Last week, I let an old college buddy talk me into meeting him out for a beer or two after work.

Didn’t spend too much time or have too much fun but, the topper was when I walked outside, I discovered my car had been broken into and my computer stolen.

Ouch!

When your technology is ripped away, you realize what it really means to you.

The good news – So many of the systems I depend on are hosted on the web that I was able to get the things done that needed to be done.

The bad news – you get things the way you like them with time.  When its all disrupted, you can function efficiently and its frustrating.

All this made me realize how much I depend on Internet based marketing efforts.  I spend a couple of hours a day tweaking PPC campaigns, blogging, etc. and it works.

And still, when I ask most of my clients if they’re marketing on the Internet, I hear “Well, our website is almost ready for release.”

Its like I’m in a parallel universe.  My clients have almost no experience with the kind of marketing I take advantage of everyday.

For any sales person or business owner in any industry, you have got to try it.   I know you’ve read all the stuff online about “Cold Calling is Dead”, etc.  Its not dead but, there darn sure is an easier way.

When you reach out to someone through traditional advertising or cold calling, you start an education process that may lead to a purchase after a few steps.

When someone searches for you online, you already know they want what you have.

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Examples:

• “Send me your brochure and I’ll get back to you”
• “Can you send me your basic price schedule to review?”
• “Let me talk it over with my team and I’ll get back to you”

Countless pages in sales books and hours in sales meetings have been spent addressing techniques for responding to put offs – to prevent yourself from being “put off”. A typical response might be “If I agree to send you my catalog, will you commit to talking with me for 15 minutes next Thursday morning?”.

How about using a Judo approach? Wiki defines Judo as “the principle of using one’s opponent’s strength against him and adapting well to changing circumstances. For example, if the attacker was to push against his opponent he would find his opponent stepping to the side and allowing his momentum to throw him forwards”

So, here we are spending considerable time and money developing online methods for our customers to obtain the information they need to make a purchase decision and to make the purchase itself.

And the customer just wants to end the conversation with the sales rep. Many times its just because there are other pressing matters that need attention.

So when the customer asks for your price list, how about directing him to the online sign up page on your website? Now their only a credit card number away from a purchase, rather than just waiting to receive something from you.

If you design your site to include other actions that a prospect can take prior to purchase, such as sign up for a webinar, subscribe to your newsletter or blog or view an online demo or presentation, these things become measurable steps in your sales process.

So, when the client gives you the brush off, you move him to the appropriate step in your process and agree on next steps.

Go through this exercise – write down the top “put offs” you hear from prospects. Then identify a corresponding piece of information or action you can direct the prospect toward on your site for each put off. Now you’ve got them going to the store in order to move on with their day.

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