Business owners typically have a pretty well-developed ability to set goals and provide a shared vision with their team. This is critical for them to be able to build something from nothing. And yet, they are often blind to what is potentially the best way to improve their conversion rate and their bottom line: improving the script that their “digital sales team” is presenting.
What Is a Digital Sales Team?
Your website, ad graphics, landing pages, and email marketing — your digital sales team — are a substantial part of your sales because they attract, nurture, and often close your prospects. The effectiveness of these marketing assets can have a huge impact on your capacity for growth and profits. You can look at this in very much the same way you measure the effectiveness of your human salespeople. If a salesperson is not closing efficiently, they are given additional training or shown the door. Unfortunately, your digital sales team often is not given the same scrutiny or training.
The majority of your marketing — the part that isn’t human — is very often the least trained portion of your sales team. Think about it: You send sales representatives to training, you help them understand the business and the audience, and you develop their unique selling proposition. You even create simplified elevator pitches and call scripts that members of your sales force practice for expos and networking groups.
However, business owners rarely do much to gauge the performance of their website messaging. All your sales efforts online and offline may be diminished by a poor website conversion strategy, which could be lowering your close rate across the board.
The Question to Ask for Conversion Rate Optimization
Over the last 23 years and thousands of clients, I’ve learned that the most important secret to conversion rate optimization (CRO) is not the design. While extremely important, design is still secondary to the messaging of your digital collateral.
The top-performing salespeople in your organization have a good understanding of the needs of your audience, and can present the benefits and competitive advantages easily. They know how to borrow some sales terminology, “to sell the sizzle, not the steak.” The prospective client usually already knows what you have to offer. That’s why they are talking to you -or why they visited your site in the first place. What your audience doesn’t know is why they should choose your solution over the myriad of other options available to them.
This is not rocket science; it’s a pretty obvious statement. But often, the most common mistakes are right in front of us. Many messages only say what is being offered and bury the details of their advantage in paragraph text that never gets read. The question that most business owners never ask is: “Does my collateral follow the same pitch that my sales team presents?”
This is extremely critical as conversions move into a more multifaceted process. Prospects tend to visit multiple times, on different devices, on different platforms, incorporating social proof, comparison sites, reviews, influencers, and more. This process is much easier than it used to be for the average consumer. Therefore, you need to continually hone the edge of your design as well as your message to make sure that they are each as effective as possible.
Brand Design Is Still Very Important to CRO
Don’t get me wrong, the quality of your brand’s design is very important. No one wants to buy from a site that looks out of date. But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard clients tell horror stories of redesigning their sites only to watch their conversions plummet. There are lots of reasons for this, but typically it’s because they hired designers that didn’t understand sales.
Looks aren’t everything. Beautiful branding won’t fix a business that isn’t providing value to its clients. Similarly, the best value on the market will not be successful if its poor messaging keeps its value a secret. Every step in your funnel should be aligned with your unique selling position. Make sure the impression you’re making is an accurate reflection of the quality you provide.
Good Messaging Requires Simplicity and Consistency
This takes some serious effort! The trick is to build a message that captures something meaningful and to make sure it is easily skimmable. Testing different messaging for their skim-ability is just as important as testing different button styles and stock photos – if not more so.
No matter what kind of website you have, the headlines are really important. Headlines have the biggest impact on your customers’ understanding of your unique selling proposition. They directly impact user engagement, readability, SEO, social sharing, and conversion rate.
After all, 90% of people will read a headline, but only 10% will read the paragraph text on your page.
Craft a beautiful headline to encourage customers to stick around and learn more about your business. Remember, simplicity is critical. Your visitors suffer from a large dose of information overload. As a result, it’s crucial to convey your primary message in the first five to 10 seconds of your user’s visit.
Within that time, you need to answer three questions:
- What do you do?
- How are you different?
- Where do I get started?
That’s why the position and size of your headline, CTA button, and phone number matter so much on the home page. Until you present a reason for visitors to pull out their critical thinking skills, they’re blind to the value your business offers.
The Ultimate Question: What Makes You Different?
You must give visitors a reason to care. What is your value proposition? What sets your business apart from the rest?
- Are you demonstrably better?
- Are you faster?
- Are you cheaper?
- Can you solve a problem like no other?
- Do you have a unique specialty?
Don’t fall back on the cliche of having better quality or support; it is typically not very memorable because it’s too often said and is difficult to prove.
Consistency within all of your marketing on this very simplified core message is the key to higher conversions. Make sure your marketing always answers the question ringing in every visitor’s mind: “Why should I choose this company?”
If 2023 is the year you want to convert more of the traffic that lands on your site, remember to supercharge your digital sales team. Be clear on your value proposition, that answer to the question of why they should choose your company. And then provide your site with that clear, simple messaging your human sales team uses to sell so well.
