Best way To Sell Your Services Online – THE 5 STAGES OF CONVERSION
If you own a service business and want to increase the amount of business you generate online, you should read How to Sell Your Services Online.
As the owner of a service company myself, I know exactly what you need to do to grow yours. In fact, professional web design services are one of our primary services.
A service company’s lifeblood is consistently and predictably generating qualified leads and converting them into paying customers.
I had no idea how to generate quality leads from my website when I first started out, so I was forced to focus on price as my primary marketing vehicle.
How to Sell Your Services Online
One of the most common mistakes I see service businesses make is attempting to sell services right away rather than guiding the customer through their purchasing journey.
In reality, a customer must go through five stages before reaching the critical sales point.
- Awareness for your Brand- People do not know about your brand, period. Unless you are Gucci or Nike. the first step must be making people aware of your brand.
- Interest in your service– Get the person to click on your URL and go to your site.
- Prospect – Once someone has visited your site, they become a prospect.
- Lead – Find a way to capture your potential client’s information, so they become a lead.
- Paying customer(The sale) -Only then can you take them to the final step and convert your lead into a paying customer
Step #1 -Create awareness & Interest in your brand or the services you are offering.
Let’s keep it simple and say there are two main ways to get people to visit your website: Organic and paid.
Bringing Free Traffic or Organic Traffic to your website
The term “free traffic” is a bit misleading. You can either pay for traffic with money or with your time. While generating ‘free’ traffic will not cost you money, it will take time to produce. The following are some of the most common methods for generating free traffic to your website:
- Social Media – Connecting and engaging with individuals and groups on a Social Media Platform in order to direct them to your website
- Blogging – Writing high-quality content about your company that will be found through Google long-tail keyword searches
- SEO- Creating targeted content for your website with the goal of ranking for keywords related to your service.
- Direct outreach to potential prospects via email or direct messaging
Bringing Paid Traffic to your website
Here is a list of paid traffic sources you can use to drive traffic to your website:
- Google Ads
- Facebook Ads
- LinkedIn Advertising
- Pinterest Advertising
Because this type of advertising can quickly become costly, you should seriously consider hiring a Google Ads expert or at the very least attending one of Bing’s free training sessions. They provide excellent training and customer service, and they even provide free advertising dollars to assist you in learning the ropes.
The principles taught here are also applicable to Google and social media advertising.
Step #2 – Build Your Prospect
When someone visits your website, whether through paid advertising or organic traffic, they have officially become a prospect.
The following step in learning How to Sell Your Services Online is to convert your prospect into a lead.
Remember, we’re not trying to sell anything YET. We’re not the guy in a singles bar who proposes marriage to random strangers.
Instead, all we are asking to do is to get the prospect to raise their hand and let us know that they are interested in taking the next step.
The first step is to determine who the various users who visit the site are and what their needs are. In reality, that is exactly what selling services entails. What are the various issues that your prospect is attempting to resolve? Make a list of them all. Then assign some order and priority to their needs.
Consider the various stages of the buying cycle that your prospect may be in when they visit your site.
Some prospects may be ready to act right away and are simply price shopping for the best deal.
Other prospects may not even be aware of what they require and are gathering information.
After you’ve determined who your potential clients are and what they’re looking for, the next step is to create content for them.
Reach Them Through Free but valuable Offers:
Your main offer is for people who are ready to act right away. It’s critical to remember that your initial offer is NOT a request to buy right away. It’s just one more step in the process.
It could be a free consultation, audit, session, or initial evaluation.
Use something that engages the prospect and moves them along the sales funnel, but not something that requires a large commitment or costs money.
Your secondary offer is for prospects who are gathering information and are not yet ready to make a purchasing decision.
You offer them a ‘Free quotes,’ a ‘white paper,’ or a download in exchange for their email address.
Once you have someone’s email address, they are no longer a prospect; instead, they are a lead.
These people have raised their hands to indicate their interest, and you now have a way to stay in touch with them, build trust, and move the buying relationship forwards.
Step #3 – Qualify Your Lead
Great Job!!! You generated a website visitor who stayed long enough on your site to become a prospect, who then saw an offer you posted, took action, and is now a lead.
You’ve already accomplished a great deal. But don’t get too excited just yet; you still have some work to do before you can make a sale.
You discovered someone who is having a problem; they have raised their hand and indicated that they are seeking assistance. They must now be convinced that you are the right person to assist them.
This is how you sell your services on the internet.
You want to do two things at this stage: educate your lead and build trust.
Educate your leads
You may be wondering where and how you will educate the lead, and the answer is twofold: your website and via email. You want to have a blog on your site, and you want to produce valuable and useful content on the blog that educates your prospective client. You should also communicate with your leads via email and share some of your best ideas through a weekly newsletter or another type of regular communication.
Remember that we already had the lead’s email address from our main or secondary offer.
Build Trust with your New Leads.
Assuming the lead is interested in the service you’re offering and has the funds to pay for it, the only thing standing in the way of a sale is trust.
They need to believe that you will do what you say you will do. Make them understand that you provide a high-quality product and that they will be pleased with the outcome.
The following are the main factors that people use to assess trust:
The social Proof: Do other people say nice things about you? Do you have positive feedback or, at the very least, no negative feedback?
Are you regarded as an expert in your field? Do you have any credentials? Have you been mentioned in the news? Have you won any awards?
Likeability – Do you come across as likeable and kind? Are you someone with whom a stranger would want to do business?
Can you provide proof of results? Do you have any case studies or demonstrations that show you can deliver on your promises?
Guarantee – Do you provide a money-back guarantee? Or, even better, a no-strings-attached free offer?
Step 4- get your Paying Customer
Okay, as I mentioned in the previous section, the lead generation phase is all about your prospect and their requirements.
Sales, on the other hand, are all about you and your Services that you offer. You are no longer a stranger in a singles bar at this point. You’ve been on several dates and are ready to take your relationship to the next level. In other words, you’ve educated and trusted your prospect.
Your offer is the most important aspect of the transaction. The actual service you provide, the delivery of that service, the terms you are offering, and your price are all part of your offer.
This may sound familiar because it is what most businesses promote from the start.
This is the equivalent of getting down on one knee and proposing marriage.
There are things you can do during this phase to improve your results, but none of the advice I’m about to give will help you if you don’t complete all of the other steps above:
Focus on the Result
Have a Unique Mechanism
Have a Strong Guarantee
Pricing: be Clear with your pricing, without any hidden costs
Wrapping up
As you can see, there are numerous factors that contribute to the successful sale of services. The key is to take one step at a time and not to skip any.
That rule also applies to your sales and marketing system. Your business will suffer if you have a high volume of traffic but a poor lead generation system.
The first step is to determine where you need the most improvement and prioritise your efforts. Then, focus on having a functional system in place and improving from there.
You’ve come to the right place if you own a service business and need a website that works for you.
We understand our clients’ requirements and create professional services websites.
PLUS: Whenever you’re ready… here are 3 ways I can help you with your next
website project
1. Free Mockup Offer
Get a FREE custom Mockup of your new website before you sign or pay for
anything. No cost or obligation. Guaranteed! – Click Here
2. Conversion Ready website design
Before you hire a web designer, learn more about our Conversion Ready websites – Click Here
3. Website Pricing
If you’re curious to know our pricing – Click Here
