Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Boost Your Sales: Website Design & the Power of Human Connection

Transcript

Boost Your Sales: Website Design & the Power of Human Connection · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the show. Currently at my desk.
• 0:05
  It's a four house so expect to hear the usual interruptions
• 0:08
  then the goal of this show is free business education in case
• 0:12
  this is your first time off tuning into the podcast.
• 0:15
  So please run what done share, promote and talk about it so
• 0:18
  that your friends and family members in Nigeria and abroad
• 0:21
  can benefit from the questions that we tackle over here.
• 0:24
  How can they do that just by subscribing Spotify, YouTube,
• 0:27
  Apple or any player of their choice and you in particular,
• 0:31
  dear listener, if you have any sales and marketing questions
• 0:34
  then bring them to me. Call SMS and WhatsApp on
• 0:37
  08064662140. Today on the show, we are going
• 0:44
  to be doing the second part of the two parter that we started
• 0:48
  yesterday. So yesterday we looked at the
• 0:50
  question of whether a website can sell on your behalf and I
• 0:54
  answered the question by saying it's a capital and oh, the
• 0:57
  website cannot sell on your behalf and selling is not
• 1:00
  something that can be done passively.
• 1:03
  So what the website can do is to make it easier for people to
• 1:06
  make a purchase. If you think that splitting
• 1:10
  hairs, then just listen to yesterday's episode.
• 1:12
  Hopefully I explained it a little bit better.
• 1:15
  So today we're going to look at the website architecture that is
• 1:18
  needed to get more people to make a purchase or to make it
• 1:22
  easier for people to make a purchase or to buy from you.
• 1:25
  But please, as you're listening to this episode, remember part
• 1:28
  of what I was saying yesterday, that selling is active.
• 1:32
  It's an active process, and selling is always necessary.
• 1:37
  Even if you're trying to hook up your website to make selling
• 1:43
  unnecessary, you still should be looking for ways to insert
• 1:47
  yourself into the sales process or to insert some kind of human
• 1:52
  into the sales process, because that is how we are going to
• 1:55
  maintain customer relationships for the long haul.
• 1:59
  So even those of you who are trying to hook up your website
• 2:02
  so that people can buy easily on the website, you are not going
• 2:06
  to be able to maintain customer relationships for the long haul
• 2:10
  without significant and deliberate human contact that is
• 2:18
  engaging in selling processes such as need analysis, customer
• 2:25
  service rules, customer satisfaction rules, you know,
• 2:28
  all those sorts of things. So we have to insert that into
• 2:31
  the process because that is what is going to be able to make us
• 2:34
  maximize our CLV, of course, CLV customer lifetime value.
• 2:40
  Because remember, the goal of sales is not just that we get a
• 2:42
  sale now that we get naira and Cobo now.
• 2:46
  Well, the goal is to make sure that people do business with us
• 2:49
  again next month, next year, next quarter, next, whatever.
• 2:54
  I keep coming back and doing business again and again.
• 2:57
  And then also to bring their friends, their family members
• 3:02
  and their associates get some referral business.
• 3:04
  So that is the goal. Traditionally, when we engage in
• 3:07
  sales, we're trying to maximize the amount of money that we're
• 3:10
  going to get from this particular person over the
• 3:13
  course of a lifetime. If we leave it to the website,
• 3:16
  people will opt in and they will opt out whenever it suits them.
• 3:21
  And the sad part is we will never know exactly why or what
• 3:24
  is going on. What if there's been a human
• 3:26
  being in the loop? And if you have been trying to
• 3:29
  be deliberate about these sorts of processes, let's say like for
• 3:32
  instance, the customer satisfaction process.
• 3:35
  If nothing else, going through the database calling people that
• 3:40
  have bought from you and having that simple conversation.
• 3:43
  I noticed you bought 3 times for us last year.
• 3:45
  We really appreciate your business.
• 3:46
  Hope there's been no problem with any of the purchases or by
• 3:50
  the way, when you bought this, this and that and that was any
• 3:53
  problem in particular that you are trying to solve.
• 3:54
  You know, those simple kind of conversations.
• 3:57
  At the very least, if you have those kinds of relationships
• 4:00
  with people who have bought from you over on the website, you'll
• 4:03
  be able to figure out, you know, why people are opting in, why
• 4:07
  people are buying or why people are leaving.
• 4:10
  So please, yes, you can get the website to do a lot of the heavy
• 4:15
  lifting. But if you want to make lots of
• 4:17
  money over the long haul, if you want to increase the average
• 4:20
  order value, that is how much people, how much money people
• 4:24
  are spending with you each time they do business with you.
