It's all you're hearing. Recession. Emergency interest rate cuts. Plunging foreign stock markets.  Will consumer reluctance to spend effect your quarterly results? If your business has affiliations with the housing, building or retail industries, you probably already feel the burn.

Check out my tips for strengthening your business' sales capabilities.  It's only January. If you identify what needs improving now, you can attack it and fix in all in the first quarter.   Imagine, a sales chart that doesn't point down this summer!  Click the Panic Button above for all the tips and details.

Look at the key ingredients that make Senator Barack Obama's speeches so spell-binding and try to apply those features to your ad or web site sales copy:

1. From the Heart. 

Read your copy with a straight, monotone narrative voice. Now repeat the reading with a little more emotion-packed voice.  As you get more strident, what words do you accent? When you're screaming it, do you need to add some words? Imagine there are four exclamation points at the end!!!!  What else would you say if you were passionately screaming out your sales benefits.  Find three new ways to improve your copy, even if it's as simple as one word underscored or set in all caps or published in flaming red.  

Or change the pace.  Or add silence.  .....
Persuaders love passion!  Oh yea

2. Share the Pain.

Think about your prospects and why they buy. What fears or pain do they avoid when they buy your product or service? Don't you and your prospect SHARE that fear or pain? Let them know that you and the prospect, together, will avoid that problem.  You're together with your prospects because people like to buy from people like themselves.  So, let them know that you share their concerns and say it with passion.  "I dont' want you putting out an email that doesn't work and makes your readers cringe with embarrassment!  It's horrible to lose business!"

3. Find a Crescendo. 

Obama warms up and gets hotter and hotter and more articulate and more powerful as he goes along.  He "peaks" with a few lines that make everyone weep, that witness the moment, that make history, and then he cools down.  Your copy can do the same thing.  See if you can find any pattern in your copy's pace or rhythm.  Give it an energizing start, but be sure it gets into full gear  and "peaks" with power, passion and persuasion.  Use the close with an action to take (or invitation to buy) to summarize and reconnect and calmly close the deal!

You've lost perspective. You've played with your site so much that you're sick of it. You see other sites you like so much better, but the cost of an overhaul is out of reach. So, what makes your site so weak? Sure, you have a list in your back pocket right now. I know. All my clients think they know what's wrong with their site.  "It doesn't sell!"  "No one visits!"  "No one stays!"  "It's ugly!"

You could hire a "user interface" specialist or try this quiz.  (User interface. How ironic that such specialists are in charge of making sites easy and comfortable, yet they name themselves like that!)

1) Can I find my site if I search for my products or services? 

2) Do I see the unqiue benefits as soon as I get to the home page? 

3) Is the sales presentation as complete as technology allows? 

4) Does the copy hold me, handle all the sales obstacles, start a trusting relationship, tell the prospect what to do and capture some vital information?

5) Is it easy to buy?  Is there a guarantee? A special bonus to act now?

6) Are there third-party testimonials that are either on the home page or a click away?

7) Are customer satisfaction levels measured? Are they good?  Do you resell and communicate again soon? Are fulfillment complaint levels low? 

8) Is there a human being in the process, either by voice, photo, or email?

9) Did you say thank you to the buyer or lead you generated? 

10) Buy from the site yourself (all the way through, with credit card) and see how you FEEL when you're done. How long did it take?  Did you matter?  Do you feel warm and cozy afterward?

Imagine pulling out that old Chutes & Ladders game, or maybe the Candyland board.  You're going to create the same train-track line with boxes, except each box will be a step in your prospect's path to purchasing your product or service.  Hokey. I know.

You can guess and draw the buyer's path, or you can talk to your frontline folks and collect information from them. Ask them, " How do our customers buy? Do they walk in the door after hearing an ad? Call the phone number they see on our web site or direct mail postcard?"  Let them answer. Listen to what they say. 

Then, ask "What are they feeling and thinking about? What do they ask you first? Who are they consulting? How frequently do they buy right then? How long do they want to think about the decision? Have they done any research? Do they ask technical questions? Do they already have this product or service and they're looking to replace it? What competitor are they considering or comparing us against? What do they fear?"

