Selling Socially for Higher Conversions

One of the biggest challenges that businesses face today is figuring out how to develop rapport with their customers when marketing to them online.( Kate Buck Jr.) 

How do you get people to know, like, and trust you when you're not meeting them face-to-face or even over the phone? 

Inject your personality into the conversation 

The more authentic you are the better. It's common to fear that by being front and center when you market to your target audience that you will turn some people away. The truth is that you will turn some people away. You will also attract others. It is actually better to be liked by some and disliked by others then it is to be neutral. Neutral is unmemorable. Attempting to appeal to everyone leaves you appealing to no one. Sure, you could try and rely on sales copy and bullet points to sell your offering, however you will not be able to compete in your chosen market against those who do inject their personality. Having a distinct personality helps prospects know, like, and trust you. 

How do I know this to be true? For the past few years I have been paying close attention to several companies who sell online internet marketing training through a network of affiliates. I began to notice an interesting trend. You see, these companies publicly post leaderboards that recognize their top affiliates for the amount of leads generated, and the amount of sales produced. 

Here's what surprised me… 

The names of the top affiliates for "most leads generated" never matched the list for "most sales." Why? After all, the top affiliates who were generating the most leads were using the recommended pages created by the companies themselves. 

What was going on? 

My curiosity caused me to dig a bit deeper. And since I recognized the names of most of the affiliates I began to contact them and ask them about their approach. 

Here was the startling revelation: None of the top affiliates who produced the most sales were using the recommended lead pages. Turns out, they were creating their own. They were using video and injecting their own unique personalities into the experience. But they were doing something else… 

And that brings us to the next Selling Socially tip. 

Humanize the Sales Experience By Being Conversational 

Nothing develops rapport faster online than a video where you are talking to the camera as if you were having a one-on-one "conversation." 

When we begin a conversation with someone that we meet for the first time there is usually a certain flow to it. There is certain feel or rhythm, if you will. It's the difference between talking at someone and talking withsomeone. 

However most videos online are "presenting" which has the feel of being talked at rather than with. It's a presentation and not a conversation. There a good chance that right now you may be thinking… Well, Jesse, it's kind of hard to have a conversation when the person is not there with you. And you would be right. Yet, it can be done. This happens when we're speaking with what the prospect is thinking in their head about what you're saying. Chances are you've heard 90% of the most common objections about your offer. You know the most common fears that stand between you and a new customer using their credit card. This allows you to have a conversation with them by acknowledging what you already know they're thinking. 

Some of the most successful selling experiences online today are videos where a person is simply having a conversation with you. The very best ones have one more element and that brings us to the third Selling Socially tip. 

Be Authentic 

You may have heard that people do business with people, not with products or services. This is just as true online as it is offline. And people aren't perfect. We're all flawed. Presenting yourself without any flaws simply makes you appear less human and creates buying resistance rather than rapport. 

Chances are that on the journey to offering your product or service you made less than desirable choices. Some that may even be embarrassing. What is it about you and your personal experience that is somehow related to your product, service or chosen market that you can authentically share that makes you more human in all of your perfect imperfections? Humbling authenticity is one of the keys to some of the most outstanding online sales experiences that develops rapport and connects you with your target audience in such a way that they quickly begin to know, like, and trust you. Ultimately, they'll show it by voting with their wallets. That was the key ingredient for those top affiliate marketers and it can be the same for you. 

So to recap… 

1.    Inject your personality into the conversation 
2.    Humanize the experience by being conversational 
3.    Be authentic in all your perfect imperfections