Revenue Journal®

I am your customer. I have a Problem. I am looking for the Best Solution to my Problem. You sell the Best Solution, but I don't know that yet.

I go to Google. I type in a phrase describing my Problem, or perhaps a phrase describing my imagined Best Solution. I may remember hearing something specific about the Best Solution - such as a company name, a product name, or even a model number. I know that the more specific I am, the faster I will find my Best Solution, and the faster I can buy the thing, and then go on to do all the other things I have do to today.

The search results appear. I scan the listings quickly. If it looks like my Best Solution is right near the top of the left-hand search results, I don't bother to look at the paid ads on the right. If my Best Solution isn't obviously on top, I scroll down the page a ways. Not too far, but far enough to see if anything obvious jumps out at me.

[Does your website appear in these results? The ones that appear when the customer types HIS FIRST search phrase into Google?]

This pattern is so common it should get special attention in all MBA classes.

A smart technologist creates a great product and builds a company around it. He and his team continue to improve the product and get it out into the hands of people who want it. The technologist - let's call him Mike - is a thoughtful, pragmatic person who understands that you can't build a solid company without creating and constantly improving your internal processes. He learns how to manage effectively. He builds a solid company that grows steadily and stays profitable.

Then, one day, everything changes. One of the biggest companies in his industry - the Monster - becomes a competitor, either by buying a competing product or by opening up a new division. Mike quickly gets up to speed on the Monster's new move. At the very least, there are trademark and copyright infringement issues that he will have to fight. But that's just the legal activity. The real battle will be for customers. His very survival depends on winning this battle.

Here I am again, a buyer. Money in hand. Ready. Eager. Wanting to get what I need, fast, and go back to work. What do I want to buy? International wireless broadband, using a data SIM card that I can plug into a variety of cellular devices and work, on land and at sea. I want to get the right solution, but I also have deadlines - so I don't want to spend a lot of time on this.

People who run companies tend to obsess about getting leads in the door. They are petrified that they won't be able to keep the pipeline full of leads. Before the web, their efforts were focused on PR, advertising, and sales tools. Now they focus their efforts and their resources on search engine marketing, search engine optimization, and so on.

They also assume they have to convince their prospects to buy their product. So all their marketing copy - online and off - is designed to convince someone to buy.

The problem is, the way people are buying now, they are mostly convinced by the time they get to your website. A large percentage of today's buyers have already decided what they want, and all they want you to do is answer a few remaining questions that aren't answered on the web, to make sure that your product will perform well in their specific situation.

I ran across this recently when placing an online recruiting ad for a client. His company is in the Bay Area (San Francisco area) and I was placing the listing on BAJobs.com.

My husband was watching an "instructional" video, online, showing a sales guy for a marine rope company. The sales guy was supposedly showing how to make a particular splice in one of the ropes that his company sells.

A splice, for those not familiar, is the joining of two pieces of rope by interweaving the strands from one rope with the strands of another, so the two ropes are joined. For example, you can create a loop at the end of a rope by splicing the end of the rope back into itself. Splices are important. If they fail, you can lose your boat. The splice has to be right. No BS allowed.

As I watched the salesman in the video, I could see that the BS quotient was really high. Not only did he not really know how to clearly explain what he was doing, but he was doing a poor job on the demo. He was showing "how easy it is to splice this rope," but not how to actually do it. For example, he would be pointing to the strands, explaining how they were oriented. As he pointed, his fingers came between the strands and the camera, so you couldn't see the strands.

People buy when they're comfortable that they're making the right decision. If they're uncomfortable, they don't buy. This is especially true when money is tight or people are fearful. Their comfort zone - and how well you stay within it - will determine if you make a sale, or not.

Let's look at what will kick you out of their comfort zone - and how you can stay inside.

A lot of entrepreneurs obsess over their search engine marketing and Adwords campaigns, to make sure that they are within view when someone goes searching for their type of product. Nothing wrong with that, but given the bandwidth of the typical business owner, there's a tendency to focus on lead generation at the expense of conversion.

I've mentioned before that I buy a lot of software online. Recently I undertook an extensive search for software I could use to efficiently build outlines for books and other large, complex documents, because the outlining function in Word is pitiful and slows...the...creative...flow...to...a...crawl, and has a klutzy expand/contract outline function.

I must have looked at 25 programs, and trialed at least 10. For all of you out there selling software online, I have some very specific advice for you, from a buyer's point of view.

If you want to see a perfect example of a company that makes it easy to buy, take a look at Home Reserve. What an exceptional site this is. Let's look at what they do right.

First, the home page.

What's the first question when you're shopping for furniture? Cost. Most people have a specific budget in mind for a given room or situation. And, that's the first big question Home Reserve answers, right on top.

As you come to this site, first your eye goes to the two people, and, immediately, to the prices. Then to the pictures and the fabric swatches.

Home Reserve uses the circle motif to draw your eye to important areas of the site, including the shop button, the photo gallery, and the swatches. One thing I find interesting about this is how the first circle you see is emotionally comforting - the two people obviously enjoying each other as they look at color swatches. Does this encourage you to assume that all circles will be emotionally satisfying? Hmmm."

Here's the first sentence of a website selling an email security solution:

"In today's business world, email has become critical to daily commerce. But, it also contains serious threats, threats which have increased dramatically over the last few years. You can't afford to ignore those threats."

Whoever wrote these words has obviously never spoken to a real IT person, who has been fighting an endless battle against spam for years. Actually, even a technophobic grandmother who does nothing but email on her computer knows that email contains "serious threats" which have "increased dramatically."

The most important function of your website is the effective presentation of your products - whether you sell online or through a distribution network. Having just gone through a bunch of sites in the analysis of a buying process, and after doing a lot of research for clients on this subject in the course of website redesigns, I've come to some conclusions.

1) First, answer their questions. Buyers come to your website looking for answers to their questions. The more complex the buying process (the more scrutiny they apply to the purchase), the more questions they have. You must know what their questions are, and your answers must satisfy their concerns in the order that those concerns arise in the customer's mind. If your website fails to do this, your website is a failure. Period.