MaineBusiness.com

The Secret to a Web Site That Sells

When I first got into sales, my boss gave me some sales tapes to listen to in the car. The only one I ever enjoyed was Brian Tracy, I believe it was the Psychology of Sales or something like that. He told the following story.

When plexiglass first came out, one of the best sales people would bring along a pane of plexiglass and a ball-peen hammer. Since people had never seen plexiglass, when the salesman would take the ball-peen hammer to the plexiglass, the prospect would invariably flinch. They were amazed that the product would stand up to that type of impact, and would immediately start buying some.

At the sales conference that year, they asked this salesman what his secret was, he told them. Immediately, all the sales people went out and bought ball-peen hammers.

At the sales conference the following year this salesman was still number one, way ahead of everything else. They asked him again, what he did this year to stay on top. "Well, since I knew everyone else would go out and buy ball-peen hammers, I knew I had to change tactics. So now, when I go into the office of a prospect, I still bring in the hammer and the glass, but now I give the hammer to the prospect. Once the prospect has a go of it with the hammer they have to order a truckload of product."

I'm not sure how true that story was, or how close I got to it since I haven't heard the story from Tracy in over 10 years. However, it stuck with me. Getting the prospect involved with the sales process increases your chance of closing. Period.

In this month's issue of flyte log, our free email newsletter, the subject is The Secret to a Web Site That Sells. Although I've just spilled the secret, I provide a number of ideas that you can use on your own Web site to better engage your visitor, and put the ball-peen hammer in their hands.

Rich Brooks
Maine Web Site Design & Development

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