these 4 simple procedures to cultivate your "almost customers" and turn them into paying customers. *********************************
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