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The Five Step Online Selling Process

(November 28, 2003 - Westchester County, NY)

Whether you're using ecommerce to sell products online, or using your website to generate hot leads for your sales team, your site should take your visitors through a selling process that results in closing the sale.

Step One: Prospecting

Your website can "prospect" for you by attracting potential clients. First, you have to know who those prospects are and how they look for what you have to sell on the Internet. Search engine market research can uncover the exact terms that users type into search engines when looking for your products or services.

Once they find you, you website must communicate that they've come to the right place. Through copy writing, design and navigation, your site can serve as a help desk for the shoppers, guiding them along the
path to a sale that you want them to take.

Step Two: Building Rapport

There are a number of elements that contribute to building rapport online, among them:

• Download speed. Common courtesy to your prospects means not making them wait.
• Professional appearance.
• Trust elements. If you are an ecommerce site, make your secure certificate easy to find, and provide a useful privacy policy and returns policy.
• Relevance of images. Nothing should be accidental.
• Exceptional customer service. Make shopping easy and pleasurable.
• Make no assumptions about prior experience (with computers or products)
• Clear access to help. Provide relevant and clear instructions.
• Concise relevant information. Don't "data dump."

Step Three: Qualify Your Prospects

Begin a dialogue. Your questions are implicit in the hyperlinks you choose to provide. Be sure to address your three basic types of prospects:

1. Those who know exactly what they want
2. Those who know generally what they want
3. Those who are browsing and need some direction

Step Four: Present, or Point of Action

This is where you should answer questions, resolve objections, detail service plans and explain guarantees.

Step Five: Close

For ecommerce sites, make checking out easy and enjoyable. If you use your website to generate sales leads, make it simple and crystal clear how your prospect should contact you and what to expect if they do.