• 4:26
  And if you want to get referrals, then selling and
• 4:30
  active processes will always be necessary.
• 4:35
  All right, for those of you who are going to say Amazon, please
• 4:38
  just refer to the last episode and then listen to everything in
• 4:41
  context. So today we're supposed to look
• 4:45
  at the website architecture that you need to get more people to
• 4:49
  buy from you on the website. Now, when we say architecture,
• 4:52
  what do we mean? We just mean parts of the
• 4:54
  website that when they work together, they make it easy to
• 4:58
  facilitate online purchases. So when we say architecture,
• 5:00
  we're just meaning, we just mean the different parts of the
• 5:02
  website. So we, you know, mean things
• 5:05
  like product pages, navigation and then the checkout processes.
• 5:11
  So there are other things you can be paying attention to when
• 5:13
  it comes to the website. But for me, from a sales
• 5:15
  perspective, I think these are just the main thing shadow we
• 5:17
  should be paying attention to. So the product pages for those
• 5:20
  of you who sell products, I guess if you sell the service,
• 5:25
  service pages, I don't know what it's called, but let's just
• 5:28
  limit ourselves now to people who sell products.
• 5:30
  So for the product pages, of course you need to have
• 5:33
  compelling imagery and compelling videos.
• 5:36
  But of course, talk to your website personal, talk to the
• 5:38
  tech person because website speed is an issue.
• 5:43
  You don't want to use picture formats that are too large or
• 5:47
  take too long to load because it actually does make a difference
• 5:49
  whether it takes your website, you know, half a second to open
• 5:54
  or you know, .85 seconds to open.
• 5:57
  It really matters because the longer your website takes, you
• 6:01
  know, the easier it is going to be for people to bounce Because
• 6:05
  in today's day and age, people are used to websites just
• 6:07
  opening, you know, sharp, sharp. So be mindful of these sorts of
• 6:12
  things. And back in my event days, for
• 6:15
  those of us who are in photography and video, it was a
• 6:17
  constant battle that we always had on our hands.
• 6:19
  You know how you're going to upload the video, what
• 6:22
  resolution are you going to use? Is there any new technology that
• 6:26
  makes it easier for photos and videos to pre render so that
• 6:32
  when somebody clicks, the website will open quickly?
• 6:35
  So yeah, for those watching photo and video, these were some
• 6:38
  of the battles that we used to face back in the day.
• 6:41
  So be mindful of this sort of thing.
• 6:42
  Product pages, make sure pictures on point, make sure
• 6:45
  videos on point, photos and videos appealing enough to want
• 6:50
  people to hang around that to figure out what is this, you
• 6:52
  know, should I click? How can I learn some more?
• 6:56
  Then there's also descriptions. Your descriptions of the product
• 6:59
  also has to be on point, please. When you're describing, well, of
• 7:04
  course you know you're supposed to put all the features there,
• 7:07
  but from a sales point of view, we don't talk about features too
• 7:11
  much. We also have to talk about
• 7:13
  benefits. So if you're going to say this
• 7:16
  Bluetooth speaker has 50,000 AMH batteries, something something
• 7:21
  something and you just leave it at that for the average person,
• 7:24
  50,000 AMH means neither here nor there, but as you say,
• 7:28
  50,000 AMH battery. And so this means if you're
• 7:32
  taking this for a 12 hour beach party, you have enough power to
• 7:39
  last the whole beach party and by the time you get home, you
• 7:42
  still be able to play it for another 4 hours.
• 7:44
  You know something like that. Talking in terms of benefits,
• 7:47
  it'll help people to understand all the technical, you know,
• 7:50
  gish bound that you're putting up on the on the website.
• 7:52
  So that's as far as descriptions, then pricing.
• 7:55
  People have different opinions when it comes to putting pricing
• 7:58
  on the website, but this is where I look at it.
• 8:04
  Instead of wasting time arguing and quarrelling amongst
• 8:08
  ourselves, which is better to put pricing or not to put
• 8:10
  pricing, just realise that pricing can be a qualification
• 8:13
  tool. Qualification is a process that
• 8:16
  we go through in sales to try and figure out whether this
• 8:19
  particular person that I'm talking to, is this person a
• 8:22
  good lead? Is this person a good prospect?
• 8:24
  Is this person a good? Is there a possibility that this
• 8:28
  person might end up buying? So instead of arguing which is
• 8:32
  best and which is not, just be deliberate about whether you
• 8:35
  want to use pricing as a qualification tool.
