If you have a website, then most likely you are trying to sell something to your visitor. Some websites sell products or services, while others are selling a brand or an idea.

Talk to any experienced salesman and they will tell you that 60% of sales fail because they did not deal with customer fears, uncertainties, and doubts (FUDs). Sales are lost because consumer objections are not dealt with. But most websites don’t know the first thing about dealing with FUDS. Too many people think that presenting product information is enough to convince a visitor to convert. Low conversion rates are proof that this has not worked for years. So, do you want to increase your site conversion rate by 60%? Deal with visitor objections and you will see immediate improvements in your bottom line!

I must agree with you that dealing with FUDS is easier done offline because you have the consumer sitting in front of you. You can assess what objections they have. The task online is much more challenging. It is not enough to deal with objections; you must anticipate these objections and then resolve them without any real-time interaction with your customer.

The good side of objections

Although objections do kill a sale if they are not dealt with, there is a positive side to them. They tell you that the site visitor is actually interested in buying your service or product. When a customer abandons his shopping cart, he is telling you, “I am interested but I object.” When you see that your contact page getting hundreds of visits per month but you are not getting actual submission on that page, the visitor is telling you, “I am interested but I object.”

Anticipate objections
Of course, the objection your site visitor might have is different based on the nature of your site. Here is a list of the top 7 objections we see usually when working with our clients:

1. Your site visitor can not afford your services
2. Your site visitor thinks that your price is too high
3. Your site visitor does not have the authority to make a decision
4. Your site visitor thinks that he can get a deal some where else
5. Your site visitor does not need your service or product right now
6. Your site visitor does not have confidence in your company, product or service
7. Your site visitor is too busy to convert on your site

This is by no means a comprehensive list. One of the first things you should do is sit down and come up with the list of objections your visitors might have.

Why do visitors have objections?
Each of these objections happen because:

• You have not established confidence in your product or service
• You did not qualify the visitor
• You did not sell the consumer on the real value you provide

How do you deal with online objections?

Here is a process you need to implement to deal with each of these objections:

1. Sit down with your team and list all possible objections your visitors might have: The more details you come up with, the easier it will be to deal with these objections.

2. Come up with answers to each of the objections: You must come up with real answers to each of the objections. It is not enough that you are convinced with these answers, your site visitor must be convinced.

3. Develop tools and mechanics to deal with each of the objections: Some objections are dealt with via testimonials, others via product demos, or better product or service documentation.

4. Incorporate each of the answers you came up with to your site: Take each of the solutions you came up in steps 3 and 4 above into the right places of your site. Knowing the right place where an objection should be dealt with is essential. Only when each page of your site is evaluated from big three design aspects, you will be able to determine the correct place to include these answers

5. Test your answers and see if there is an improvement in conversion rate: as  you start testing the answers to each of the objections you will learn that some of the answers are not enough, other times the answers are correct but they are not presented in the right place or the right format. The only way to know is via testing, incorporating the feedback and repeating the process for optimum results.

Real objections and real ways to deal with them

You did not think I would finish the blog without giving more examples did you? Here are some of the techniques we developed to help our clients deal with some of the online objections.

Your site visitor can not afford your services: this is issue of qualifying the visitor in the first place. While most B2C sites display product prices, many B2B sites still struggle with this concept. Some people still have the dream that if I get a customer on the phone, I can sell him my products or services regardless to price. For the rest of us who are not sales experts, displaying prices will actually help your overall conversion rate.  Let’s face it, not everyone is going to afford your services. It will save you a lot of time, effort and money if you give the visitor an idea about what prices they should expect to pay for your products or service. Just like everything else, there is a correct way of displaying price on the site and there is a wrong way. Including a single page in your site with prices does not work. The best place to include prices is in the same page where you offer the product benefits. So:

1. With each page you display your product or service give the visitor an idea about the cost associated with the service
2. Address the fact that a visitor might not be able to afford your service: Keep the visitor coming back to your site even if they can not afford your services at this point in time. Include something that says,” if you can not afford our services at this point, make sure to stay in touch by visiting our blog and resource page.”
3. Offer different paying options to the visitor. A visitor might not afford to pay $2,000 for your services all at once but he might afford it if you offer a payment plan.

Your site visitor thinks that he can get a deal some where else or Your site visitor thinks that your price is too high: This FUD is more difficult to deal with online because it is more difficult to detect. In both of these scenarios, the visitor can actually afford the price you are asking however he does not see the value of your particular offering. Why should I pay you $100 an hour for web copy services while I can get copy services done for $5 an hour? E-commerece websites struggle a lot with this point. There are too many online services that offer price comparison tools. These tools reduce the shopping to a price comparison exercise. How do you deal with this? Focus on benefits you provide which other competitors do not offer.

From the minute someone lands on your page until the point where they face a conversion questions, they need to understand why they should buy from you. For example, there are many online sites that sell books. Although Amazon is more expensive compared to many of these sites, the full customer service Amazon offers sets them apart from other competitors. Programs such as Amazon prime where you receive free shipping on premium two day shipping helps in increasing site conversion rate.

Your site visitor does not have the authority to make a decision: Although this is a major problem with B2B site, some B2C sites can still face the same problem. Anyone who worked with large corporation and tried to order books or supplies for his department knows that there is a lot of red tape to go through. How do you deal with this?

1. Use technology to minimize authority problems. For example, allow companies to create corporate accounts on your site. These corporate accounts can have multiple users under it. Managers can set up different spending limits for their staff based on the position or seniority.
2. Ask the visitor if anyone else is going to be involved in the buying process. Although I am completely against complicating online order forms this might make sense if you are selling B2B service.
3. Allow visitors to download product demos: I believe this is one of the best ways to deal with objections. Free demos do not require authorization. I still remember at the start of my career as a software engineer. I was evaluating a TogetherSoft for a software project I was working on. Each product license was 30k. We needed about 10 different licenses with a total price of 300k. I had no authority to make the decision. What did TogetherSoft do? They allowed me to download a free copy of the software and use it for a month. Although I could not authorize the purchase, I made a buy recommendation to project management. The result? Together soft walked away with 300k in 45 days after I downloaded the free demo.

Your site visitor does not need your service or product right now: The best way to deal with this objection is by giving the visitor a reason to come to visit you again. Here are some practical ways to do so:

1. Capture the user email by offering a free newsletter subscription. You are not trying to sell anything with your newsletter. All you are trying to do is provide useful information on that newsletter. It is a way to keep visitors reminded that you are there for them.
2. Offer whitepapers: Whitepapers are great way to demonstrate your authority and expertise. Many people tend to share these whitepapers with coworkers. The first time I visited SEOMOZ, I downloaded their free guide on search engine optimization. I shared that whitepaper with many of my colleagues. When AT&T was looking for a company to help with search engine optimization, I made sure they heard about SEOMOZ.

Your site visitor does not have confidence in your company, product or service: Ayat disucssed at length how to build confidence in company, product and service.

Your site visitor is too busy to convert on your site: Here is an important statistic to know. How many times does it take for a visitor to convert into a client? There are few sites that are able to convert a visitor from the first visit. Behavioral targeting which I will discuss in a separate blog can help in resolving this objection.

Can you give some more objections your clients usually have? Of course, you need to tell me how deal with them as well.

Tags: Branding, increase-conversion-rate, increase-online-sales, increase-site-conversion-rate, online-marketing, sales-fears-concerncs-doubts, sales-objections
Posted in Conversion Optimization, Sales & Marketing