Converting Initial Buyer Interest into an Order w/ Justin Christianson [Episode 149]

Justin Christianson is the co-founder and President of Conversion Fanatics, a full-service conversation rate optimization company. He is the #1 Amazon best-selling author of Conversion Fanatics: How To Double Your Customers, Sales and Profits with A/B Testing.

In today’s installment, Justin and I talk on how to test conversation rates and implement them into the sales process.

Bullet Points

How to focus on positive first impressions.
How important is a headline on your website?
How to formally A/B test the language we use for sales approach.
Why is it essential for a sales rep to be a conversion copywriter?
What is the key to getting an online prospect to take the next step?
Why is tracking pertinent for productivity improvements?

Focusing on a positive first impression is important in sales, you need to grab the attention of the buyer, build relationships while trying to do this in a timely effective manner. In a normal conversation, you have ten seconds to capture the attention of someone. However, online you only have three seconds max and that number is decreasing.

Conversion Fanatics reps lead quickly; their website is more a get to know you site, and it leads their prospect down a particular path. Their outbound effort is about creating that instant conversation. The salesperson leads with value by asking a simple, yes or no question. Do you have three minutes to look over something?

Justin starts off the conversation by finding his prospects’ pain points and tying that into the benefit very quickly; getting rid of the corporate capabilities pitch and asking that simple yes or no question. He makes the customer know exactly what Conversion Fanatics does and what is in it for them to invest their three minutes of time with a rep. The salesperson is going to lead with value and is going to take the time to check out their prospects’ website. The rep will add value by sending out a critique of the prospects’ site and how their company can help fix the problem; which in turn will lead to another conversation.

The prospect is already educated on some of what Conversion Fanatics can do for them on their own time before even picking up the phone. The sales conversation can start, and the rep can ask what their other pain points are and finally get into the proposal stage.

The business development side of Conversion Fanatics focuses on the headline, benefits, the call to action, and what the prospect will get as a result of the call to action. Sales reps need to be armed for their first meeting by doing research, find some common ground and warm up the relationship by adding value.

Sales reps need to be a conversion copywriter; they need to focus on the language they use to be able to convert interest qualification into the buying process that results in orders. There are two psychological aspects: avoid pain or gain pleasure.

Companies lead with their features, but don’t tie them back to the pain points of what they are going to do for their prospect. Businesses shouldn’t overly explain their benefits; they need to have a bullet point list of advantages offered.