Having the Best Internet Selling Tool Doesn’t Guarantee It’s Used Correctly

Five questions for small businesses when selling good and services.

Fortune 500 companies and small businesses are making unbelievable mistakes when trying to sell their goods and services.

In our business of helping clients generate more sales, we know how important the internet has become in terms of how consumers shop and make decisions about what it is you have to sell. The problems we are finding is that companies around the globe are investing heavily in technology, but have forgotten to check if it actually works.

(These are real stories that we have experienced as a result of our research.)

Here are some of the most REAL recent fumbles businesses are making as a result of focusing on the TECH, and not focusing on whether or not the TECH was delivering what the customer wanted.

Five core questions small business owners need to ask to drive sales:

1.   Imagine if a customer walked into your business and your first question of the customer was, “Where are you?”

We recently shopped a company, whose parent company operated in several countries at the same time.

I entered the website within the specific country, and their centralized Live Chat greeting me and then asked which country I was from.  The conversation was professional and the response was quick, but they had no idea where I was coming from.

Take into account that I had initiated the conversation from a country specific site.

2.   “How would you feel if you provided information to the business you showed interest in buying from and they not only didn’t take the information you presented, but there was no way to give it to them?”

This one was simply confusing.

On a mystery shopping activity, we clicked on the sites ‘contact us” page, entered our information, and then searched high and low for the send button.

Turns out it was not there at all. The website was spectacular and matched the brand standard (big international company). Yet, they failed to make sure the send button was on their page.

3.   What would your business look like if I asked a question in what appeared to be a LIVE conversation, and it took 17 hours to get a response?

Imagine you are the customer and you initiate contact because your situation is urgent.

The top of the website offers a “Live Chat” option, so you click and hope they will get back to you right away. You enter your information and you get an instant email recognizing your request. All sounds good so far.

But then you wait 17 hours for a response. How many customers would wait 17 hours for a response if the situation was urgent?

The worst part was that the response was generic and did not solve the original request.

Next- Core questions small business owners need to ask #4 and #5