• 8:38
  So if you want to use pricing as a qualification tool, then
• 8:40
  please put your pricing on the website and make it very clear
• 8:45
  so that people who are scared by the money should see it and
• 8:48
  should bounce so that anybody who calls you or who continues
• 8:54
  from the website already knows that you guys are, you know,
• 8:57
  premium price or expensive or whatever.
• 9:02
  So just decide upfront. And then some people prefer to
• 9:05
  do the qualification themselves, as in I won't put the pricing
• 9:08
  information on the website so that by the time the person
• 9:10
  clicks on the e-mail to know more or to something like that,
• 9:14
  I get to have a conversation with the person.
• 9:16
  Maybe I might be able to toast them to get a sale or something,
• 9:18
  something or something. So those are just the two
• 9:21
  different philosophies, Abby. No, it's more like 1 philosophy
• 9:25
  about putting pricing on website.
• 9:27
  It's not about which is more effective or which is not.
• 9:29
  It's about what do you want to do?
• 9:31
  Do you want to chase away time wasters or are you trying to
• 9:33
  have conversations with as many people as possible?
• 9:36
  If you want to have conversations with as many
• 9:37
  people as possible, then don't put the price.
• 9:41
  If you want to chase away time wasters, excuse me, then put the
• 9:44
  price. I'll make it easy to find so
• 9:47
  that people who don't like it, they will go and they will not
• 9:49
  disturb you so that if anybody is sending you an e-mail, the
• 9:52
  person already knows you guys are expensive and they're OK
• 9:55
  with the price. Then OK reviews and ratings.
• 10:00
  That would also be good on the site because you help.
• 10:04
  These are proxies that help people figure out what is
• 10:07
  moving, what is not moving, what is quality, what is not quality,
• 10:10
  you know, blah, blah, blah. Then also have people who have
• 10:14
  been giving you reviews on Google and people giving
• 10:17
  testimonials and stuff like that.
• 10:18
  Will be nice to also put those on the site because they can
• 10:21
  help convince people or people who have certain questions about
• 10:27
  things. Yeah, testimonials address a
• 10:29
  whole lot basically. So it's nice to have those sort
• 10:32
  of things there. Then let's see what else and
• 10:35
  call to action. Now, unfortunately, too many
• 10:37
  people make websites like brochures.
• 10:39
  You just throw up information there and just leave it hanging.
• 10:42
  And that's not the point of a website.
• 10:43
  Remember, we're trying to get people to buy something or we're
• 10:46
  trying to get people to engage in conversation with us.
• 10:49
  So there has to be some sort of call to action that is clear on
• 10:51
  the website. So for Amazon, the clear call to
• 10:55
  action is add to cart. You know, add to cart is all
• 10:58
  over the page because that's what I want you to do.
• 11:01
  I want you to click on that thing and add it to the basket.
• 11:04
  And then of course, by the time you get to basket, what's the
• 11:08
  next step? Add to cart?
• 11:10
  What's the next step? Is it process AB payments or so
• 11:12
  Anyway, those of you who buy online, you understand what I
• 11:15
  mean. But you have to make sure that
• 11:17
  the call to action is clear. What do you want the person to
• 11:19
  do next? So is it add to cart?
• 11:21
  Is it buy? Some people have a button that
• 11:23
  just says buy now or do you want to make enquiries?
• 11:26
  So whatever it is, your call to action should be clear.
• 11:29
  Then navigation, that's also another thing.
• 11:33
  Some websites are just too complex.
• 11:35
  Too many tabs, too many this, too many that and then you get
• 11:38
  lost. So the simpler you can make the
• 11:40
  navigation the better. That is why for me, even though
• 11:44
  I don't have a website now, I'm telling you guys straight
• 11:46
  upfront, when I have my website, my website is going to be the
• 11:49
  simplest website you've ever seen.
• 11:51
  There's only going to be 3 buttons once you get to the
• 11:53
  website, there'll be 3 buttons for people who are interested in
• 11:56
  the podcast, there'll be 1 button for people who are
• 11:58
  interested in my public speaking, there's going to be
• 12:01
  another button. And for people who are
• 12:03
  interested in coaching, consulting and all that, there's
• 12:06
  going to be another button. So my own navigation, I mean,
• 12:09
  I've already decided now no matter what the website
• 12:12
  professional wants to tell me will be, look, this website has
• 12:15
  got to be the simplest website anybody has ever seen.
