5 Secrets to Selling Products & Services to Your Audience   by Susan Harrow

1. Know your audience.

How can you tailor information to your audience if you don`t
know who they are? In almost every article, book, or manual
on publicity and marketing you`ll hear this one--and yet few
people heed it. When I spoke at the Los Angeles Gift Show it
became evident that many retailers and buyers didn`t know
their audience. Fellow speaker and communications expert
Kare Anderson (http://www.sayitbetter.com) polled over 60
exhibitors and discovered that only 2 felt they knew the
type of person they were targeting. Huh? How can they sell
products to people they can`t even profile?

To serve your market you`ll want to know what problems you
can solve for them, and more specifically what your audience
longs for. Most of us have what we need, but desire more or
less of what we have--or we yearn for something different or
better. A poem by the Japanese Haiku master Basho describes
this essential state of the human condition--this longing
for something other than we are or have.

Even in Kyoto- Hearing the cuckoo`s cry- I long for Kyoto.

Give people what they are longing for and you will find a
permanent place in their hearts.

2. Test, test, then test again.

Many webmasters don`t test your shopping cart on different
computer platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux), with different
browsers, or with various computer configurations. This is
essential!

The $10,000/hour speaker discussed above insisted that the
shopping cart on his website worked from his computer,
though he admitted that he`d heard from a number of people
it was often *down.* I tested it on my Mac and Windows PC
with both Netscape and Internet Explorer and couldn`t get it
to function at all.

Understand that I`m no techie (biggest understatement of
the year) so these were the most basic of tests, all done
from a marketing vs. technical standpoint. If you are your
own webmaster, have your friends and associates test your
ecommerce sections, and your website in general, before you
unleash your brilliance on the world. It`s amazing all the
things that can go wrong on a web site, including things
that you or your tech help hasn`t thought of. While it`s
impossible to go through every conceivable configuration, it
is possible to take care of all the major ones.

3. Take the annoyance out of shopping.

In other words, make buying from you a pleasure. I was on a
*professional marketer`s* site to scope out a product he
sells for $97. I muddled my way through a century of copy
before I could get to the actual *click to buy button.* I
know he and other Internet marketers like him think this
direct marketing technique (long copy, addressing every
objection, the illusion of giving away meaningful
information) really sells the product--but it doesn`t work
if they don`t make it easy to get the product in the basket.

After about 5 minutes of clicking forward and backward, I
gave up. (By the way, women have less patience on the
Internet than men). Chalk up another lost sale for him.

Use the fewest number of clicks to get a buyer to where
they`re going (to the checkout). This means in navigating
forward, toward the final sale, or backward to add more
items to their cart. Don`t have your potential customer
waste time and effort trying to figure out where or what to
click, because they won`t--they`ll simply leave. Model
yourself after amazon.com who makes the process simple and
easy.

Also, explain every step of your ordering process so that
people feel confident of where they are going and what they
can expect from you. This means everything from screens that
verify the information is correctly filled out on forms, to
email messages confirming and precisely explaining the
shipping method and timeframe.

4. Don`t sacrifice image for speed.

Think about it. If someone is paying you a substantial sum
for your services and your website comes across like a poor
pauper, do you think they`ll retain their confidence in you?

It`s important to concern yourself deeply about the kind of
image you`re projecting before you slap something up on your
website that you`ll be sorry for later. Donald Rumsfeld, our
current Secretary of Defense, former chairman of the
*transition team* for President Ford, and the former White
House chief of staff, gives this advice, *Think ahead. Don`t
let day-to-day operations drive out planning. Plan backward
as well as forward. Set objectives and trace back to see how
to achieve them. You may find that no path can get you
there. Plan forward to see where your steps will take you,
which may not be clear or intuitive.*

Some questions to ask to help you get clear:

Is what you`re offering soft or hard-edged enough for the
kind of audience you want to attract? What are the qualities
your audience is looking for from you? Is what you do
completely clear? Are the products you sell filled with
knowledge and information (or in the case of 3-D products
originality and true value) your buyers can`t get from your
competitors? Do you make it easy to buy? Remember that most
information can be found elsewhere, but your wisdom cannot.

