5 Website Tips To Get More Sales Meetings For Your I.T Firm.
Do you want to get more sales meetings for your I.T firm?
Not only that but more quality appointments, also?
I am talking about CEO and owners with real buying intent.
Today, I will discuss five website elements all I.T businesses must have to turn "looky-loo's" (I.e. browsers) into inbound sales leads, discovery meetings, and clients who want to buy from you.
While running an I.T-focused marketing agency, I have seen what a website needs to generate sales leads.
Not only that but a website that pre-frames and pre-educates prospects so they are ready to buy from you.
And that's before ever meeting you in person.
Pretty sweet, huh?!
The Cost Of NOT Having A Solid Website
You've probably heard of this idea of "opportunity cost."
What it means are the potential benefits you'd miss out on by choosing one direction over another.
For example, if a contractor chooses to take the day off work. The opportunity cost for him is the few hundred dollars he will miss out on by staying at home and relaxing.
Similarly, you will miss out on benefits also by choosing not to have a best-in-class website for your business.
Missing Out On Clients
The biggest problem with a poor website is that you are missing out on new clients.
And, if you're missing out on new paying clients, you are losing revenue, also - which is a significant problem.
Revenue is vital to fund operations, hire staff, and making more money for yourself as a business owner.
I have spoken to many one-man-band I.T providers whose goals are to grow their businesses. But, it never occurs to them that their weak website is one of the main root causes for their slow growth.
As a result, they are not capturing enough inbound sales leads to meet their objectives.
Weak “Prospect-To-Client” Conversion Rate
Do you struggle to convert prospects into paying clients?
Or find yourself missing out on new opportunities during the vendor selection process?
Your website is one of the reasons why this is occurring.
People now click around more than ever to learn more about you, your business, and your services.
If your website is off-point, people will not do business with you. For instance, if it contains broken links and is not designed well.
What it conveys is that; if your website sucks, your service must suck, also!
Because as the saying goes: "How you do one thing is how you do everything."
Hard(er) Sales Process & More Time Spent "Selling."
Unless you're a gluten for pain, you detest having to "sell" your I.T solutions stone cold prospects. You know the prospects who see what you do and don't understand the value of I.T.
But, a weak website requires you to go down this challenging sales route. If prospects have not been able to learn about you, you will have to "fill in the blanks" for them.
You'll have to run them through what you offer, what's included, how you work together, and pricing every-frickin' time because there's no way for clients to find out from their research.
So, that's a massive time drain having to educate them each time.
The Real Purpose Of A Website In Your I.T Business
The purpose of a website is three fold;
A Sales Funnel To Capture Leads
A website sales funnel setup to funnel potential customers to you. So, it advances prospects down your sales pipeline, moving them closer to a closed deal.
So, they may have found out about you and your business through an ad, referral, or social media post. Now, they want to learn more about you. So, your site progresses prospects along your sales process, in other words.
The success of your website is its ability to turn visitors into sales meetings. So, a website that converts nine out of ten prospects is fantastic. A website that converts only two in every ten prospects? Not so much. All things being equal. So, it's not that fancy new Wordpress theme or new widget, it's about conversion!
“A sales funnel mirrors the path your prospects take to become a customer. It describes discrete stages of the customer journey, from first touch to closed deal.” - What is a Sales Funnel? (& What You Should Make Instead), Hubspot
Pre-Frame Customers
Pre-framing is a technique used to get someone to see a situation from a specific viewpoint. For you, it will allow you to shape the prospect's perception of you. For example, you can make prospects see you as more trustworthy and likable before meeting you.
For example, do you want to appear more trustworthy?
You can do that with good personal images of you and your team on your website. Research has proven you seem more trustworthy, likable, and competent.
These are essential traits for customers to do business with you. And you can achieve that through engineering your website this way.
Educate Prospects
Educated prospects to convert better - that's a fact!
Am I saying that a Ph.D. graduate will convert better than a 5th grader - no!
What I mean is, if a prospects know more about:
who your business serves
the services you provide
how you work together
your offer and pricing
There's a higher chance that they will buy versus if they were utterly ignorant. So, it's essential to have your prospect educated before sales meetings. You want them to walk into the meeting knowing what you do.
Many of them will be ready to buy by the first meeting.
