Business Building Action From Terry L. Brock
A while back I remember going to a seminar which had a variety of speakers. One of those speakers advocated using pop-ups on a website to “grab people” and get them to buy. He bragged about a new technology that used pop-ups to grab people who attempted to leave his site without buying. I guess his idea was that by annoying the daylights out of people you’d get more sales.
I don’t like that approach at all!
You might agree with me that it is more important to build trust and a strong relationship with buyers rather than annoy the daylights out of them or force them into buying from you. Too much of what we see in many areas of business today employ the principle of force rather than persuading people through trust.
Long-term relationship marketing and building a solid business require trust. You build this by consistently watching out for your customers’ best interests.
Trust is required even for quick transactions. I could run into a convenience store and quickly purchase a bottle of water without the transaction taking a lot of time. Sometimes that is what I want. If I’ve just filled my tank with gasoline, am in a hurry and wanted to grab a bottle of water to drink on the next portion of my trip, I don’t want to stop and talk at length with the clerk.
However, even in that situation, trust has to exist. I can trust the manufacturer of the bottled water. For me, I like Aquafina bottled water and trust the people who make it. This is based on past experience with many good bottles of Aquafina I’ve consumed! I also have a relationship with the convenience store because I’ve been to that chain before.
Too many people in business try tactics like the Internet Marketer I discussed above. He giggled about how he “tricks people into buying and using these pop-ups. Well, the marketplace has a way to stop that. Most browsers now have a pop-up blocker. The techniques will change. What matters is the attitude of the marketer. Successful Relationship Marketing is interested in a long-term, mutually beneficial tie between buyer and seller.
I’m reminded of the sites on the web where you see someone walk out from the edges of the web page and begin shouting at you. Yes, it seems like nice technology but it is annoying at best and disgustingly irritating in most cases. When something is forced upon us, we tend to avoid it in the future. Let the user choose to play that or any other video. Don’t start it automatically!
A good example of how to do it right is Amazon. They don’t shout and yell at you when you come to their site. I particularly like that they keep a record of what I’ve purchased and what I reviewed recently. They do this with my permission (most important!) and are there to help me as I make selections. They are serving me as their customer and I’m glad to shop them and spend lots of money with them. I often find that I purchase from them because of the high level of trust I have with them and their affiliates — even if the price is a little more than the competition.
Trust is the key to building quality relationships in business. You begin by helping people know you as someone who is trustworthy. This is demonstrated in all you do.
The next step after someone knows you is that they grow to like you. They have favorable reactions to what they have seen. They like the way you run your website. They like the content you create. It is your job to create lots of ways for people to like you.
After they know you and like your business, you want them to trust you. If you’ve done your job properly they will see that trust as the next logical step.
Then there is another critical step after they trust you. You want them to become engaged with your business. You can start small with a lower-price sale and build. This is the ladder that all businesses must ascend.
Know. Like. Trust. Engage. These steps have to take place. The speed at which they occur varies but they have to take place for Relationship Marketing to exist.
So, what can you do today to get more people on your ladder? Think through the strategic process and involve your prospects and customers at the appropriate level. Remember that the steps are repeated and you have to continue to let people know about your products, like what you’re doing and trust that you’re still dependable.
Somehow this makes a lot more sense than the force and trickery method employed by that Internet Marketer I mentioned. Somehow I think his website visitors used a “blocker” on his marketing style and methods.
Copyright (c) 2009, Terry Brock and Achievement Systems, Inc. Terry Brock is an international marketing coach and professional speaker who helps businesses generate profitable results. He can be reached by e-mail at terry@terrybrock.com or through his website at www.terrybrock.com. Join the Twitter adventure with Terry through his Twitter address: @TerryBrock