• 12:19
  Three buttons only. I don't want people getting lost
• 12:23
  because you clicked on this menu, you clicked on another
• 12:26
  menu and then, oh, where was I? But I was interested in this and
• 12:29
  no, no, no, no, no, no, for my own website.
• 12:32
  It will be 3, I've decided, and that's what I'm going to tell
• 12:35
  them. I don't care what best practices
• 12:37
  for my own website. Three buttons only.
• 12:40
  So you guys also have to come up with these decisions for
• 12:44
  yourself because we leave it to these website boys and website
• 12:46
  girls. They're going to build the
• 12:48
  biggest, the fanciest with plenty of transitions and with
• 12:52
  plenty of tabs and plenty of links and plenty of that.
• 12:55
  You know, because they feel like they have to justify all the
• 12:58
  hundreds of thousands and millions, you know, that we're
• 13:00
  paying them. And then the thing looks pretty,
• 13:02
  but then it's complicated and people can get lost on it.
• 13:05
  So navigation, keep it simple, clear menus, simple categories,
• 13:12
  then let's see what else? OK, check out process.
• 13:14
  So just make sure that your checkout process is very, very
• 13:17
  simple because for some people it's it's too clunky.
• 13:22
  In fact, back to our brother in the space Amazon.
• 13:25
  I hear that because I haven't shopped there in a very long
• 13:29
  time in years, but I hear that now would say it's like a one
• 13:33
  click thing. To be honest, I don't even know
• 13:36
  how it works. I should even ask my wife so so
• 13:37
  I can understand, but I hear it's a very simple process now.
• 13:41
  Once you click AutoCAD, everything is just there.
• 13:43
  And the last time I shopped on Amazon, that's back when I was
• 13:47
  still in uni, back when I was still doing my masters, you
• 13:51
  would click on proceed to check out, then from proceed to check
• 13:55
  out. It will show you review order,
• 13:57
  then from review order you will now enter in your card details
• 14:01
  and then stuff like that. So I hear that Amazon has even
• 14:03
  done away with all those things so that once you click out to
• 14:06
  cart and everything is in cart from cart, you only click on one
• 14:09
  button, ma'am, and then payment everything done.
• 14:12
  So the simpler the better. So make sure you have a simple,
• 14:19
  a simple card, simple review. Let's see what else.
• 14:23
  Sure, everything is supposed to flow simply.
• 14:24
  Now, of course, you have to make sure that security has to be on
• 14:26
  point because of the new processes.
• 14:29
  Now for Amazon, if what I had is correct, that is now one click,
• 14:34
  you know security is going to be a problem.
• 14:37
  Are you sure that somebody's not committing a fraud on your
• 14:39
  system because the payment process is so quick like that?
• 14:43
  What is to say that maybe when my wife is sleeping, I can't
• 14:46
  just go onto a computer, log on real quick, quick.
• 14:49
  And then since payment doesn't have to be validated, I can now
• 14:52
  use my wife's account, you know, really buy one or two things and
• 14:55
  then take it and then send it to my side chick, you know, So
• 14:59
  there's going to be opportunities for fraud.
• 15:01
  So I'm sure people, good people at Amazon are thinking about
• 15:04
  these sorts of things. How do we prevent fraud, people
• 15:08
  buying on other people's accounts, you know, things like
• 15:10
  that. But anyway, for those of you who
• 15:12
  want to go the website route, these are some of the things
• 15:14
  that you need to look into. But let me see the main thing,
• 15:24
  OK, before we get to what I think, the main thing is visual
• 15:27
  appeal. We can't run away from visual
• 15:29
  appeal. So your website has to look
• 15:31
  nice. Seven of my website is going to
• 15:33
  be the simplest website you've ever seen.
• 15:35
  I know, Sha, I have to tell the website boys or the website
• 15:37
  girls that look when we designed this thing, it has to look nice.
• 15:40
  It has to look refined. It has to look sophisticated.
• 15:44
  Even though there's only going to be 3 buttons.
• 15:47
  But the main domain, domain, domain domain thing, please is
• 15:51
  apart from all these things you've said, website
• 15:54
  performance. You got to check your load
• 15:57
  times. You'll be surprised how long
• 15:59
  some people's websites take to load at the marketing thing,
• 16:04
  women in marketing thing we did with Avon.
• 16:06
  That was last year. How did it go again?
• 16:11
  OK, I gave, I gave them some websites speak Google.
• 16:16
  What's it called again? There's some Google tool that
• 16:18
  you can check how fast your website is loading.
