Why Your Business Website Matters – Even If You Disagree
Even businesses who don’t believe their website is a key part of their sales process need to ensure their site is more than “brochureware”.
According to research by the Acquity Group, 94 percent of business buyers do some form of online research before making purchasing decisions1.
A Forrester Research study suggests the majority of those businesses (74%) conduct more than half of their research online2 before making a purchase – even when it comes to offline purchases.
And various research by the likes of GE Capital and others suggests that consumers also perform similar research on important purchases in similar numbers.
So – long before a salesperson has even caught wind of a potential sale – the purchasing decision has already been framed by what the customer has read online.
In fact, customers prefer to do almost all of their research online – and treat salespeople as “helpdesk” support for issues.
Research by Brafton suggests that 71.3% of B2B buyers would prefer to do almost all of their own research online3.
31.6% of those surveyed wanted access to phone support for any issues;
15.8% would prefer “live chat” support;
13.4% want to do all their research online before completing their purchase on the phone;
And 10.5% want to avoid salespeople entirely.
It seems that, in the minds of customers, salespeople do not add value to the sales process – and they’re better left out of the process entirely!
This is where the lines between salesmanship and marketing are becoming blurred.
Traditionally, marketing has provided outreach and collateral that supported sales; And salesmanship has been about converting a prospect into a customer.
Nowadays, marketing has become the primary tool for making sales; and salespeople have become primarily a “helpdesk” to answer questions that prospects have during the sales process.
What does this mean for business owners, sales and marketing professionals?
It means:
Your salespeople have less power, control, and influence over the sales process than ever before.
And your marketing collateral (i.e. website, and the effectiveness of the words and pixels you show on your webpage to convey your sales message) have a far greater impact over a customer’s purchasing decision than any salesperson will.
This is why you should be worried when you look at your web stats and see that 98% of all potential customers to your website don’t buy!
If most customers are making most of their purchasing decisions after reviewing your website, then you need your website to perform less like a brochure and more like a salesperson.
You need your website to understand buyer psychology.
You need your website to actually sell.
The good news is – if you’re already making some sales online – then chances are you only need to make a few tweaks to your website to see a 10-500% increase in sales.
1 Acuity Group – 2014 State of B2B Procurement study
2 Lori Wizdo, “B2B Buyer Journey Mapping Basics”, Forrester Research, May 25, 2015, https://go.forrester.com/blogs/15-05-25-b2b_buyer_journey_mapping_basics/
3 Lauren Kaye, “94 Percent of B2B Buyers Research Online for Purchase Decisions”, Brafton (blog), https://www.brafton.com/news/94-percent-b2b-buyers-research-online-purchase-decisions/.
If you’re interested in increasing your influence (as a leader, marketer, or salesperson) using quality, make sure you’re subscribed to receive the next part of this series.