Not getting inquiries from your website?
Chances are that visitors, potential prospects, are confused. They don’t know what you’re offering them. The headings on your website make no sense to them. Their common questions aren’t answered. They’re not sure where to get information.
So they get frustrated and leave…
For small businesses that sell a product or service to other businesses, inquiries are the lifeblood.
Yes, existing customers are extremely important. It is less expensive to hold on to a customer you have than to get a new customer.
However, without new customers you’re not going to grow. Yes, you can work your existing clients for more business. You can offer them new products, other services and more, but that well runs dry after a while.
New customers, however, present a near endless amount of growth opportunity.
Let’s bring it back around to your website…
How is your website doing as far as inquiries? Are you getting the inquiries you need to achieve the growth you want or could have?
Your Website Is Your Online Salesperson
Things get off on the wrong foot with business websites when they are thought of as a place for people to find you online. Yes, that is what happens in a general sense, but the way to improve conversions on your website is to approach your website like it’s your online salesperson.
If you’re a small business you might be the main salesperson. You take on the challenge of taking a potential customer and turning them into a paying customer. Think of how that process works.
It often begins with some kind of discovery. An existing customer refers someone they know to you and your company. Maybe you run an advertisement somewhere and a prospect comes to you. The same could happen if you get some publicity in the local media. Or maybe you bump into prospects at conferences or networking event.
Next, you describe what you do. You ask questions about the prospect and their business. You don’t get into too much detail about what you offer. The prospect likely isn’t ready for that quite yet. But they see what you can potentially offer them and next comes…
Some small talk. You talk about who you are. Who your company is. What your values are. What you do on the weekends. What’s important to you in life. You go back and forth with the prospect getting a feel for who they are as well.
Next come the details. Now it’s time to get into the meat and potatoes of what you can do for the prospect on a business level. This could require a lot of information, a lot of content. Now, there might be some detailed discussion and some back and forth on the small talk and who you are, but you’re talking details and working to convince the prospect that you’re the right person for their company.
Finally, the prospect reaches across the table with an open hand and you shake on a deal.
Is that how it happens in real life for your company?
In person, in meetings. On the phone. Maybe a little via email. It’s always the same process or nearly the same process.
Approach your website as if it’s your online salesperson. The same sales process will occur. It will just occur on your website and you have to treat it that way.
The Sales Process On Your Website
Now that we’ve worked through your sales process it’s time to put that process on your website.
If it’s you, take down your notes as you work through the process in your mind. You don’t need to be the final copywriter for the content on the website, but your thoughts and notes will be necessary. The same goes if you have salespeople on staff and you’ll also want input from Account Managers and Customer Service folks.
In general, the flow on the website will be that a point of discovery leads a person to your homepage.
That might be a referral. Someone tells someone they know about your company. They go directly to your website. They google your brand. They land on your homepage. The same could happen if someone sees a video you have on YouTube. They might read a blog post you’ve written and clickthrough to your homepage to see what you’re all about. Maybe you were included on a top ten list and people are coming from there. Maybe you do PPC ads on Google and you get traffic that way. Whatever it is there is a discovery period just like in real life.
So now the person is on your homepage. You need to communicate exactly what you offer to them with the headline. The person that arrives on your homepage is asking:
What does this company do?
If they are confused in any way they might just leave the website.
The answer is usually pretty simple. You don’t need to go into detail yet.
Examples might be:
- Website Design
- iPhone App Development
- Marketing Services
- Accounting Services
- Legal Services
Keep the answer straightforward.
From there you get into a little more detail of what you do. Then on your services page you go into more detail.
And don’t overlook the about page. This is where prospects get to know you, your culture, what you stand for, what your values are, what your vision is, where you’re from and so on. The about page is very important. You share all this information in real life sales situations and if you want more inquiries via your website you’ll need a good about page.
Finding The Right Balance
Every business will have a balance. For some, the goal is to get a prospect to make a phone call. For others, the goal is to get a prospect to make a purchase. This means different levels of content on the website. The important item is to make sure your website has the content and the right flow to achieve the goal you want when it comes to getting an inquiry.
The number one reason you aren’t getting inquiries from your website (other than traffic) is confusion.
If visitors don’t know what you offer, who you are and other important information they will leave your site. But if you take prospects through your sales process on your website you’ll notice that your conversion rate will increase and you’ll get more inquiries.
And that’s what growing a business is all about.
