Translating Classic Sales Process Thinking into Online Sales

I was trained in classic organizational sales. I have managed international direct sales forces whose bread and butter was modelling and executing on a sales process. I just ran across a beautiful online presentation describing the sales process. This reminded me of where I come from: consultative organizational high value sales

However, I don't operate in that world anymore. I operate in the world of online sales of educational services generally priced so low that there is no profit in a process if it involves any human contact. So I build sales funnels for my sites that somehow tries to translate the process of selling into a few webpages and follower up newsletters.  We still operate with the concept that prospects need to be moved several steps from idea to buying and that an attempt to close too quickly will not work out well.

However, I also have spent time learning about the direct marketing and mail world which preaches compressing the hook and the close into such a tight two-step that I have trouble discerning a real sales process.  Later, I'll show how our sale funnel, models the process of building rapport, learning about the customer, and then moving them to buy-in to our solution, as steps to having them buy.

gplus

del.icio.us

Friends don't let friends build bad websites

I'm going to plug a service just because I think it deserves a plug. I've used it, it's great.  And they sent me this marketing this morning that just cracked me up:

Friends don't let friends build bad websites - UserTesting.com