What's the biggest challenge you're facing when it comes to turning visitors into...

[Lenin Govea]

Hey guys,

I'm curious...

What's the biggest challenge you're facing when it comes to turning visitors into paying customers?

I mean, this question is addressed to SMB owners who are have a website and get visitors but not too many sales.

Lenin

[VeritasCustom]

I installed a plugin on my site by vCita that has a window slide up as soon as you get there asking how I can help you. It is a great call to action tool and I have seen an increase in leads since using it.

[DarrenDeMatas]

Hey Lenin, the layout of your website, really makes a big difference. I am testing one of my sites now, by moving the form up higher on the page and adding a grey box around it, the number of leads doubled.

[thealchemist]

What's important is making sure that the right type of visitors are coming to your website. Are you sure that the individuals who are visiting your website the right target market for what you are selling? Also, does your website create enough value in what you are offering that it makes people want to subscribe? Building value is an area where I see most people struggle because they focus too much on trying to make a sale, and not enough on making sure that the customer knows that their satisfaction is what the website owner cares about about most.

[justinnichols]

Hi Lenin,

After working with thousands of business owners now, the biggest issue I have seen is them missing the difference between sales and marketing. They assume that having a gorgeous website with lots of features will allow them to avoid speaking with a customer on the phone and asking them for money.

If you are a B2B website, then this is even more important. If you are B2C, then what you are selling makes a huge difference. Remember, over 80% of ALL purchases are still made in-person, not online.

If you are struggling with conversion, it is due to sales faults and not marketing.

[Dan Furman]

Hi Lenin,

After working with thousands of business owners now, the biggest issue I have seen is them missing the difference between sales and marketing. They assume that having a gorgeous website with lots of features will allow them to avoid speaking with a customer on the phone and asking them for money.

If you are a B2B website, then this is even more important. If you are B2C, then what you are selling makes a huge difference. Remember, over 80% of ALL purchases are still made in-person, not online.

If you are struggling with conversion, it is due to sales faults and not marketing.

A big benefit for many websites is avoiding the phone, even in the conversion, and even in B2B businesses. For example, in my business, I avoid the phone as much as possible - it's too time consuming. I would guess that I never speak to 75% of my clients.

[Wozcreative]

I've been getting a lot of tire kickers lately. I know I need to change the message on my site and restructure everything.

[billbenson]

Then there are products like I sell. It's a technical sell. There are industry people that know exactly what they need, but most need a consultative sell. I often will spend an hour on the phone with a customer.

Every business is going to be different.

[Harold Mansfield]

For me the answer was really simple, even thought it took me 2 years to actually do it because I refused to admit that I couldn't do it the way that I wanted to do it.

I was targeting the wrong customer. Therefore when the phone rang, I spent a lot of time talking and answering questions and trying to sell. I was also trying to compete with people who really weren't my competitors. Back then my close ratio was less than 50%.

Once I figured out where I was going wrong, and restructured my website as well as my targeting., things changed significantly. Now when the phone rings 99% of the people on the other end have already decided that I'm who they are looking for and it's pretty much a matter of closing them. Fewer calls, but better closing ratio. Less wasted time.

If you are getting traffic but not many sales it could be a number of things. Assuming you have a good product that has a market, then basically your problem is your website and who you are targeting. You need to look at your analytics and see who's coming to your site, from where, where they are looking and where they are leaving and how fast.

The problem with a lot of SB websites is targeting the wrong user, and not enough relevant information for people to make a decision.
Most people will not call you if your website leaves a lot of unanswered questions. They'll just go to another site that does provide the information they are looking for and call them.

It's a struggle every business owner . There's the way they want to do it based on bits and pieces of information that they've heard from various sources over time, and then there's the way that is going to work for them.

Most people don't want to do it the way that it works because it's boring. They want to jump straight to flashy and cute, before building a foundation. A lot of small business owners approach building a website like it's a billboard on a busy street, instead of a listing in a digital search catalog.

[johnkaster]

What's the biggest challenge you're facing when it comes to turning visitors into paying customers?

I mean, this question is addressed to SMB owners who are have a website and get visitors but not too many sales.

when it comes to lesser sales, do you know what others, in your category, are facing, some times it is common character with all. so first clear that.

[SkyyCreaTech]

Unless it is an eCommerce website, one to one communication is must. The regular practice is to put contact number on top right corner in the header. Other thing to do is using online chat feature.

[bmell]

We're having a minor struggle with that same scenario currently. The company launched a new business model, so our old customer profile does not fit the new business model. The upside is, from the data gathered from our analytics, we're slowly learning who they are and making adjustments accordingly.

[PrincePatridge]

I think the biggest challenge that small business owners face is not building enough value for

the potential prospects they come across...which really leads me to say not building a proper

list of responsive people!

[michaelstark61]

Well in every business it happens like that only. Even my website is viewed by more than 500 users daily (on an average) but only 50-100 show little interest in my product.

[LubomirVWS]

Really good dicsussion, I have quite similar experience. Mainly when it comes to "customer oriented" approach.
It is too often "My products, services" instead of "my customer needs (rational or emotional)"

Let´s say I do websites for customers.
My firts impulse is to mentionon terms on my web like: Design and technical details.
But my customer thinks in terms like: customers (I need more), contract (can I specify it to feel sure about cooperation?), guarantee (will I get some to feel safe?). These are just few examples. They show difference in perceiving same topic. Also that emotions are important in buying process (there are many articles related).

I like articles of Gerry McGovern(Design Director for Land Rover) in this area, I had many wow moments reading them :)

[billbenson]

Hi Lenin,

After working with thousands of business owners now, the biggest issue I have seen is them missing the difference between sales and marketing. They assume that having a gorgeous website with lots of features will allow them to avoid speaking with a customer on the phone and asking them for money.

If you are a B2B website, then this is even more important. If you are B2C, then what you are selling makes a huge difference. Remember, over 80% of ALL purchases are still made in-person, not online.

If you are struggling with conversion, it is due to sales faults and not marketing.

I pretty much only do B2B so my comments are directed as such. I have a technical product and 80% of my orders require a phone call. This is particularly true with the more expensive products.

I particularly disagree with the ' it is due to sales faults and not marketing' comment. These are definitely not mutually exclusive. The best sales guy in the world will struggle without marketing support. A company will fail without someone doing the sales function. This is one reason to spring for a professional website. It is usually a marketing document.