Revenue Journal®

It took a while before the Web really changed the way people bought things, but it has happened. Now people go to the Web first and research the heck out of a subject before they buy.

They scrutinize, analyze, and agonize. They Google and re-Google, fine-tuning their search term until they start getting the desired results. They know exactly what they want and they keep searching until they finally find it, then compare their options, read the reviews, and consider the price and the functions. Once they are satisfied they have found the right product and are comfortable with the company selling it, they place an order.

I'm sorry to say that, over and over, I am finding business owners struggling to make sales because their marketers - in-house or outside - are trying to use yesterday's marketing and selling methods on today's buyers, who have definitely moved on.

Buyers have specific questions. If you're not giving them specific answers, you're not going to capture those sales. All technology aside, this is the biggest difference between "old" marketing thinking and "new" marketing thinking.

The best way to illustrate this is with an example.

The Driving Need

I recently had reason to buy a new piece of luggage - a rolling carryon. I had a specific need. I wanted the sliding handle apparatus to be exposed on the back of the bag, rather than "hidden" in the back of the bag. Why? Because when I hoist my bag into the overhead compartment, I grab the side handle and one of the sliding handle bars. This combo grab balances the bag perfectly and I can, in one swift movement, hoist it over my 5'3" frame and slide it into the compartment. It's efficient and painless.

Too bad that almost ALL of the rolling bags are now designed so that the sliding handle apparatus is buried in the bag itself. I had a bag like that once, and didn't like it - partly because of the hoisting requirement, but also because the handle apparatus takes up room inside the bag.

So when I went to eBags to buy this bag, my buying decision was being dominated by a Driving Need. I knew I wanted a 22" rolling carryon, and that carryon had to have an "exposed" sliding handle apparatus. Now, bear with me a minute - because this is very important to every sale you are hoping to make.

I had a Driving Need. This is the go/no go requirement that must be met before a purchase (a sale) is made. The Driving Need question is always very specific. In this case, my big question could have been answered with the right kind of product shot (showing the back of the bag) or a filtering mechanism that allowed me to search only for bags that had an "outside" sliding handle.

eBags, even though it is one of the most thorough and well-conceived "make it easy to buy" sites, didn't make this easy. All product shots shown in the "results" lists for 22-inch rolling carryons show the product from the front. There is no way to change the view you see when you are looking at search results. I had to click on every bag to see if there was a product shot showing the back of the bag. If there was no shot of the back of the bag, I immediately dismissed the bag.

I thought: "I can't tell if it satisfies my need, therefore I will not consider it."

Stop the tape!

How many times a day does someone come to your site with a Driving Need question, can't find the answer, and clicks away?

What are the Driving Need questions your customers are asking? Do you know? Are you answering those questions? Or, are you doing the old, stale, doesn't-work-anymore marketing, where you assume you know what they need, and you hire someone to write product descriptions, and you hire someone to take pictures, and you put all that up on the website?

Current customers and potential customers will tell you what their Driving Needs were/are, if you ask them properly (ask the question in a phone interview, and don't sell during the call). After talking to ten or twenty people, you'll see definite trends and categories of Driving Need questions, and the answers that did and will satisfy your customers/prospects. You must then give website visitors access to these answers, one-click from your home page.

In addition, you should make it easy for your website visitor to filter/sort their search results based on Driving Need categories. You should also create a product function/feature grid, and use that to build a search/filter/sort engine on your website. We're talking about more than generic categories such as "price," "size," "brand," and "materials." We're talking about specific categories, such as "sliding handles on the outside," "rugged wheels," and "garment bag included."

This is where the Web is going: search driven by desired functions. More importantly, this is where your buyers already are. The most sophisticated sites are working hard to further improve their functionality in these areas. If you focus on this, you will be far, far ahead of the last-generation competitors in your industry.

I could cite countless examples of business owners wondering why their sales aren't what they should be. "We have a great product, better than the competition. Our price is reasonable. Our clients are happy. Why aren't we making more sales?" The answer, in almost all cases, can be traced to the stubborn insistence of their marketers (and salespeople) to pitch their products in the old, vague, general way. Today's buying process is being driven by that Driving Need. Buyers are coming to websites, more than ready to buy, and clicking away in seconds because they can't find the answer to their specific question.

Want to make more sales? Find out what those Driving Needs are. Make it easy for buyers to get quick and satisfying answers to their specific questions. Focus on your site's search, sort, and filtering functions.

And hurry up - as you read this, someone is on your website, trying to give you their money.