What are you giving your prospects?
April 2nd, 2007
Chances are they already know what you’re trying to sell them, but what they want to know is what you’re willing to give them. Let me explain.
People, your prospects in particular, expect more today than ever before. It’s not unreasonable for them to expect more either because technology allows you to give them more at the same or a lower cost, more quickly and more easily. Plus, you are someone else’s prospect, and you know you expect more than you did even just a few years ago. Thanks to the internet, people have the ability to find companies offering just about everything all over the world. There are upsides to this as well as downsides. One of the upsides for you as a business owner is that you can now dramatically increase the geographic?range that you can sell your products or services to. One of the downsides is that many people are still a bit?apprehensive?about doing business with a company that they found online, either because they’ve been burned or because they’ve heard a story about someone else that has.
?This brings us to the point of the article. Most of your prospects will come to your web site a few times before making the decision to do business (or not to do business) with your company. During that time, what are you doing to help sway their decision? You can offer a variety of useful but free downloads on your web site that are relevant to your industry.?This can consist of?free tools such as back link checkers or?mortgage calculators, information such as white papers or educational materials, or any other tools that your prospect may find useful and relate in some way to your company. This accomplishes a few things.
- It gives them a reason to tell other people about your site.
- It helps to maintain TOMA (Top Of Mind Awareness)
- It establishes your company as a valuable resource
- It encourages a trust based relationship.
If you don’t have something that you can offer to your prospects for free, get to work and develop something. The time it takes to do so will be minimal compared to the results it will deliver.
