Every sales process involves some sort of barriers. The buyer has questions, concerns, or simply isn't convinced it's the right time or right investment. When it comes to selling things to your website visitors, it's wise to consider what barriers to sale might exists, and address them head on.
Of course you need to make sure that your visitors are interested in what you’re selling, that they know what it is and that they think it’s worth the money. But even at this stage, you might find they still don’t buy from you. In that case, the likelihood is that they’re psychologically blocked from buying by something that putting them off of the idea.
These are your barriers to sale. And at this point, these are all that is between you and a new customer! So what are these barriers and how do you break them down?
Trust
The first barrier to sale is trust. That means that you need to make sure your buyer trusts you enough to buy from you and trusts your website as well so that they know their details aren’t going to get lost in the clouds. Buying from brands online can be nerve wracking because we have no way of guaranteeing they’re really going to send us the products.
So how do you overcome this? One option is to show social proof with customer reviews or testimonials. Also important is to make sure your site looks as professional as possible so that there’s no question as to whether you’re a professional operation.
Effort
Also standing in your way is the effort it takes for people to buy. That is to say that people hate having to type in their payment details and go through the process of getting out their debit or credit card. In fact, this can be enough to put them off buying something they want! The solution is to make sure you’re making it as easy as possible for them. One of the best ways to do that is to use a well-known payment gateway – like PayPal – where they probably already have bank or card payment stored!
Buyers’ Remorse
Buyers’ remorse is the guilt that someone often feels upon buying – and the guilt they anticipate to feel prior to making that purchase. You need to mitigate this and one way to do that is to demonstrate that your product is an investment in some way, or that it will make life genuinely better.
Risk
There is still always risk with a product. For example, it might just not be as good as it looks on your website! To overcome this, one thing you can do is to offer a full money back guarantee. In reality, few people are likely to use it. Simply having it there though will usually be enough to make them much more likely to buy from you!
Overcoming Barriers
The best way to counteract the barriers in selling online is to have a well-constructed funnel in place. A funnel is the sequenced process of getting people from their initial point of contact with you to the moment they become a customer. And creating the perfect funnel formula is an important part of marketing in all types of online business. Want to discover a complete formula formula for yourself? Check out our case study video on how to automate your marketing funnel to get more leads and make more sales like clockwork.
