How to not suck at sales: An authentic marketing masterclass
Have you ever had a truly TERRIBLE sales experience? Yeah, me too... in fact, I had a truly horrible sales conversation recently that truly exemplifies all of the worst sales techniques.
So let’s take this guy’s mistakes and learn how to not suck at sales!
How to not make sales feel icky
So, let me paint the picture for you of this horrible sales experience I had.
My little family is getting ready to go out for a Sunday stroll and my lovely husband closes our front door with the key still left in the lock on the inside… It could have happened to either of us honestly with a wiggly toddler in tow.
So we did a quick Google search and called the first locksmith that showed up. All fine at this point.
On the call, my husband explained our predicament and asked for the price to have someone come and let us back in. The guy said €80 - a bit steep to let us in our own apartment but not too bad so we said ok…
30 minutes later a guy shows up. He takes one look at our door and says it's going to be a tricky job getting it open and it's going to be more expensive... like an extra €300!
Not great, but the guy's already there and the little one is now getting very impatient - so we say ok, let's just get it taken care of.
So he takes a few minutes and pops the door open! Huzzah!
But that's just the beginning... He then goes on to say we now can't close our door because the lock is compromised and might get stuck again. And we need to replace it before closing our door again - so ASAP - and he has the pieces in his truck to take care of it for us now.
Ok... bit of a coincidence but we literally can't close the door, so we ask for the price to change the lock.
Wait for it... he gets out a pencil and paper and writes us a "super official" quote to do the work, all totalling €2500!!!!!
And then he has the gall to announce that he needs an answer NOW because he's getting a call for another job.
Needless to say, we felt SUPER PRESSURED to make a decision, we had no options and he had us cornered literally unable to leave our house...
So we bit the bullet and paid it, but felt absolutely horrible about the whole experience. You can bet we'll NEVER hire that guy again and are considering leaving a very unflattering review to warn our neighbourhood about this guy.
Here’s what went wrong in that sales experience
He gave us a quote that didn’t include all of the required work before we engaged his services
He cornered our decision to “upgrade” and applied way too much pressure to force the sale
His invoice didn’t appear “legitimate” or trustworthy
His online presence didn’t match up with the quality of service he provided
So, what does all of this have to do with your website?
Well, your website is the ideal place to set the scene for a truly positive buying experience for your potential clients!
You can list your prices, or even an "average investment", directly on your site to help potential buyers decide if they're ready to invest at that level
You could outline the process for working together upfront so there aren't any surprises along the way
Your streamlined invoicing and billing systems can reassure your new clients that their investment was a good idea and that their money is in the right hands.
And you can make sure to present an accurate representation of your services before people commit to working with you
Want to learn more about creating a positive (and effective!) buying experience on your website? Check out this article where I share my 5 best tips for creating a website that actually works for your service-based business.
