At some point in your life you’ve been ripped off.
It was either that gizmo you bought from the market that worked for 30 seconds before giving up the ghost, or the ‘get rich quick’ scheme you fell for hook line and sinker.
Whatever it was, it really hacked you off and you vowed never to fall for something like that again.
As a result you now have a fear loitering in the back of your mind that comes knocking every time you’re about to buy something.
Fear is a marketer’s worst enemy
Your content and marketing materials can usually counter most buying objections, but the one thing you can’t easily counter is your buyer’s hidden fear.
For a start you have no idea what it is and how it got there.
It could have been as a result of a bad sales experience, a poor performing product, or a scam. But whatever put it there did a great job because it’s lodged firm festering away with the potential to ruin any chance you had of making a sale.
They are worried about:
- Wasting money
- Being take for a fool again
- Being made to feel stupid
The problem is it’s something that gets worse over time. Every time they encounter a bad salesperson, or something goes wrong their fear grows making your job even harder.
How to combat the fear
The bad news is there isn’t one single thing you can do to make the fear go away.
Building trust takes time.
You can’t just make it happen, but there are several things you can do to help it along.
It goes without saying that one of those is to ensure that your product or service lives up to your promises and that your customer service is second to none.
But if your business lives in the online world, you’ve got a lot of work to do before they even get to experience your sales process.
Generating trust online
When you can’t meet and greet your customers, it can be really difficult to make them see your trustworthiness.
The first impression they get of you is from your website or landing page, so that’s where you have to concentrate on making a good first impression.
Let’s start with your domain name.
People are far more likely to trust a website that has it’s own domain name. So don’t go with www.wordpress.companyname.com, it looks unprofessional. That goes for email addresses too.
A potential customer is far more likely to trust a company that uses a proper email address, i.e. George@companyname.com than companyname@hotmail.com.
Then it’s important to fill your website with consistently high value content, not only on your sales pages, but on your blog too.
Finally, make sure your contact details are visible and real. That means a valid email address, telephone number and postal address. A company that hides behind a contact form is a company that’s hiding something – as far as potential clients are concerned.
On your customers’ side
Overcoming ingrained fears isn’t easy, but showing you’re on your customers’ side will go a long way.
Be open and honest at all times and provide them with information that will add value to them. Building trust is a slow process, but when you get it right those fears will disappear.