The more story lines you collect, the more confidently you can diagram your path.  From the moment the prospect became aware of your product, how long before they research or act?  Who else do they consult? Where else do they check it out? Do you provide them research? Consumer Report magazine? Google? The nearest mall? How long do they study your web site according to your web logs? How many clicks do they have to make to buy from you?

This process alone will inspire you to make some changes in how you sell or welcome customers. 
Now you should have the confidence to start calling some good customers and asking them the same questions.  Change your selling process to match their buying process and you're set to win!
NEXT TIME: Evaluating Your Own Web Site, a Quiz 

I don't know anyone using this term, but I use it to describe what I do on web sites or any business consultation, really.  Massaging, shaping, mapping and sculpting exactly how your best prospects are likely to shop and buy your product or service.  There are shortcuts to get the research you need to strategize this.  But you do need to HAVE A CLUE about your buyers' buying habits and process.  It may not match your current sales process.  In fact, it's almost certainly NOT matching your sales process, which was probably devised by your  sales people who fantasize that they know how prospects buy...but all they really want to do is force their selling process onto prospects.  For example, cold identify prospect, call, send them a bunch of crap literature, then call again to schedule an appointment.  This kind of process leads to the never-ending "next steps" and sales rep excuses....."but I'm working the pipeline!"

I don't think so. Remember, you have a web site because you hope to dismantle your sales reps or at least reduce your cost per sale.  So, let's speed up your conversions and get the prospect almost completely sold at the site. Reduce the risk and dependency on human sales reps and answer prospect questions and overcome sales objections on your web site!  Duh.

So, first, give up on an incremental, one-by-one improvement process. If it's the only way, then do your mapping and strategy offline and at least give logic to your incremental improvements.  So, let's begin. Next blog:  Mapping your buyer's buying process.

You start the day worried that all the features you want to bring your customers have been done, usually better and faster, by some suma-wrestler like Google, or Yahoo or Ebay.  But let me assure you that because you have identified your USP (your unique selling proposition) EVERYTHING YOU DO IS ORIGINAL.  If it isn't, then you never did pin down that USP!

If you have differentiated yourself from the competition, by style or feature or patent or method or strategy, then even if you assemble a site or a promotion with similar elements (a headline, a link, a landing page, some key search engine terms, a search box, a visitor counter and Paypal) it will have its unique feel for your visitor. 

Your USP Has Never Been Presented Before

If a prospect is going to be a great one for you and he's reading your site or promotion, he's going to be very interested in what you have to offer.  He doesn't think, "Hmmmm. I've seen one of these email promotions before."  No. He thinks, "Hey! I've never ever read about anything like this before!  I've gotta forward this to Linda!"  It's what you say and describe and tease and tickle and accent and underscore and point to and tell and sample and sell that matters. 

Originality is actually quite easy to achieve because no configuration of brand attributes, USP, benefits, headlines, key search terms or strategies can be completely identical (well, okay there are copycats but they are breaking laws).  Enough ethics and philosophy (my house is full of it with teenage debaters run amok).

Rest assured, originality isn't the challenge.  Good grief.  Any dim-witted, award-chasing, agency designer can fret over a Martini in his overpriced-glass-studio-overlooking-the-river about originality.  A good copy writer doesnt' fret though, because she is here to sell widgits, and every creative and passionate selling argument or strategy is breathtakingly original to the needy prospect.  That's who matters.

Oh my. So many whispers among colleagues.  All while those search engine companies upgrade their crawler algorhythms by the hour.  There really are not too many shortcuts folks.  Figure out the search terms that your ideal prospects might use to find what you have to offer. There may be many, but usually there are a hard-core dozen concepts or so. Just focus on those.  Now see if your site has 250-500 words of accessible content about those key topics.  Yea. Duh.  I know.  Just have a decent web site with intrinsic quality and relevancy and you'll have a good start.  Remember: Breadth First.  I'll write about some other tips soon.