Do you know what's causing potential customers to abandon your company before they can make a purchase? There are several different reasons why someone may fall out of your conversion funnel. While a few people may have never intended to make a purchase right away, some do not convert because of other reasons.
Understanding some of the roadblocks to conversion is one of the ways Scaling Sales can help with your business growth strategies. Here are ten roadblocks and what you can do to overcome them so you can improve your conversions and profits.
1. You Don’t Provide Enough Information
Many people research products and services before buying. In fact, with how easy it is to find reviews online, you should assume almost everyone is doing so, especially if you sell high-priced products or services. Few people are willing to drop money on something without knowing how well it will meet their needs. If you don’t provide enough information about a product, especially if it’s a product that is unique to your company, it can impact your conversion rates. This goes for services, too. Customers want to know exactly what they’re going to get for their money.
2. The Price
Another roadblock to conversions can be the price itself. You do need to carefully research your competitors before setting your prices. How are similar services priced? If you enter the market too high, some customers will likely not convert even if it's clear your service is of superior quality. Of course, if you price your services too low, you may not be able to fully meet your costs or do so with only a minor profit. Finding the right price to maximize conversions while covering all of your costs and growing your business isn't always easy, so you need to do market research first.
3. Your Website is Poorly Designed
Customers online may abandon the conversion funnel if your website is poorly designed. This can include a layout that isn’t intuitive, text that’s hard to read, background and element colors that are jarring, and functionality issues. Customers aren’t going to waste their time on a website that isn’t responsive and easy to use. You may need to fully redesign the site, or you may simply need to make a few tweaks to it. If it’s a functionality issue, often simply fixing the problems will improve conversions or at least improve the amount of time customers stay on your website, which is the first step to converting them.
4. Improperly Trained Staff
Your sales team needs to be able to answer any questions potential customers might have. If they can't, those customers may not have much trust in your brand. While many customers prefer to do their own research online, some may come to you with questions if they can't find the answers they're looking for. Your sales team training needs to include answers to common questions or instructions for what to do when a customer needs information the sales rep doesn't have.
5. Trust In The Brand
Trust, or lack thereof, can also block sales conversions on its own. If your company develops a reputation for poor-quality services, it will affect your sales. The same is true if your company is involved in a scandal or hacked. Even if you do everything right, it can still damage your brand in the short term. However, as long as you are transparent and forthcoming in your response, you'll likely be able to rebuild trust.
6. Your Website Loads Very Slowly
People today are very impatient, especially when it comes to the internet. If your website doesn’t load within two or three seconds, customers will likely abandon it. This could be the issue if you find that you aren't getting the online sales conversions you expected. Check your loading time on multiple devices, including phones. With more and more people using their smartphones as their primary or only form of internet, it's vital that your website not only function correctly on mobile devices but also load quickly on them.
7. Too Many Ads
Do you have pop-ups, ads, and other things on your website that may interrupt browsing? While ads may help decrease your costs, and pop-ups may seem to help you capture email addresses and other information, many people find them annoying. They can cause functionality issues, too. You may not have any control over what is shown if you're using third-party ads. While including pop-up calls to action can be tempting, remember that this may not always have the outcome you want.
8. Poor CTAs
Poor calls to action can occur online, in email blasts, and in social media advertising. Whenever it’s unclear what you want a customer to do, your CTA fails. Calls need to be clear, which typically means they should be short and direct. If you want someone to sign up for an email list, clearly say so. If your customers don’t understand what you’re asking of them, they’re not going to complete the action. This can lead to poor conversions in sales, lead generation, and more.
9. You’re Targeting the Wrong People
Have you gathered data on your customers or done market research to understand who your audience is? If you haven’t, you may not be targeting anyone. While a shotgun blast approach to marketing may bring in some customers, it’s not going to give you a great return or many conversions. Instead, you need to gather and analyze data to create customer personas that you can use as targets for sales campaigns. This also helps you personalize marketing materials, which has been shown to improve conversion rates.
10. Your Campaigns, Marketing Materials, and Website Copy is Stale
One major sales fundamental that you must continually refresh is your marketing campaign and materials. Otherwise, they become stale and may no longer address the correct audience. You always have to collect, analyze, and use data to keep your sales campaigns properly targeted. Website copy needs to be updated regularly as the business grows and changes, while marketing materials must continually be changed to address your customers' needs. If you let your email blasts, social media profiles, or blog go for months without being updated, customers may lose interest. Your organic traffic is also likely to suffer since Google and other search engines do take updates and changes into account when ranking sites.
Need Help Overcoming These Roadblocks?
Identifying the roadblocks to your conversion funnel isn’t always easy and working out a solution to overcome them can be even more difficult. If you’re in need of assistance in improving your sales conversion, training your sales management team, or growing your business beyond traditional marketing methods, Scaling Scales is here for you. We provide everything from consulting and training to fractional VP of sales.
Our goal is to help your business achieve its sales goals and grow. For some, that means finding new ways of generating leads or improving on the current generation methods. For others, that means improving conversion rates or scaling their sales. Whatever you need, Scaling Sales can provide you with the information and the tools you need. Contact us today to learn more.
