eCommerce
Understanding what to look for in an eCommerce fulfillment provider is the essential first step...
As a marketing or sales person, you are constantly trying to spread your message. You talk about features, benefits, ROI, and any other reason you can think of regarding how what you’re selling matters to prospective clients.
But, do prospects really recognize value in what you are selling?
As crazy as it sounds, there is a good chance many do not and it is not their fault. The problem is most often that your message, while it sounds good and makes sense to you, means nothing to the intended audience. Worse yet, marketing often happens as a one way conversation and many sellers never figure out the real reason their customers buy from them. They’d do a lot better if they did.
The responsibility to ensure the right message is being heard lies with you.
It’s not your prospect’s job to understand what you do. This means your message needs to be from the perspective of the client and what matters to them. Presenting a feature list of what you think are your strengths is often the last thing potential clients can relate to.
You need to remember prospects are only thinking of themselves. Their problems and needs and a million other things are always front of mind for them. Your message needs to resonate immediately and clearly. It has to mirror the challenges they face and the solutions they need.
Being off message and not listening also means missing out on valuable feedback to close a sale. Not hearing what the client is saying means you are likely fixated on the wrong solution for the situation. That makes it hard to sell.
Even if you get lucky and close a sale, expectations that are not in alignment make for difficult implementations and poor execution. The end result is a bad customer experience and lost business in the long run.
Do this. Review your marketing messaging – are you communicating a list of features that attempt to make the conversation about you? Or, are you presenting ideas that bring up real pain points for customers? There is a simple solution to this common problem. Create a process to ensure each step in your sales and marketing process is designed to ensure a constant feedback loop with the prospect. This way you can be certain to be on target with your messaging. Expectations will then align at each step of the sale and on to the onboarding process.