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Don't miss the Persuasive Selling Skills Workshop Monday February 21
at Sapphire Resort, South Brisbane. Like to have quick and easy
rapport with prospective clients so that they trust you and like
you? To help you list more and sell more? Don't miss this super day
that will improve your life
and those around you.
For Principals, Sales Managers and Agents
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Hi there!
Here's the Index for this edition, just click on the links.
We've had a busy fortnight with family - helping Narelle's son move house at the Gold Coast (2 mins walk from the beach - how lucky can you be?), and catching up with friends for BBQ's and swims to cool down.
We had a great time as guest speakers (the topic was Sales and Marketing in 2005, and Stuart Ayling from Marketing Nous was a co-presenter) at Terri Cooper's Networking Breakfast last week, and a special Thank You to Terri.
If you are in Brisbane or the Gold Coast, make sure you attend her regular breakfast events, just check out www.terricooper.com for all the info. 73 guests made for an interesting mix and a great way to meet more people.
As well, we had our own seminar last night on Unlocking your Business Potential, which was well received.
Perth has a series of seminars starting on Wednesday 2nd February with Arlene Quinn and there is another Sales Champions 1/2 Day Workshop in Brisbane on Monday February 21st on Persuasive Selling Skills. Click the link for more info and a special offer if you're quick to book and pay.
Late Breaking news! Jennifer Peterson Master Trainer of NLP and Neuro Semantics is going to co-present the Persuasive Selling Skills Workshop! This is your chance to experience Jennifer's style and svelte training before you attend the NLP Practitioner Training we are offering in July!!
And on to the article, where we look at the 6 Deadly Website Sins.
Until next time,
regards Narelle and Dennis and the team from Sales Champions!
by Narelle Stratford & Dennis McMahon
Websites can be a fantastic marketing tool or a dismal failure, and one of the first questions you need to ask yourself is what do you want your website to do for you?
Do you want it to
a. Tell everyone all about you and just how magnificent a salesperson you are?
b. Bedazzle the viewer with it's technical wizardry and flash(ing) presentations?
c. Be tricky and give snippets of information so that your visitor is forced to call you?
d. Be pretty and nice so the viewer feels good
e. Just be there so that you can say "yes I have a web presence"?
f. Act like a magnet?
If you answered Yes to all of the above, and you have a website, you may be committing some deadly sins and be delusional about website marketing. However, don't be offended, because many people have similar ideas to yours, and mostly it's because you haven't received the best information.
Many website designers are going to agree with you about points (a) to (f) , because the more technical your site is, the longer it takes to build and the more money you spend on those fees.
Of course, a good website designer will also guide you to the best ways to use and display your website to its best advange. Most of all, you should put yourself in the shoes of the internet searcher and think about what you want when you go surfing the net, asking yourself "what's in it for me at this website?". Take that approach and you will improve your website quickly and easily.
So, let's work our way down these 6 deadly sins:
Sin #1: You're Singing your Own Song!
When you visit the Sales Champions site, do you want to hear how many programmes we've sold, how wonderful we are, and how fantastic .... or are you looking for specific information?
If you're going to promote yourself, use testimonials to do it for you, with a photograph, first name last name and phone number of your client.
If your testimonial client doesn't want their phone number made public, make sure that the reader knows you can be contacted for the phone number of the referee. Don't openly list email addresses - web robot email harvesters love to collect email addresses and spam them.
Sin #2: Bedazzlement!
Are you using flashing pictures, rolling clouds, letter by letter headlines etcetera on your home page and throughout your website? Flashmedia is that techno wizardry that gives lots of movie type movement on a webpage and it takes a long time to load.
I can't see the point of having it start to load, then a little pop-up message that says Click to Skip, so that I skip it and get to where I want to go, quickly. Worse still, is when there is no Click to Skip and I have to waste time waiting. Web statistics show that most visitors don't have that kind of time to spare, and will quickly click to another site.
So what's the point in expensive (for you) and time consuming presentations?
Sin # 3: Tiny incomplete snippets of information.
What is it that visitors want from you? Information about buying and selling? Pictures of properties? Prices? Information about a specific suburb?
The answer is probably all of the above. And if that's the case, why do so many real estate websites give limited information, with the absurd notion that this will 'trick' the viewer into calling or emailing you firsthand.
Here's why we object to this tactic:
Real estate has had a long and dubious reputation. Why increase that image through trickery and sneakiness? It's damaging to you and to the industry in general.
If you proudly describe properties in full, to the best of your ability, with accurate pricing, a viewer who calls or emails you has just solidly qualified their inquiry, haven't they?
Sin #4: It's pretty and nice, but doesn't do anything to grab the viewer.
Some websites are well, nice... they look good, they give a little information, but they don't ask anything of the viewer. What's the problem with that, you say? Just like traditional advertising, your reader needs a baited hook to bite on, and it's up to you to provide that hook. How do you do that? You'll have to read the next article in a fortnight.
Sin #5: "I've got a website!!!!!"
you proudly tell everyone, as though this means something to somebody somewhere,
and they look suitably impressed by your statement. If your website is not
tracking and monitoring who your visitors are, where they come from and what
they searched for, there's not a lot of point. You won't know what's working and
what's not. And more to the point, does it deliver you results?
Sin #6: You believe that your website acts like a magnet just
because it's there.
It's the old delusion of "If I build it they will come", and when it
comes to websites, there's been many built and many many more, not found! In
other words, they didn't come. Why not? There's a strong probability they
couldn't find it.
So, over the next fortnight, check your website out and really look at it from the reader's perspective.
For a start, can you find it easily with search terms that your reader would use? No, don't use the name of your Agency!!
To sum up, websites can be a great tool but not if you're practising the 6 Sins. What you need next are the 9 Tempting Website Truths, so until next time...
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