I read something that seems dangerously unintelligent: the longer a prospect engages with your brand, the more likely it is that they will purchase your product or service - therefore, if you wish to improve your conversion rate, you have to find ways to get people to engage with your brand for a longer period of time.
I have no doubt that this is true, up to the "therefore." It should come as no surprise that a person who ends up buying a product spends more time considering it than a person who does not - as the non-buyer can tell at a glance, or after considering a few basic questions (Is this something that would benefit me? Is it worth the price? Is it better than alternatives?) that the product is not desirable and they do not wish to purchase it, and immediately disengage, whereas the first-time buyer must engage long enough to answer those questions and others that arise before committing to buying the item.
(As a side note, the amount of time likely decreases again for the loyal customer, for whom purchasing the item is an automatic decision and needs little deliberation. In fact, the loyal buyer will seem to be the least engaged of all. This likely skews the overall numbers, but for now I'll stick to the intended situation of a new prospect's decision to buy for the first time, except to beg the question of how you identify whether a person who does not purchase is really in that situation.)
The assumption seems to be that if you can somehow compel a person to spend more time with the brand, they will eventually convince themselves that it is desirable. My sense is this is exactly the opposite to the way that buyers think and behave. The initial reaction is an emotional one - a sense of inexplicable attraction based on an immediate reaction leads to the primitive impulse of "I want." Or in some instances, it's "what is that?" followed by curiosity and discovery. But ultimately, the logical side steps in to attempt to restrain or counteract the emotional reaction: you don't need it, you can't afford it, there are better things to spend your money on. It's only when logic agrees with emotion that a prospect has the intent to purchase.
As such, the notion that a customer must be compelled to want a product is when the product is inherently undesirable. In that instance, your choice is to improve the product to make it desirable or utilize tactics that are meant to overcome resistance. Even at that, there are better tactics to use than badgering a customer: a brand that inflicts itself on a person who has already decided not to purchase isn't appealing ... it's annoying. Hence the reason most salespeople are considered to be about as pleasant as a dose of scabies.
The notion of pressure-sales also reminds me of a sound-bite from a salesman who said, in so many words, that the reason for his success was not so much in being able to identify likely prospects as it was identifying unlikely ones so that he could avoid wasting time trying to sell them - which is exactly opposite to the notion of compelling longer engagement to convert a person who is uninterested in buying ... and which makes much better sense.
No comments:
Post a Comment