The Relationship Development System

In prior posts, I have talked a lot about how important relationships are to making money online and how our sales process needs to include a Relationship Development System.  When a website visitor arrives at our website, blog or reads our article the first time, we are effectively strangers at the onset.  When things are structured properly, this visitor undergoes a series of relationship development stages, as shown below.

Let’s look at a visitor’s online pre-sales relationship and how it develops over time until that first sale is consummated.

Our journey begins with the Awareness phase, where the visitor becomes aware of their need and your product or site as a possible solution or information source. This could involve one or more exposures to our product—through word-of-mouth, social media, search engine ads or results,  radio, TV and the like. This is where your marketing reaches prospects and they go from unaware to an aware state.

For example, we become aware that analog TV signals are no longer available, which causes us to decide it is time to get a new high-definition TV set. We become aware of a need and something triggers us into bringing this TV need into the “foreground” in our life.

High-definition TVs have been around for many years, but for whatever reason they remained in the “background” for many of us—until recently. So, we begin noticing ads for HD TVs. We actively look around at them online and at stores, and we begin discussing them with our friends and family. This is awareness.  These ads and devices have been around for many years, but suddenly we begin to actually take notice of them.

In the next phase, our marketing creates Interest in what we have to offer. Interest results when your marketing grabs the prospects’ attention and often is the direct result of an initial offer (e.g., a money magnet offer) that captures their attention. We must create interest, or we will never get the prospects to progress any further toward buying.

It is very tempting to try and “short-circuit” the process and jump straight to the close… FAIL!  How many times our impatience comes back to bite us.  Good things cannot be rushed – and a sale is a very good thing!

Continuing our HDTV example, our presentation of benefits and features, cool-looking pictures and demo videos trigger increased interest, because we realize we can now watch sports in high-definition, and then the seller really grabs our attention with a great price for a nice HD TV unit. You need to create the same level of incremental interest with your online marketing processes.

Interested prospects become open to learning more about what you have to say and offer. If your messages and product offerings resonate with the prospects, Desire begins to build in their mind. They are now evaluating various aspects of what you have to offer and they now have decided that they “want it” but aren’t yet ready to buy—they still have questions and concerns that you must address.

At this stage, they will likely be involved in various “self-talk” about where they’d put that new HDTV, how they are going to justify spending the money on it, and where that money will actually come from.  It is very important not to disrupt this thought process.

In the next stage, we begin a Bonding process with the prospect. We begin to create strong associations in their minds that bond them to the product. For example, GoDaddy.com uses NASCAR racing and high-profile racers like Danica Patrick as one way of bonding with their target audience. Racing has absolutely nothing to do with domain names, but it has everything to do with bonding and credibility (and sex sells like nothing else through association).

You can bond with your prospects in a variety of ways: by entertaining or amusing them, by giving them free stuff they enjoy and get immediate value from, and by sharing stories they identify with, among other ways.

What you are really doing during the bonding phase is anchoring positive, motivating associations between you, your site and/or product within the prospect’s mind. This is incredibly powerful when done correctly, as it begins to create a “preference” for you and your product vs. the prospect’s alternatives.

Remember that metaphorical “Bridge of Trust” across the “Chasm of Doubt” we talked about earlier? In the next phase, your prospect will reach a critical state of Trust for you—at least enough to consider buying from you. Everything you have done up until now has either created trust, eroded trust, or had no impact on trust development at all.

Avoid any marketing that causes suspicion or detracts from your prospects’ trust in you. For example, have you ever received an email from a marketer where the email subject line says something designed to grab your attention and get you to open that email? So, you open it. Inside the email, the content has absolutely nothing to do with the subject line and there’s some vain attempt to bridge from that subject line to the actual email content.

How do you suppose this makes your prospects feel?  When it happens to me, I feel tricked. Tricking your prospects is not a way to build a trusting relationship!  In fact, it says you care more about getting your way (making that sale) more than you do about your prospective customer.  This is not lost on most people.

Instead, our actions need to build trust and reinforce that we are trustworthy. Many aspects of our marketing can act together so that prospects begin to trust us.