5. Your website image must match everything you *do, say and
are.*

Create continuity, in person, on paper, and on the Internet.
You must come across as professional, trustworthy, and
knowledgeable. When I was interviewing people for my book,
*Sell Yourself Without Selling Your Soul,* I turned to the
expertise of a professional PR listserve to which I
subscribe. One woman, whose knowledge and online manner I`d
come to admire, was first on my list to call. I visited her
website to research her background before I contacted her. I
was baffled to find little dolphins and other silly-looking
characters that had nothing to do with a theme or anything
else for that matter, on her site. Needless to say her
esteem dropped in my eyes. I never called.

On the other hand, my client Leslie Kirk Campbell, Founder
of the Ripe Fruit School of writing, took the time to
ruminate over her website for months. She carefully chose
photos that gave her potential clients a real sense of her
as a teacher and leader. She poured over hundreds of
testimonials to select just the right ones that captured the
essence of taking a class or going on a writing retreat. And
she thought intensely about what it was that people whose
creativity was stifled, stalled, on brief hiatus, or in full
roar, would need from her. Her site isn`t *perfect* and it`s
still in evolution, but the basics for what her audience
needs are there. See what she came up with that represents
her teaching/living style and her love of language at:
http://www.ripefruitwriting.com

A Wall Street Journal article about the best Southern pork
barbeque,illustrates my point. Restaurateur Wilbur King who
got started doing mail order Bar-B-Q by sending care
packages of his *Kingston, N.C., `cue to displaced locals,*
said that he didn`t want to make his website too slick.
*People have an image in their mind, and if it`s not three
rednecks over a pit in the woods, they think it`s not the
real deal.* Smart marketer this Bar-B-Q salesman.

Another great example of how look and feel serenely match is
Feng Shui expert Shannon Lee Turner`s website. Visit at
http://www.tranquilspaces.com to get a sense of how the
content, images, design, graphics, and services are
completely congruous. Besides offering classes and business
or residential consultations, Shannon also has a free weekly
newsletter called *Feng Shui Tips.* You`ll get many
fascinating ideas about how to run your business better with
insights on structuring your environment. Her newsletter
also perfectly matches the sensibility of her business. To
subscribe to the list, send your name and city of residence
to mailto:tips@tranquilspaces.com

I look forward to getting this one in my mailbox. It always
contains both wise advice and a beautiful quote or poem. By
the way, there is no archive of the past tips so the only
way to get them is to subscribe.

6. BONUS TIP! Don`t give your customers too many choices.

Potential customers will log off if they`re confronted with
a dizzying display of decisions. Case in point, a friend of
mine was looking to buy the Herman Miller Aeron chair on a
site that advertised it for a great price and free shipping.
First he needed to choose a size. Then the color of the
frame. Then the color of the material. Next, the color for
the arms, and the size and type of casters, and on and on!
He decided he couldn`t make a decision unless he saw the
darn chair.

The solution? Offer a few of the most popular standards
first. Then note that any of the items can be customized.
It`s your job to help guide your customers to the optimal
answers to the most common asked questions--before they`re
asked. Since you`re tracking your most popular items you can
let people know what has worked best for others. You`re
helping them make an intelligent decision. In other words,
simplify the thinking and ordering process so it`s a quick
and easy process.

Back to my original point. While the ordering process is
crucial, the look and feel of your website may be more
important than you think. It`s a surprising fact that people
remember feelings more than the specifics of what you say.
Make sure your online image matches your expertise and the
feeling you want to leave with people. Warrant that every
step someone takes on your website is in the direction you
want them to go. Finally, take the time to ensure that their
journey is the guided tour you want them to take.

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