5 Website Tips To Get Quality Sales Meetings (and get new B2B clients too).
Now, let's get into the meat and potatoes.
The five website elements all I.T businesses must have to turn "looky-loo's" (I.e., browsers) into inbound sales leads, discovery meetings, and clients who want to buy from you
1. Automated Appointment Scheduling Tools
Appointment scheduling tools allow prospects to book appointments with you, at their convenience.
For instance, tools like Calendly and ScheduleOnce.
So, why is this important?
Well, if you are serious about growing your client base, it's vital that you get more sales meetings. There's a direct correlation between client growth and meetings held. Appointment schedule tools allow you to book more meetings and sales appointments.
Not only that, but it syncs up with your calendar, so you know that it'll be at a time that fits your schedule. That feature removes the time drain involved with scheduling meetings—for instance, back-and-forth emails and trying to find a convenient time to meet.
Another powerful feature is the notifications. Your prospect will receive a notification 24 and 1 hour before the scheduled meeting. So, naturally, that increases call show-up rates.
Personally, I set my availability in Calendly. So, if someone books a time in my calendar to talk, it will work for my schedule.
2. Lead Magnet That Appeal To Strong "Life Forces"
At this stage, you are familiar with lead magnets. They are web forms used to capture contact information in exchange for information—for instance, free downloads, checklists, and PDFs.
They help you to grow your email list and add value to your audience.
Yet, I.T focused lead magnets don't always have great success.
This is because they don't often appeal to strong human desires.
“We want love, to protect and care for our family, social acceptance, the drive to win, status, and food and drink.” - CA$HVERTISING, Drew Eric Whitman
For instance, the lead magnet below does not appeal to strong human desires:
"5 tips to improve I.T in your organization."
Whereas a lead magnet like this appeals the strong human desires:
"5 technology tools to automate manual tasks, free-up time and 2-5X productivity in your firm in 90 days"
These desired being:
Freedom from fear, pain, and danger.
To be superior, winning, and keeping up with the Joneses.
By putting this into practice, you'll see more opt-ins, leads, appointments, and sales,
3. Original Environmental Imagery
Environmental imagery is photos of you and your team in various settings. These can be headshots, you and your team working, or at an event. Any type of imagery of you and your team in a business environment setting.
People what to know who they're doing business with, I.e., what they look like, how they carry themselves, and their demeanor.
That is especially true as an I.T services provider. You are managing their critical I.T systems, after all. All of which are vital to the smooth operation of their business.
So, it's important to allow customers to see you in the flesh. And, in a positive light, also. Prospects will come into your pipeline more receptive to you. You'll see better conversion rates, also. So, avoid stock photography because people ignore it!
4. Client Case Studies
Client case studies document the work you have done for past clients.
They are valuable market collateral to have in sales meetings.
Prospects will have more confidence in you to deliver results because you have already done so for other clients. That trust will allow you to convert customers at a higher rate.
Client case studies follow the format:
a problem that your client was facing
a solution that you provide to help them solve that problem, and,
results that they realized from your solution.
You can have text-based case studies in PDFs and dedicate web pages your website. Furthermore, you can branch into video case studies also, i.e., through Boast.io or having it done for you.
5. Strong Brand Messaging
If you find it hard to get clients interested in what you offer, a strong brand message is a solution for you. A strong brand message will make more customers choose to do business with you. It does so because it expresses empathy for their current situation. It acknowledges their problems at a deep emotional level.
Prospects will be much more open to your solution if you understand their problems.
Listen, customers are selfish.
They are motivated to resolve their inner frustrations.
A strong brand message will acknowledge these frustrations and express empathy for their situation.
Not only that, but you should aim to paint a bright future of what the world will look like when they are not in this painful place, all from working with you and adopting your solution.
So, it would help if you dialed in your messaging on your website because its words that sell things, not pretty websites.
Closing Statements
So, that's it! Five website elements to turn "looky-loo's" (I.e., browsers) into inbound sales leads, discovery meetings, and clients who want to buy from you. A solid website can be the difference between exponential growth in your I.T firm. So, be sure to get it on point!
Finally, do you want to get new clients for your I.T services business? Then, join our free I.T business owners' Facebook group. We cover best strategies to get new clients and increase revenues for your I.T business. Here’s the link to join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/growthstrategiesfortechfirms/