Creating trust is a complex topic. Fortunately, there are many proven ways to develop trust and help your prospects across the Chasm of Doubt.

At some point, it is time to pitch the prospect. Now that they desire our product, have bonded with us and prefer our product, and trust us enough to do business with us – then we can close the sale.

So, you enable your prospect to engage with your online sales process as a buyer. We call this the Activation phase, because the prospects are now actively entering a buying mode. They decide to invest some of their time and actively pursue a solution.

Various triggers can activate your prospects. Before going deeper into activation, let me ask you something. What do suppose would happen if your prospects hadn’t bonded with you and didn’t yet trust you and you tried to force activation too soon?

Once they are activated into a buying motion, you’d just be yet another option for the prospect to choose from.

Moreover, if they trust someone else more than they trust you, they will probably make their purchase elsewhere.

They might actually look at and consider you as an alternative, but their fears and concerns about doing business with a stranger or someone less trustworthy could easily cause them to steer away once they are engaged in an active buying motion.

Have you ever bought something from Amazon.com without looking for a better price elsewhere?  There’s usually a better price if you just look.  But we don’t usually look, do we?  It’s because we have bonded with Amazon.com as a brand and prefer to deal with a known quantity vs. going through the entire RDS process as a buyer with someone new. And Amazon.com does a great job making it better to stick with them, with customer reviews and even access to those cheaper 3rd party deals through Amazon!

We can trigger activation of prospects by making them an offer they simply cannot refuse. This offer is compelling enough to overcome “procrastination inertia.” Procrastination occurs when people avoid taking action on something they know they want to do or even should do, but continue to delay for various reasons.

They might say (in their minds or to their spouse): “I’m just not sure.” “It’s a lot of money.” “Maybe I’ll find a better one if I keep looking.” “I’m too busy right now” or “I’ll do it tomorrow.”

When you activate your prospects, you essentially light a fire under them to take action now. You give them multiple reasons to act now; e.g., discount pricing, time-limited extras/bonuses, special financing terms, limited quantities, and such.

This is a critical moment.  At this point, the prospect is serious about buying from you, but very likely still has questions and possibly some objections.  It is important they be able to find answers to the remaining, burning questions and get them answered completely.

Activation can create buying momentum that is sometimes sufficient to overcome our prospect’s procrastination inertia – and possibly even enough to get them to dismiss their remaining questions and tell themselves something like – “it comes with a money-back guarantee – what do I have to lose?”.

Activation causes them to begin actively going through your sales process. During activation, your prospects become “buyers”. They begin looking at their options and are about to make a purchase – from you.

The online selling process answers their questions, overcomes their objections, and motivates them to buy from us and to buy right now, before they change their mind, or the phone rings, or the dinner bell rings…

The prospects then decides to buy, and they press that magical button.

That single click represents their buying decision (Buy Now button, Add to Cart button, Join Now button).

Once the buyer completes the checkout process, the Sale is consummated and you now have a new customer.

The Relationship Development System (RDS) is a proven process that increases online sales conversion rates.

Why do you suppose long form sales pages are structured the way they are?  Because they are designed to take the reader on a rapid RDS “journey” through the entire process.  However, in reality it often takes several visits to a typical website and sales page before a buying decision is made – unless the RDS process has taken place beforehand (via email, a blog, a video or some combination of RDS actions).

Without a functioning RDS in place, the best you can probably expect in direct-selling of visitors to your site is perhaps 1% to 2%. With a high-performance RDS in place, your aggregate conversion rates could well reach 5% to 10% (or more when prospects are “referred” by someone they already trust).  This is why an auto-responder follow-up system is so critical to every online business’ profitability.

Of course, developing and nurturing relationships takes time. Fortunately, this can all be automated so it is taking place 24/7. For the most part, it is a hands-free set of activities managed by the auto-responder, except for adding new offers and occasionally freshening (and testing and optimization).

Whatever combination of technologies you choose to use, follow the RDS steps more deliberately and you will make more sales.  I might suggest an “RDS Audit” of your existing selling process – to identity and fill any holes or sticking points that may be present.  Of course, you should always A/B split-test any change you make and measure the actual effects over time.

