If you are in business then what is it you sell? Is it your product or service? Many start up companies try to sell their product or service when really what people are buying from them is a solution to a problem. Focus on the solution and your sales will increase.
When you sell a product it is not actually the product that people are buying. Your products are not actually what people buy from you so it is pointless focusing on them too much. Whenever customers buy something from you it is the benefit of the thing that people are buying, not the product itself.
People buy the benefits, not the product itself.
A man who goes into a hardware store to buy a quarter inch drill bit does not need a quarter inch drill bit – he wants a quarter inch hole. A women who walks into an opticians to purchase a pair of glasses is not looking to buy a pair of glasses but better eye sight.
All you sell is solutions to peoples needs. By focusing on the benefits that a solution offers your prospect rather than the product itself puts you more in tune with the prospect. There will be less mental friction in the prospects mind when they read your web copy. They will get what you are offering much easier.
Turn your products into propositions
People have a very limited attention span on the internet. You literally have seconds in which to attract the attention of a user and to keep them on your webpage. You may have just spent money on that lead through pay per click so its very important to keep them there.
To keep peoples attention you need to focus on reducing any mental friction that occurs when a prospect visits your landing page. By presenting a proposition into a headline allows the prospect to assess that they are in the right place to find the information they require. They don’t have to think too much and spend valuable micro seconds working it out for themselves. If you can make these propositions emotional such as how to look more attractive, feel better, become healthier, save time and money then that emotional connection with the prospect increases.
What is a proposition?
You have a product or a service that is a solution to a problem. Your prospect has a need for that solution. A good proposition forms a mental path between the two. It is the way that you present your solution to meet the prospects need or desire. It needs to be in such a way that a prospect can easily ‘get it‘.
Nobody buys a £80,000 sports car as a car. They purchase something that ‘will make them look more attractive to the opposite sex‘ or ‘show other business owners that you are successful so you can make them more successful‘. There will be a number of propositions that will relate to different prospects. Somebody may in fact buy a sports car ‘to feel the excitement of driving at speed‘ or ‘own something exclusive and rare‘. This is why it is important to work out what your prospects are actually looking for and create a number of propositions for each segment of your market.
Forget your products…
Start to forget that you sell products and start to concentrate on the fact that you sell propositions. Remember that your products and services hold no real value to a prospect. The only thing of value for a prospect is ‘what you can do for them‘. They only care about themselves and their problems. It is your job to show them your propositions that solve their problems.
In order to increase the conversion rates on your ecommerce website then you need to differentiate from your competition and focus on your proposition.