• 16:21
  You'd be surprised. Some people's website are taking
• 16:23
  like 4 seconds to load. I mean really 4 seconds to load.
• 16:26
  And then it was embarrassing actually, because the place that
• 16:29
  we're hosting the event, some people decided to check their
• 16:33
  own website. And I think it was one point,
• 16:34
  something seconds, I can't remember, 1.6 something, 1.7
• 16:37
  something. So yeah, you know, it was quite
• 16:40
  a laugh. It was hilarious.
• 16:41
  And then I think for Radio Nigeria, Radio Nigeria's website
• 16:44
  opened in less than a second. So it just turned out to be
• 16:47
  funny shot like, oh, you guys are supposed to be tech people.
• 16:50
  Radio Nigeria, the site is loading in less than a second.
• 16:53
  But you guys, your own site is loading in 1.6 something or 1.7
• 16:57
  something. So test the website speeds, make
• 16:59
  sure it loads fast because people are impatient these days
• 17:02
  online. People just run away quickly.
• 17:04
  And then let's see what else, OK.
• 17:08
  And then basically you have to be responsive.
• 17:11
  So for order is paste, you know, ba ba ba shop, shop shop
• 17:15
  acknowledgement, e-mail receipt, what else some people now have?
• 17:22
  What do you call this thing, this feature where you can check
• 17:25
  the status of your order, where you check, you see that all the
• 17:28
  order is in the warehouse. OK, The order is now in a Papa.
• 17:32
  The order has left a Papa. The order is now in in Utako.
• 17:39
  The order is now with, with the dispatch rider.
• 17:42
  It should be with you in three hours.
• 17:43
  You know, so some people have those sorts of things, whether
• 17:46
  it's through e-mail updates or without checking on the
• 17:48
  websites. So yeah, I'll say that that is
• 17:53
  just some of the website architecture that you need to
• 17:55
  pay attention to make it easier for people to buy from you.
• 17:58
  But Please remember what I said about maximizing the cost of my
• 18:04
  lifetime value, opportunities for upselling, opportunities for
• 18:07
  cross selling, building relationships, getting
• 18:10
  referrals. You know, all that soft touch
• 18:12
  website cannot do soft touch for us.
• 18:14
  So make sure that there are humans involved in the process
• 18:20
  injected into the sales process strategically.
• 18:24
  Even if you don't want human beings in the beginning, at
• 18:26
  least on the back end after the sale is done, you should have
• 18:30
  customer service processes and customer satisfaction processes
• 18:33
  where there are people calling in every now and then.
• 18:37
  Thank you for the order. I just checked.
• 18:40
  I can see based from the status that you received the order
• 18:47
  yesterday. I hope all is good, nothing was
• 18:49
  broken. I hope you like your this, I
• 18:51
  hope you enjoyed your that, you know, blah blah blah.
• 18:54
  We need to inject human beings into the process.
• 18:56
  So yes, we want to make money and we want to make money
• 19:00
  easily, but we should also try and see how we can make money
• 19:03
  effectively. This idea of trying to remove
• 19:05
  human beings from the process completely is not entirely a
• 19:10
  good idea. Yes, some of you say Amazon, but
• 19:14
  you know I keep saying that. Look, I'm talking to people who
• 19:17
  were in SME space. One small, 1 medium scale, one
• 19:21
  self-employed. We're trying to get things
• 19:23
  going. We only have, you know, like 5
• 19:25
  employees, 10 employees, 15. You know, we're at this stage
• 19:29
  where some of these things matter.
• 19:30
  Eventually you'll become a behemoth like Coca-Cola.
• 19:34
  I mean, think about Coca-Cola. Thousands, millions of
• 19:37
  employees. You know, at that stage, you
• 19:39
  know, there's a limit to how much humanity you can inject
• 19:42
  into the process or how much personalization can go into the
• 19:45
  process. So when we become a boheme of
• 19:47
  yes, we worry about that. But for now, that we're young
• 19:51
  and we're still small, I beg the human element is how we are
• 19:55
  going to grow. Don't put too much faith in the
• 20:00
  online stuff, the passive stuff, the bots, the, you know, let
• 20:04
  everything sell on my behalf. Let's not put too much faith in
• 20:07
  there. So that's all for today, folks.
• 20:09
  Remember, if you've got any sales or marketing questions,
• 20:11
  then bring them to me. You can call SMS or WhatsApp on
• 20:14
  08064662140. Thank you very much for your
• 20:19
  time and attention. I'll catch you, dear listener,
• 20:21
  at the next episode.