As marketers, we all want to show our products and services to the public and have them purchase from us right away. If it only were that simple! The buying process is exactly that, a process, and part of it has to do with the confidence a buyer has when deciding whether to do business with you or not.
The buyer’s journey has changed so much throughout the years – and it is likely to keep on evolving as the world evolves too – that marketing specialists have found themselves in the need of working towards increasing that potential buyer’s confidence.
A buyer’s confidence is what will allow him or her to complete a purchase. However, a lack of confidence in a buyer can turn into a conversion killer, in other words, the sales process will not be completed.
Buyer’s confidence must be established and reconfirmed through the entire selling process and the faster it is done, the easier it will be to move on to the next sale phase. But, don’t worry, there are many ways you can reduce the purchase anxiety of your customers, and we want to tell you all about it in the following paragraphs.
Ideas for boosting a buyer’s confidence
In the digital selling world, there are many ways you can use your webpage and your social networks to boost the potential buyer’s confidence. One of them is by creating a detailed about us page where visitors can find out who you are.
Remember that people buy from people, so remind your customers that there are real human beings behind your website and business.
By offering guarantees you will also create enough confidence that will help people make the final decision and acquire the desired product from you, instead of going to the competition. A guarantee can be, for instance, offering to pay for return shipping, or if they don’t like the product, they can return it within an x number of days.
If you have an online business, think about rephrasing the words used for your call to action buttons. “Pay now” can feel a little overwhelming for the buyer, while “Proceed to checkout” feels calmer and has less pressure on the buyer to give you his or her money and finish the transaction.
Powerful marketing messages to boost the buyer’s confidence
Marketing specialists can learn how to create powerful messages that can help boost the buyer’s confidence to improve, as a consequence, sales.
One of these messages is the “Killer Argument”, which is a concept that comes from Dale Carnegie – the North American writer – and the main idea is to show that this is not the first time you are offering a service or selling an item. “You have done this before”, is what you will be communicating.
This way, the potential buyer will feel that it is safer for him or her to do business with you or engage with your brand because you have been able to show him/her that you have done this several times before in the past. In other words, you have experience.
But, what happens, if this is your first time? You have to be honest with your buyer if you still do not have wide experience or results, but it does not mean that you cannot be creative and show your potential customers that you have what it takes or the proper capabilities to do the job and do it right.
Another powerful message that marketers need to communicate is what makes you – or your brand – special. This refers to the key discriminator that sets you apart from the rest.
The key discriminator does not have to be only one thing, it can be several things, but whatever you choose to let people know how you are different from the competition and why is that a reason for choosing you for business instead, you will have to be able to prove it.
For instance, if you say you have the best customer service, you will need to be able to prove that you do. As we said before, lying is a big no-no when it comes to marketing so whatever key discriminator you choose to communicate, it has to be a real one.
Finally, you can also use for a marketing strategy for building confidence in the buyers, the “ghost discriminators”. This consists of creating a doubt in the buyer’s minds about the competition by showing them their weaknesses.
It is not about speaking badly about the competition but showing what their weaknesses are and how you do not have them. You can also show what you do better than the competition, but remember, it all has to be provable.
The importance of building trust to create confidence in your buyers
In business trust is everything but if you build it correctly, you will be able to influence your buyers positively and as a consequence, they will have enough confidence to do business with you.
One way of building trust is by empathizing with your clients or prospects and social media can help you do this. As we have said before in an article titled “The importance of trust in businesses”, the latest reports are “yelling” at digital marketing and sales leaders to build their online presence by using the many benefits social networks have.
For B2B, LinkedIn is the best social network available for engaging with others, building their brand and creating trust, which will evolve in more buyer’s confidence and, therefore, a rise in sales.
And why focus on trust? Because more than 90% of the business is influenced by emotions, according to Lennart Sloof, Manager Digital Marketing Strategies at Accenture Netherlands.
Boosting confidence with LinkedIn
As we said earlier, LinkedIn is one of the best tools available today for B2B for creating connections and building trust and also a buyer’s confidence. Why? Unlike a cold email, people can click on your name and learn more about you.
In addition, by viewing your profile, they can see the company’s past experience, interests and read the content you share. If the content is valuable interesting and original, the potential buyer will conclude that you are immersed in the industry, know what you are talking about and feel more secure about buying from you.
Remember that when buyers feel more confident they are more decisive and convicted in their actions. If they trust you, they will be more likely to recommend you to others and come back always for business.
If you want to learn how, as a marketer, to create more confidence in your potential customers and boost your sales, you can contact Tricycle Europe to help you see what you can change in your marketing approach and also how you can adapt your sales style to add a more personal, human and empathetic touch.
We also invite you to join our next webinar called Scaling Digital Selling. Here you will have the opportunity to learn how important it is to enhance your digital selling and marketing in your business. This online meeting is prepared by Tricycle Europe, especially for today’s CEOs, CMOs and digital leads. Register now!
