While your website has a place in your business, it isn’t always the best place to send people who are interested in buying your services. In fact, it can often get in the way of you signing up clients who need your help now.
By listening [and taking notes], you’ll learn:
How you might be over-relying on your website to bring you sales
Where your time is best spent if you’d like to sign up more clients
What a conversion vehicle is and why this should be your focus
While your website has a place in your business, it isn’t always the best place to send people who are interested in buying your services. In fact, it can often get in the way of you signing up clients who need your help now.
By listening [and taking notes], you’ll learn:
How you might be over-relying on your website to bring you sales
Where your time is best spent if you’d like to sign up more clients
What a conversion vehicle is and why this should be your focus
If you’d like to work together with me as your 1:1 business and marketing consultant, book a call here.
Shannon Stone:
H ey guys.
Shannon Stone:
Welcome to the podcast, super excited to be jumping into this episode today. Today, we are talking about using or not using your website in order to make sales. Now, I don't know if you know this, but you can actually make sales without sending people to your website, and I mean legitimate, established businesses like yours who are selling services of $5,000, $10,000, $20,000 per service or per package. You can get excellent clients without sending people to your website and in many cases and many times, your website can actually hinder the sales that you get in your business and those clients ending up signing up with you. So I want to talk about this with you, because it's quite a hefty light bulb for people to understand this and it can really shift your marketing and ultimately shift your results as well. So I'll start this off by sharing a little bit of my experience with this, because I first hand realized this when I started consulting. So you might have listened to my journey through my eight years in business.
Shannon Stone:
When I first started as a marketer, as a freelancer, then built an agency, I did it. I built two businesses. Basically I built that and then I built my consulting, and the first time around, I did it by getting a logo, getting a website, getting myself up and online, as you do. But when I started my consulting, I did it the complete opposite way around, and probably no surprise is that I worked with a business coach and he guided me. I don't want to say the right way to do things, but maybe the right way to do things actually is the best way to say it, and so what he helped me to do is basically forget about the website, forget about any of that type of stuff, even though my agency already had clients. It was just going straight to where the clients were, just straight to the people who needed my help. So for two years after starting my consulting, I never had a website. I didn't even have a Facebook page, and the funny thing was I had plenty of clients and this was such a light bulb to me and that's why I shared it. I feel like such a light bulb moment to so many people.
Shannon Stone:
When I share this is that you don't actually need a website, or you don't need to be relying on your website to the degree that so many people do in order to produce results, produce clients, produce sales in their business. So people can often overcompensate the part their website plays in their business and, like I mentioned, it can really be a hindrance to getting sales. So I want to talk about what we can be doing instead. It's not about getting onto a particular platform or any particular strategy, but there is one key vehicle that I will already know and assume and assume with positive evidence as well that this is already working in your business. So really excited to shine a bit of a light for all of us here today. So, really, what this is about and what has worked for you in your business is something us marketers call a conversion vehicle.
Shannon Stone:
So your conversion vehicle is something that converts people to work with you and essentially for most people that I talk to, it is a call. It could be a audit call, a discovery call, a strategy call. Essentially it's a sales call. It's either that or they've got some kind of review process where people they'll like go and audit someone's business in, or if your clientele are businesses, but there'll be some kind of review or assessment or audit where you can book people in for that, and it's highly personalized and whether you were doing something like that a review or an audit or you're doing something like a discovery call or a strategy call, either, or these are your conversion vehicles and this is what more service-based businesses need to be focusing on. So when you talk to someone, wherever that might be online, virtually, in a group, in person you're talking to someone. They present the need that they need your support and your services. Instead of sending them to your website, book them in for your conversion vehicle, whether it's an audit, whether it's a discovery call. If you're emailing with someone or you are sending emails out to your database instead of sending them to your website, get them to book in for this call, any inquiry that comes in. Instead of sending them out and about to your website, get them to book in for the call. Your call to actions on social media need to be all directing people to your conversion vehicle. So, in a nutshell, all of your marketing should be funneling people in to this specific call. Whether it's an audit, whether it's a review, whether it's a discovery or a strategy call, whatever it is, it is for you.
Shannon Stone:
But I always I've mentioned this before how have people already come to work with you? What has been the main methods people have gone through in order to sign up to work with you and purchase services from you? It's probably through a call of some kind, and so, in that ecosystem, where has the website come into any of that? Now, this is not dismissing the importance of the website, because I definitely believe in them. I just believe in them as more of a long term strategy rather than a High converting direct marketing strategy. That's going to get you clients in your door much quicker.
Shannon Stone:
And also, when people are looking at your website, or anyone's website for that matter, you're not there. You're not there at that point in time, you're not on, you're not standing by them, you're not on the other end of a chat with them or whatever it might be, and so people get distracted. They'll read something on your website and then they might that might spark a thought where they'll go and look at someone else's website and Whoever's got the best sales process is probably going to get the client, and that is why I say we got to come back to your Conversion vehicle rather than sending people off into the ever. We need to control the situation a little bit more and that's where your Review, or your sales call or your audit, call your discovery, call your audit, whatever it is. This is where we need to be focusing on now.
Shannon Stone:
This is not to say that your website has no Peace in the matter. It doesn't play a part, because it definitely does, like I mentioned, and it does legitimize what you do. It does add professionalism to what you do. It is, in this day and age, it is the hub of your business. It's the front desk, especially for businesses these days that are so virtual, so remote. This really is almost like your retail space, your brick and mortar office. So your website definitely has a part and it's also not to say Should you optimize your website for things like SEO? Should you really utilize your website as something that can really drive and produce leads.
