 |
 |
| "An Organized Approach to Enhanced Productivity." |
| Lowering the Barriers to Entry Making it Easy for People to Do Business with You By Michael Angier |
| This article is written for people who sell things. In other words ~ everyone. We ALL sell. We all have customers of one type or another. If we have a job or a business, we sell ~ we provide a service to a customer, a coworker, a student or a patient. We increase our value to our customer or our company by how well we deliver what we do. And it's incumbent upon each of us to provide ur goods and services in a fashion that makes it an enjoyable process. Every once in awhile I attempt to buy something only to be frustrated by a cumbersome, unclear, time-consuming or unfriendly experience. Sometimes I jump through all the hoops and eventually make the purchase in spite of the difficulty. Most of the time, I just go elsewhere. And so do YOUR customers. We must pay close attention to how we offer, sell and deliver our product. The goal should be to lower the barrier of entry and to make it easy for people to do business with us. Stand firmly in the shoes of your customer and go through the whole process. Is it clear or ambiguous? Is it easy or difficult? Is it fast or slow? Does it offer different options for payment? Does it feel friendly or cold? Will the end result for the customer be dissatisfaction or delight when the transaction is complete? You might want to consider having one of your children go through a purchase of your products. If a ten-year-old can do it, then most 35-year-olds can too. At the very least, have a friend or someone unfamiliar with what you're selling step through the whole buying and delivery process. Try not to tell them anything. As much as possible, let them do it like you weren't there. Make a note of the questions they ask and where they hesitate. Then set it up so those questions don't need to come up and those pauses or uncertainties no longer occur. Looking at all your processes this way will turn up things that have made it more difficult than it should be for your customers to do business with you. People are busy today. They're distracted. They are often doing two or three things at once. If you want to increase sales and build customer loyalty, you must improve the sales and delivery process. Simplify it. Streamline it. Enhance it in any way you can. The easier you are to do business with, the more business you will attract and keep. |