My Client Is Going To Fail

"My Client Is Going To Fail"

Monday and Tuesday evenings are networking nights for me. I meet some wonderful people doing this, and occasionally find myself in the right place at the right time to help someone. Last week I spent sometime getting acquainted with a man. It was early in the evening and sorta felt like hard work, cause he seemed reluctant to build a relationship with me.

I did learn that he is an independent consultant specializing in helping clients to envision a "brand" that will make their business easy to remember. He said he was excited to be working with a client that is just starting a business and he could help them do it right, from the beginning. I told him we were in the same business, helping others to succeed. We did not exchange business cards, but I gave him the bookmark describing The Perception Of A Difference, The Power In Buying, Marketing, Selling, Customer Care.

Last evening, he appeared beside me as I approached the same meeting place. We stopped to chat; he was carrying the book;

"I ordered it on the Web and brought it hoping you’d be here and sign it for me. "

I reached for my pen.

"Your 27 questions in Chapter Three are amazingly useful. I now know that my client will fail and why. I know enough about my clients planned products to answer those questions and when I did, I discovered his planned product and business will fail. The answers come out wrong too early in the list of questions. My task is to help the client come to the same conclusion before going forward to failure."

He commented that he thought he should just ask the client the questions and let them answer them. I hope he does this because it will be even more powerful if the client provides the answers to the questions, rather than he, the consultant.

Later that evening, another reader commented about the value of the five questions in the story, Opening The Door, on page 207. I wrote the book at the urging of consulting clients I had the joy of helping to greater success. I am slowly becoming aware that the book has more power to help others than I could have dreamed. It is a humbling and wonderful thing, to me.

I write these blogs to share with you, experiences that move and bring satisfaction to me, so please excuse me if I occasionally sound like I’m just trying to sell. My hope is that you are learning a different way to network, or sell your ideas/products, while reading my blogs. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Wes Zimmerman

Blogging, Web Selling, What I've Learned.

Blogging, Web Selling,

What I've Learned.

The first person to respond to last weeks blog, Surprising Search Terms, was Bill Austin, our Web Master and designer. He asked, "What have you learned?"

I have learned several things.

o The idea that a percentage of visitors will buy and therefore increasing traffic will build sales is a myth. We do not wander around the Internet shopping just for the fun of it. We do it to fill a need for information, to find a specific product or service, to gain help in solving a problem, or to satisfy our curiosity about something we have heard about from others.

I say this because diligent tracking of web site, book orders shows that only two percent have resulted from accidentally landing on our web site. This research reveals that at least 50% of sales have come from folks that used the exact web address to get there, then looked at the information and either ordered before leaving the site, or came back one or two times before ordering. Direct contact with buyers tells us they went to the site as a result of seeing a display in an independent coffee house counter display, hearing people talking about the book, or because someone they respected told them to buy it.

o Content is key; a thirteen copy book order resulted when a buyer's wife heard two people talking about the book and suggested he look it up to use in his planned sales meeting, He searched on "perception:" "As I read about it on the site, I knew it was perfect for my sales people."

o The carefully chosen words we thought would bring people to our site were used no more than 15% of the time. My name has drawn many visitors to the site. Individual words in the title and content of the site have been the key to about 40% of the visits that resulted in sales.

o People visit a site more than once before deciding a product meets their needs.

o Price is not an issue. 99% of those who click on the buy button and see the price do buy. The price does not deter them.

o People buy from a person; we've always known and taught this and it is no different on the Internet. Reading my Blogs gives a person a chance to know me and leads to sales over time.

These are specifics; the underlying lesson to me is that our Web site is a sales presentation. "I cannot buy from you, until I know you exist." is the first sentence you see in my book. "I will not buy your product until I know how it will help me reach my goals." is the second sentence.

Your site must educate; does yours?