You will know when your RDS is working because the sales ticker will speed up and that “cha-ching” sound will happen more often – and your bank balance will go up more often than down (if you control your spending).

In 2008, I documented this entire process in The Online Leadership Guide.  There is also a free 5-part mini-course available where you can learn more.

I hope you have an effective RDS in place for each of your products and sites.  If not, what are you waiting for?

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• Crossing the Chasm of Doubt (0)
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In Part 1 of the three part series on the Psychology of Social Product Launches we discussed the first key element: Social Proof.  In this post, let’s examine the next key element: Proof.

Proof consists of evidence that can be used to demonstrate the truth about something.  This evidence convinces someone about what is true and what is not.  In marketing, we see many forms of evidence used to assert proof that what we say is true.

Since buyers realize we are selling something, their default assumption is that we could be stretching the truth or even lying to make the sale.  And since online buyers are often not dealing directly with another human being they can already know or feel they can trust, there is an inherent lack of trust at first.

This trust gap must be bridged in order to attract buyers and make more sales. This is where Proof comes in.

Coming up with an effective plan for providing proof is critically important, especially when launching anything new or selling to someone new (who hasn’t bought from you before).

It’s even more important if you are a new company without established brand recognition. One of the reasons established brands enjoy so many advantages is that consumer already know and trust the brand. The buyer may, therefore, be willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the seller.

There are many forms of evidence that you are telling the truth and are trustworthy that people may accept, including:

• Independent reviews by someone the buyer knows and trusts; e.g., bloggers, testing labs, magazines, consumer agencies, etc.
• Free trials that enable a buyer to try the product themselves before buying
• Interviews with experts who have first-hand experience with what’s being launched
• Videos and demonstrations showing actual results
• Testimonials and interviews with real people who are already getting the intended results (not paid promos)
• Specific numbers, data, charts or statistics from a respected 3^rd party
• Credentials that certify your qualifications; e.g., PhD, CCIT, Certified Platinum Reseller, etc.
• Endorsements by celebrities, recognized experts and authorities.

There is no substitute for providing proof that what you say is true.  Social proof complements and amplifies actual proof, but is not a substitute for real proof.

Unfortunately, it is tempting to just assume that people will trust what you are saying is true, but the reality is, people are trained not to trust strangers.  And whether we like it or not, when we first meet someone (or their website), they are considered a stranger – unless someone we know and already trust has referred us.

Don’t assume people will trust you or what you have to say.  Instead, have a deliberate Proof Plan that provides sufficient evidence so that newcomers will be convinced you and your site are indeed trustworthy.

We provide our clients with a number of services that help build trust, develop a relationship between buyer and seller and generate improved sales results both during and after launches.  Learn more about these solutions.

• It’s good to be King (0)
• Your Relationship Development System – Profiting or Costing You? (1)
• Crossing the Chasm of Doubt (0)
• Psychology of Social Product Launches – Part 1, Social Proof (1)
• Product Launch Manager Interview with Jeffrey Pezzella (0)
• New Rules of Attention: Customers Are Now In Charge (0)
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TRUST

The number one reason people don’t buy from us online (besides price and no need) is the fact that we’re strangers and they don’t know us and don’t trust us.

We’re all taught from childhood not to trust strangers. This carries over into business, because most of us have been burned at one time or another by someone we didn’t know.

The old saying that “trust must be earned” is very true.

Big brands like Amazon.com or EBay do not face this same barrier, as they’ve already earned their trust in the market. Unless you have the wind of an established brand blowing behind you, you will certainly have to face and overcome this trust issue. Even if you have a brand, it may not be enough to carry you, especially in new markets.

The other reason people do not believe or trust you is because they realize you are trying to sell them something. In addition, they often have developed an instinctive distrust for sales people because of experiences buying things (and being “hard sold” on things that turned out not to be in their best interest or of value to them).

Lack of trust and belief is probably the single biggest cause of online selling failure (probably offline, too). Fortunately, you can do plenty about this.

When people do not trust or believe us, there is a gap or chasm between us and them. Notice my use of the term “us and them” here. They do not trust us.

To maximize our online sales, we must change this “us vs. them” perspective.  We do this by building an online relationship – that eventually blossoms into a customer relationship.

