An interesting phenomenon is occurring in the small business world (and even the big business world some times), where we make it HARD for prospective clients to buy from us… and most of the time,we don’t even realise we’re doing it!

Consider for a moment you ask your clients to be responsible for contacting you “when they’re ready to buy”?  Did you imagine for one moment that the reason they are talking to you is because they ARE ready to buy?!  You just haven’t yet taken care of all their concerns.  If you don’t take responsibility for their buying decision, someone else who wants that sale more than you will, and they’ll probably get it too.

Someone once said to me that males only settle down when they’re ready to and they’ll marry whomever they happen to be with when they’re ready.  I’m not saying that’s completely accurate, but consider the consequences of not knowing what will make someone say ‘I’m ready to buy’?

What if it was something less obvious, you own a pizza shop buy don’t cater for Gluten intolerance?  You don’t care because you’d only sell a few a week and it’s not worth the trouble.  Well, that decision is costing all my local pizza shops a regular Wednesday sale of 6 or more pizzas (Usually $75+).  Only 1 of which is gluten free, but it costs them the whole sale.  Now multiply that $75 by 50 weeks and you get $3,750.  How many other houses do you think are doing the same and shopping elsewhere?

What about long, hard to remember web addresses?  Only 1 payment method? Opt-in boxes asking for too many personal details?  A lengthy signup process?  An online shopping cart that works for members only?

How many barriers have you unknowing setup in your business, that slow down or even stop potential customers?   What is that costing you?

Ultimately you really want to elicit someones buying decisions, discover what makes them tick and start ticking all the boxes.  However, there are also deal breakers that will stop a sale instantly, regardless of how many other boxes you’ve ticked and it’s these you should address immediately.  Let me address a few for you now:

1. First of all, confusion. If your prospect is ever confused, and you didn’t immediately fix that, you just lost the sale.  “What am I buying?  How will it help again?”

2. Simplicity.  Anything you make them do that is not simple and quick, can very rapidly be considered ‘not worth the effort’.

3. Respect is critical.  If they’re not feeling it, they’ll leave.

These are just a handful of ways we erect barriers to prospective and existing customers.  Review your marketing, attraction and sales strategies today.  Please, help them to buy from YOU.  It’s already hard enough in this market saturated world to find a buyer, why would you make them jump through hoops just to buy from you? HELP them to become your customer instead!

You’re great at what you do and customers deserve to be buying from you.  Help them make the right decision and it’ll be a win-win for you AND them.

Written by:  Ross Pepper