3 Reasons Why Prospects Don't Buy

Nearly everyday, I get e-mails from marketers asking me why prospects keep exiting their websites without purchasing anything.

Now assuming you have "all of your ducks in a row," including targeting the right audience and well-written, compelling sales copy, following are the 3 most common reasons why prospects aren't buying what you're selling.

1. Prospects Don't Find Your Product Appealing: It may seem like a harsh reality to you, but you may have a product that nobody wants. While you may think that what you're selling is the greatest thing since sliced bread, it's what your prospects think that ultimately matters.

You can have the greatest salesletter ever written and the best promotion, but those things just don't matter if nobody wants what you're selling.

Now there can be a variety of reasons for this. For example: Timing.

Some ideas are way ahead of their time, and people just aren't ready for them.

Another reason may be, your product is a dud. Hey, it happens to the best of us. Despite our best efforts and intentions, sometimes our ideas just aren't as good as we originally thought they were. Where do you think that age old saying came from?..."It seemed like a good idea at a the time."

The key is being smart enough to recognize when you're beating a dead horse, and cut your losses.

Now that doesn't necessarily mean you have to give up on your product ideas altogether - just for the time being. Remember what I said earlier about timing?

Sometimes, if you simply shelve your product for a few months or years and then reintroduce it at a later date, the buying public may be much more receptive to your idea. This occurs much more often than you realize.

2. Prospects Can't Afford What You're Selling: Nowadays people are literally being bombarded with advertisements from all directions...tv, radio, direct mail, Internet, newspapers, etc., etc., etc.

Unfortunately, there are only so many dollars to go around. Prospects may very well want what you're selling, but may be unable to afford it. Especially if you're selling a product for $100 or more. If you're experiencing market resistance toward your product, try lowering your price or offering some time of payment arrangement or installment plan. This method has jump-started many advertising campaigns.

3. Prospects Don't Believe Your Message: Your prospects will never tell you this, but the reason they aren't buying your product might be because they don't believe your selling message.

As a nation we've become increasingly skeptical of advertisements of all types. Why? Because too often, the products being advertised simply don't live up to the hype and excitement they're being promoted with.

So how can you solve this dilemma? Simple. Tone down the hype and admit your products faults, flaws or shortcomings. For example:

"Unfortunately, our new hair growth formula is not a miracle drug and thus will not work for everyone. While lab tests results prove that it will work for the majority of users, there is a slight chance, it may not grow hair in your particular case. However, if you try our new hair growth formula and are unsatisfied for any reason, we will cheerfully refund your money...no questions asked!"

Do you see how toning down the hype and admitting your product is not a miracle drug make your claims seem more much believable and palatable? Try using this method in your next ad campaign.

In closing, while you may not hit a homerun each time you go to bat, if you consistently make your offers as credible as possible, the numbers will take care of themselves!
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Dale King is the owner of the new Internet marketing website, Guruknowledge.org

Targeting the right audience is 75% of the battle. Most online businesses target the wrong prospects and wonder why conversion rates stink.

For example, a personal services business with a customer base of middle-aged women within a 30-mile radius of its office should not be running a Google Adwords campaign that is national in scope and gender neutral...a waste of money.

To learn how to focus on the right audience, I strongly recommend reading High Probability Selling by Jacques Werth.

Regards,

-Mike

Great mention Mike-- that is a terrific book. I'm using Jacques' principles in the prospecting for one of my product lines.

Great article, Dale. Very helpful.

Thanks for posting it.

Chris Hawkes

What I have found re a lot of sites nowadays with ONE product on offer is that it is practically impossible to find the:

Product they are selling and the price!

I see lots and lots of words, stories, testimonials, bulleted lists and all I want to know is what, where and how much? I scroll to the bottom and find the information must be posted somewhere midway. I don't have time to read all that (sorry lads but when it takes an hour to read it's called this) CRAP!

So I exit , BUT before I do I decide to fire off an email to tell them their site is a failure but

I can't

why not?

I can't find the damn contact details either!!

Many site contents are TOO Long and Laborious. They need to be brief and to the point and show the relevant details rapidly.

I'm amazed at the number of ecommerce sites out there that don't have a contact phone number prominently placed. I absolutely hate not having a phoning number in order to call someone if I need to-- yeah Amazon gets away with it but there ecommerce setup is about as perfect and complete as one can get, but I'll say there are still times when being able to call would be far more convenient. As far as anyone selling info-products, widgets or providing a service. If you can't provide a phone number then you're costing yourself $$$ because I can guarantee a large segment of the population either wants to get quick questions answered (and everyone knows that emails won't be answered for at least a day) OR they still don't trust ordering over the net. 30% of my orders come from the phone.

Bottom line is that not having a contact phone number is stoopid in my opinion.

That's a great point, Michael.

In fact, that's one of the things I talk about in my article "10 Ways to Instantly Improve Your Conversion Ratio."

Dale King

Asking to keep moving one step at a time...

Quote Creative fossil:

Quote:

I see lots and lots of words, stories, testimonials, bulleted lists and all I want to know is what, where and how much? I scroll to the bottom and find the information must be posted somewhere midway. I don't have time to read all that (sorry lads but when it takes an hour to read it's called this) CRAP!

And to other people who do take the hour or two reading the words, stories, testimonials, bullets may not call it as crap.

Rather, something they want. Possibly rationalizing they won’t pay the cable bill this month as they print the pages to see it again. The want is alive.

Are you selling price or what the product, via emotions will do for them now, tomorrow and ever after?

Or were the pages you see with lots of words, stories… did they lack emotion to draw you in?

Or just price checking and all of the words, stories made it frustrating and time consuming?

Or

Quote:

They need to be brief and to the point and show the relevant

Quote:

details rapidly.

Cheers

Jim

Jim

I don't think one should have to read an entire essay before I know what is I am supposed to be looking at,

I also don't want to read an esay and find that it was 100% waste of my time as the price is way out of my budget.

If I looked for that item , I want to know immediately what it costs.

If an Ad can't tell me what I want to know quickly then I have no desire to read it. I am already annoyed and frustrated by the company.

I want a QUICK AD (as I am busy) with an option to read more about it once my initial interest has been peeked. BUT my interest needs to be peeked first.

This can happen with a long Ad, but then you lose me, when I can't find the info I want easily.

Mm, I can understand your point of view, you would rather not have to spend an hour in order to find out whether this product is right for you or not. I would like to give you a little story that may put things into relevance for you.

Imagine God decided one day that everyone who was going to be in a relationship would no longer be allowed to see or talk to each other before being together. Not only that, but you could only pick once and if you made a mistake, to bad.

Now the only thing you have to choose between one person and another is whatever they wrote about themselves. Lets say you decide its time to get in a relationship... which would you prefer...

Tall, Dark, Handsome.

Or

11 pages giving every single detail about the person.

Tall, Dark, Handsome, doesnt give you much info does it? You dono what sort of mentality they have, or if they are an outright jerk. This is the same way a prospect feels when they are reading sales pages. If you were to buy a car but couldnt look at it or touch it, wouldnt you want a nice, in depth detail all about the car?

Buyers will read every single word, everybody else wont. People DO read long copy as long as it is intresting.

When you are selling in print, the only thing they know about the product is what you tell them.

Naturally, a successful long copy follows AIDA or a similar formula. There are alot of people making mistakes in trying to write long copy but not ensuring that the copy is 'slippery'.

Anywho, think of some of the products like Benvicvengas Seminar, your alot more likely to think the $5000 price tag is worth it after youve read the sales copy... which is why people hide the price sometimes.