Shannon Stone:
But there's a few things you have to think about here. It's how soon do you need to achieve certain results? So I always think everything comes back to the goals that we have and that our actions should match the goals that we have. And Then also, we need to balance the input versus output. So say, for example, you wanted to Start utilizing SEO on your website or you wanted to build a funnel of some kind and your website played a big part in that. The input that you go through in order to get, say, the SEO or the funnel up and running, the input that you put into that. If you were to put the same equivalence of Input into another strategy, such as how could I get more people interested in wanting to book a call with me? How do I get my audience to grow so that more people see this call that I'd love people to book in for? If you put the same level of input into a slightly different strategy or a slightly different approach, where are you going to be better off? So this is like an open question for you to think about, because it's not to say don't use your website and don't explore Longer-term strategies such as SEO and all these other and funnels.
Shannon Stone:
But the thing is, with those, one solution always creates a new problem. So by creating a funnel, for example, say you've got a lead magnet and they opt in for that and then they get a sequence of email. So that's an amazing strategy, don't get me wrong. But by creating a solution like that, it's going to also create a new problem and in that case, it's the problem of getting traffic and not that it's a problem problem I use problem like Inverted commerce. But that'll be the next step for you to take. So just by, say, creating a funnel or optimizing your website for SEO, that solution will Create a new problem or new area to work on.
Shannon Stone:
If it's a funnel, it's definitely about getting traffic. If it's something like SEO, maybe it's testing out different things, it's optimizing different keywords and it's giving it the time needs to perform as well and then tweak based on the data and feedback that you're getting there. So I want you to think about these things. As you know, we've only got so much time and resources available to us at the moment, so where is going to be best for you to go forward and apply that input or those resources you have available to you and if, ultimately, ultimately, the most important thing for you in your business is to produce clients on a consistent basis, where you're regularly getting clients in through the door, what is the best way to do that? And in so many cases, it is to have your conversion vehicle, your sales call, your discovery call, your audit, your review, whatever it is your conversion vehicle at the centre point of your marketing and what you talk about, what you lead people to, rather than sending them off to your website.
Shannon Stone:
The last thing I wanted to touch on and we've kind of talked about it, but just a little bit more concisely there is a difference between longer term brand building strategies versus proactive direct marketing strategies and basically what I mean here. Longer term brand building strategies, things that will build your know like and trust factor in the long term. These are things like your website, these are things like creating a funnel and these are things like SEO and all these other bits and pieces. Longer term versus proactive direct marketing strategies are more of that shorter term, more of an immediate result and always, always the starting point, I would assume, just like when I started my two kind of businesses, but two very different ways around one, the first one I did. I spent three months building a website. That's all I did, every single day. I did also go to networking events, which was great, and that is how I actually produce clients. I just got in proximity with the people that needed my help. And then, when I started the consulting, I didn't even do the website side of things. I didn't even do that for over two years, didn't even have a Facebook page, and I just focused on how can I get people to, how do I have a conversation with the right people at the end of the day, and that's where the proactive direct marketing strategies came into it. So, overall, this conversation today is really just about a perspective shift or just maybe a little bit of a shake up to remind us how much effort are we putting towards our websites or how much expectation are we putting on things like our website or longer term brand building strategies, which I will do a separate podcast on that all together.
Shannon Stone:
But let's dive into the action steps. So number one is to get clear on what your conversion vehicle actually is. So you've already got something in place. You've already signed clients up to work with you before. There's one of two high conversion vehicles that I would suggest you have. One is straight to a sales call, and it might be a discovery call or a strategy call, something like that. Or the other way would be just a step before that, where you go and you review or you audit someone's situation to see how you can help them. So get clear on what your conversion vehicle actually is. That's number one. Number two is to focus all of your efforts and this is in your marketing, all of your marketing, all your efforts wherever you're directing people, all of it needs to go towards that conversion vehicle. So in the past maybe you've been sending people to your website or if someone says you know, you know they'd love your help in some kind of way, and you've directed them off to the website, instead of doing that, let's start sending them to that call with you or to that review or that audit with you. That's action step.
Shannon Stone:
Number two and the third action step if you haven't yet, go back and listen to episode seven and eight on the podcast, because I talk about how you can use Callan Lee to book more calls. I did say sales calls in that podcast, but whether it was a sales call, audit call, a review, any kind of thing, but it would be so helpful for you to listen to it because it gives you both sides. It gives you the practical but also the strategy of it and it just really builds on today's conversation as well. So I'm going to leave it at that for today. If you have any questions about this, do reach out and let me know.
Shannon Stone:
One thing we actually didn't touch on is if you don't have a website and I think, just by osmosis of me sharing my story, that I didn't have a website for two years when I did my consulting I think that answers the question Do you need a website? Probably not. If you don't have a website and it was mentally holding you back from putting your business out there and showcasing your conversion vehicle I would put 30 minutes or 60 minutes on the clock, go to something like Wix or Squarespace or any kind of platform that has a very simple drag and drop templated website that you can set up in 30 minutes or an hour, and the best of what you get set up in that time is what I suggest that you do, even if we scaled that back down even more, just like a one page coming soon page or just almost like a business card on a page. If it's really troubling you, that is probably what I would set up. But coming back to how we started this episode, today you can absolutely sign clients without sending people to a website or even having a website, and I've seen it with my own eyes. I've seen it with clients where legitimate, high value clients who are willing to pay for your packages of 5,000, 10,000, 20,000 excellent clients, are not worried about the state of your website, whether you have it or not. So they're my closing thoughts I have for you today. I hope you have an amazing day and we'll talk again very soon.