It is always our attempt to bring you the best solutions, content, tools and methodology to make everything we do in life better than what we did before. ‘Online Selling Techniques’ guide is the part of that attempt.
We bring to you a comprehensive guide on ‘Online Selling Techniques’ that can help employees, organization and this time also independent bloggers and professions to sell better online.
How to successfully sell online?
The 11 Cs of building a successful online business
1. Content
Content sets the tone and drives your brand. I should be simple and clear with visually appealing elements . Also important is that your content has consistency.
It cannot be that your brand used to include a lot of humour in the content for some time and now uses fact based content completely without any humour now.
A major change in content if so necessary has to be slow and gradual and never sudden.
Also important is that your customers are able to access information quickly and easily and you control the flow of information. Learn about how and why people buy to tailor your content to match buyer’s buying cycle.
2. Communication
Communication is more than providing information. It is about listening, building trust and having a one-to-one relationship with customers.
Understand what interests and motivates customers, give them the opportunity to interact, act on feedback and use click-stream data to monitor behavior. Always create channels for customers and other stakeholders to communicate to you easily.
You must provide options to subscribe to your business. There should also be a contact form where people can connect with you quickly.
A feedback and review for product/service or your website collection mechanism should help you more than it helps the customer. You must implement it if not already done.
You also need to build trust with your customer through your communication. Read how to build trust
3. Customer First
Customers need to trust you – to have confidence in purchases and to know that personal data is secure and that after-sales support is available. Provide various payment methods, enable customers to track orders and respond quickly to questions. Positive experiences enable up-selling, cross-selling, repeat business and personal recommendations.
4. Community and Culture
People look to the Internet to network and socialize. Provide expert information, in short share knowledge and help others in need. Also allow people to react, ensure that information is accessible, clear and entertaining, and enable customers to meet and interact.
5. Convenience
Customers have high expectations, so assess each feature from your customers’ viewpoint. Online experiences need to be smooth, effective, quick, easy and convenient. Ensure that navigation is clear and intuitive.
6. Connectivity
Make the site compelling and ‘sticky’ – so that customers stay longer, return often and recommend it. Ensure that customers value it by providing high-quality content and incentives to return. Enable customers to visit other sites that provide complementary information – such as skiing companies linking to weather channels.
7. Cost and Profitability
Your online strategy – objectives, priorities and benefits – needs to be clearly understood and planned. Focus on cost control and profit maximization to ensure that the site is profitable.
8. Customization
Plan customization from the outset rather than grafting it on later. Ensure that products meet customer’s requirements through dialogue. Make sure that customers know what they can and cannot choose. Develop and refine customization to maintain competitiveness.
9. Capability
To improve capabilities, encourage your people to see the Internet as a tool for meeting customer needs. Set, implement, measure and monitor objectives. Ask customers what they want and what they think of your plans.
10. Competitiveness
Continually review and refine your strategy relative to competitors. You need a keen market awareness – you need to know what competitors have done, are doing and may do. Consider the worst-case scenario to make your online strategy durable and realistic.
11. Care
The most important part of building and selling successfully in online business is to genuinely care for your customers. No online business can last long if it doesn’t care for its customer, and that needs to be genuine.
Never offer or sell anything that will make your customer not willing to come again to your business, this is a thumb-rule that you need to follow.
Also important is the fact that you understand how to sell anything, learn about face to face selling technique. Any online selling is an extension of a sales deal done face to face and important that you know about it.