Stop Sabotaging Your Sales

By Bob Leduc
Posted Saturday, October 2, 2004

Do your web pages, sales letters or personal presentations include subtle distractions that unnecessarily cause you to lose sales?

Sometimes prospective customers get distracted during the selling process by outside interruptions. You cannot control those. But many sales-killing distractions are caused by what you put in your web pages and other sales messages ...or by what you say in your personal presentations.

Here are 3 unnecessary distractions you may be creating that sabotage your sales - and how you can avoid them:

1. Requiring Customers to Make Unnecessary Decisions

Design your selling process so prospects do not have to make unnecessary decisions.

Some prospects have difficulty making a clear decision when they have several options. They often react by procrastinating and never making a decision ...and you lose the sale you already made.

Tip: Promote only one product or service at a time. You can develop separate promotions for each product or service you sell. You can even combine several products and services into one package. But always limit your prospect's buying decision to "yes" or "no". Don't distract them with a "which one" decision.

2. Diverting Your Customer's Attention to Something Else

Don't include anything in your selling procedure that can divert attention away from your selling process.

For example, I often see sales oriented web pages that provide clickable links to other web sites with the testimonials. Why would any marketer want to send prospective customers to another web site in the middle of their presentation?

Some prospects will never come back. And for those that do, the flow of the selling process was interrupted - reducing the likelihood of closing the sale. Clickable links have many advantages ...but not when they are in the middle of your sales presentation.

Tip: Review what you usually say in live sales presentations and what you include in your web pages and other sales messages. Look for unnecessary diversions you may have included - and get rid of them.

3. Presenting Unpleasant Surprises

Avoid including any unpleasant surprises in your selling process - especially near the end.

For example: Many websites do not mention shipping charges until the very last screen of the shopping cart. This unpleasant surprise is one of the major reasons why customers abandon online orders. You can avoid this by always including the shipping charge wherever you list the price.

Tip: An unpleasant surprise can kill a sale. But a pleasant surprise can help close a sale. For example, adding an unexpected bonus immediately before your prospect takes the last action to complete a sale will usually eliminate any last minute hesitation.

Don't ask your prospects to make unnecessary decisions. Avoid diverting their attention away from your selling presentation. And don't alarm them with any unpleasant surprises.

It's hard enough to get a prospective customers attention once. If you distract them unnecessarily with something else you may not be able to get their attention again ...and you will lose a sale needlessly.

About the Author
Bob Leduc spent 20 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales. He just released a New Edition of his manual, How To Build Your Small Business Fast With Simple Postcards ...and launched *BizTips from Bob*, a newsletter to help small businesses grow and prosper. You'll find his low-cost marketing methods at: (http://BobLeduc.com)