Trying to sell a visitor on a first visit is like asking someone to marry you the first time you meet. To improve your chances of closing the sale, first seek to build a relationship with the prospect. Building rapport can be done in several ways.
1) Educating
Explain a process or concept. Give step-by-step instructions and advice.
2) Problem solving
If there is a common problem your prospects face, develop a creative solution. Provide a simple, quick, and easy way to fix it.
3) Adding value
Provide something of value to your prospects. Ideally, use digital products and systems so that once the product is created, it does not cost you any extra to distribute it to 1,000 or 1,000,000.
Practically, these methods of relationship building are conducted through the following ways:
1) Articles
Writing articles about your area of expertise can allow you to dramatically increase your influence. By submitting articles you've written to relevant directories, you could get republished to dozens of publications and reach thousands of prospects. You will be positioned as an expert to these people, and they will come to you looking for answers.
2) Blogging
The benefits of building and maintaining a blog are similar to those of publishing articles. Posting new, interesting content will help you market yourself by educating others. It attracts inbound links from other websites, and can often boost your website traffic.
3) E-course
An email e-course can be built by taking 3-5 of your articles and setting up a newsletter publishing tool to send 1 article per day to each person that signs up. You will get the benefits of marketing through education, and the repetition of one article per day will further market yourself. Since the recipients have chosen to receive this from you, you can also include a message at the end of each email promoting your product or service.
4) Free tools & downloads
Building free tools that help your potential customers in some way is a powerful strategy to buliding traffic and relationships. Examples include calculators, generators, ebooks, and plugins. Often, these do not cost much time or effort to create, but provide a lot of value to your target audience.
Build relationships by sharing knowledge and giving away value before you try to close the sale. Doing so will not only improve your sales conversion rate, but will win you loyal customers and clients.
Louis Harvey