Every relationship begins with a Chasm of Doubt between the two parties. This chasm is often filled with fears, anxieties, questions, misperceptions, and other forms of doubt.

There are those risk-takers who will simply leap right across this chasm, but more often than not, they are the exception instead of the rule.

To attract the big, mainstream part of almost any market, we must convince risk-averse people that they can safely do business with us.

Consider the following picture of the chasm.  How many people will put themselves at risk to jump across it?

It is as if we are standing on one side of the canyon or a large gorge, and our prospect is on the other side looking across at us.

He can see us and hear us but isn’t ready to try to jump across this dangerous-looking chasm to join us on the other side, where we can help.

Yet to sell to him, we must somehow help him across this Chasm of Doubt onto our side, where we can have productive conversations about his desires and his needs and how we can best help and serve.

So how are we going to help our prospects cross to our side?

By building a metaphorical Bridge of Trust across the Chasm of Doubt – by removing the perceived risks of being on the same side with us – and avoiding the risky-looking jump we see here.

This “chasm” has been written about before, so this isn’t really new.  Remember Jeffrey Moore’s famous “Crossing the Chasm”?  Another place I saw this concept being applied to email marketing was Michael Cheney, an accomplished Internet Marketer, who portrays this chasm in his River of Doubt metaphor.

To get across this famous chasm, we must build a  ”Bridge of Trust” and get our prospects to start walking across the bridge to reach us on the other side –  one-step at a time.

You might be wondering: what can we use to build such a bridge?

Trust is built one step at a time.

It begins by being honest and sincere about helping the prospects get the results and achieve the positive outcome they seek.

Each step of the bridge must be built. We provide the prospects with something that causes them to consider us as trustworthy.

They then take a step closer to being on our side of the Chasm of Doubt.

Here are some examples.

We offer the prospect something valuable for free (perhaps a free offer that attracted them to us  in our original advertisement), and then we deliver it to them.

We ensure they will be satisfied with what we give them. Gift giving has long been a good way to help build a relationship, and it is no different online.

Next, we give them something else that is completely unexpected for free, like a free video, report, or something else even more useful.  These gifts must not be self-serving, with embedded sales messages, links to buy your product or service, etc.  Real gifts aren’t Trojan horses – they’re honest to goodness useful, valuable things that can be appreciated.

By giving useful, free stuff to our prospects, we are accomplishing several important steps:

• We’re demonstrating that we are trustworthy by trying to help them
• We’re proving that we are interested in them and their needs
• We’re showing them that we actually do have something valuable to offer them
• We’re helping them along the path toward solving the ultimate problem (our product can fully resolve)
• We’re staying in front of them and keeping our company/product in the foreground (vs. not following up with them at all and allowing them to slip into the ether).

Another way to gain their trust is to confide in them by letting them in on something special, telling them a secret, or even sharing something personal with them. When people confide in you, they are signaling that they trust you. Therefore, you should trust them in return.

Think of all the ways you would go about building a relationship with someone and evaluate whether that same approach could work in building bonds of trust with your prospect.

Sometimes it is easy to forget all the stuff we learned when selling to people in the offline world—how our sales people go about their process of selling.

It begins by establishing rapport, finding common ground and establishing some nominal amount of trust that the sales person has your best interest at heart.

It is no different online.  Our brand (if we are an established company) helps to bridge the trust gaps somewhat.  If you’re like most small businesses, you don’t yet have an established brand in the eyes of your prospect, so that’s not going to help.

Instead, we must invest the time and effort required to develop the relationship and bonds of trust with our market. Then when our email arrives in her inbox, she will open it and actually read it more often than not.  When we recommend something, that recommendation will be taken seriously and not pre-judged as just another sales pitch.

So if developing these relationships is this straightforward, why don’t more companies do it?  Because it takes time, work and a sincere interest in our market and customers.  It takes doing things that aren’t in our own selfish interests and instead investing our time for someone else.  And that’s not nearly as much fun as building more stuff to sell…

So the next time you’re wondering what you can do to increase sales in your market, step back and ask yourself this question.

Which side of the chasm is my market waking up on today?

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