Reading
time: 5 min
Dear
reader,
This
a couple of years old but still up-to-date interview contained so many
important thoughts about increasing sales lead generation of web
sites that I had to acquire permission to republish it for your
benefit.
Please
enjoy the article!
Christian
Dillstrom
-
- -
Many
of my clients wonder why so few visitors fill in their
website contact forms.
This
is odd as website visitors have a reason to visit the page.
Even email marketing campaigns have an average conversion rate of 1%
- double the amount website contact forms are receiving.
I
am a bit puzzled about it, but luckily, I know a good growth hacker.
”So,
let's ask him how to improve this!”
WHAT
IS THE FASTEST APPROACH TO COLLECTING MORE SALES LEADS FROM WEBSITES?
The
best thing is proactive live chat as it will generate many more
sales leads than any passive live chat or a form.
There
are many other things you can do to improve the sales conversion of a
website, but this is the fastest and easiest way.
I
would never create a website without proactive live chat. We make
millions with it every year.
Many
of our customers confessed later that it was our
proactive live chat that made them start talking with us. All other
materials made them consider our services, but the polite proactive
live chat was the trigger to close the sale.
WHY
WOULD PROACTIVE LIVE CHAT COLLECT MORE SALES LEADS THAN A FORM?
People
like people, and no one likes forms!
Your
customers' website forms are filled in by only 0.5% of the visitors,
so it is obvious that they are not as engaging as talking to a
real human in a live chat.
Unless
you start doing something different, how can you expect your results
to improve?
WOULDN'T
A PROACTIVE LIVE CHAT ANNOY VISITORS?
If
you proactively start a polite chat that will suit the situation
about your brand or product, it will not annoy visitors.
Things
done to help the reader and in good taste will only ever generate
more sales.
Of
course, you need to communicate like you would do in the same
situation in an offline store. Stay away from any brand statements,
slogans, or sales pitches.
”Always
chat like you would with an acquaintance.”
WHY
DON'T YOU LIKE LIVE CHATS WHICH THE VISITOR NEEDS TO OPEN WITH A
CLICK?
The
reason is quite simple: I like sales.
Proactive
live chats, when done correctly, make a lot of money for businesses.
There are also other ways to boost sales leads with proactive live
chats that simply don’t exist for passive live chats.
By
passive live chats I mean chats that the visitor has to click to
start chatting.
”I
guess the purpose of passive live chats is to have poor customer
service and to lose sales?”
WHAT
DO YOU MEAN BY ”OTHER WAYS TO BOOST SALES LEADS WITH PROACTIVE LIVE
CHATS”?
First,
Proactive live chat is already open when a visitor comes to the
webpage. So, they can see that these are interesting interaction
features for the visitor on this page.
The
chat message will get the visitors' attention but will not startle
them like launching a new chat window would do.
”This
feature can be used to generate a lot of sales.”
Second,
You
will know about the interests of your visitor and as a bonus you can
offer something of value like a video, a PDF, etc. in exchange for
the visitor's email address and other contact details.
Again,
if done correctly, this works great. We used this method to collect
over 4 million email addresses from LinkedIn article readers who
liked my articles and who signed on to receive my recommendations for
other LinkedIn articles.
”Using
proactive live chat this way will generate a very big marketing
database for future sales.”
Of
course, you can only do it with sensitivity and good taste as well as
following all local legal requirements.
Third,
You
can start video sharing competitions on social media platforms like
Facebook by inserting a button in the live chat window.
For
example, we have a Facebook button at the bottom of our live chat
window, and we ask our visitors to take part in our video sharing
competition.
Every
visitor who takes part in our competition will generate over one thousand video views on Facebook which are endorsed by our visitor and our
visitor's friends within the next 60 minutes.
”That
is also a good sales booster, and it is easy to make that happen among
casual chatting.”
Finally,
You
can also try to activate passive visitors who have not responded to
your pro-active chatting. If done with sensitivity, it does not annoy
anyone. I have found out that it works best to track what the visitor
is doing and have chat actions related to that.
The
first step is to make the 'right noises' relevant to the
visitor’s interest.
The
second step is to offer links to material relevant to the
visitor’s interest.
The
third step is to offer a direct connection with a knowledgeable
sales colleague and finally a purchase incentive relevant to the
visitor’s interest.
Of
course, the best action plan varies from company to company, but the
main goal is to see that the sales lead conversion of a web site can
be multiplied by 3.
DURING
WHICH HOURS SHOULD A PROACTIVE LIVE CHAT BE OPERATIONAL?
That's
easy – all the time when people are visiting your website. If you
do global business, 24 hours a day.
If
your business operates in just a couple of nearby time-zones, usually
15 business hours per day are enough.
HOW
ABOUT WEEKENDS AND HOLIDAYS?
Whenever
your website has visitors, you need to provide them with service.
In
our research we found out that there is a growing number of people
who don't like websites without live chats because they want
immediate answers to their questions, even on weekends!
CAN'T
WE JUST TURN ON ”WE ARE OFFLINE - PLEASE FILL IN THE FORM” -MODE?
You
can if you don't respect your potential customers and you really do
not like new sales leads.
Your
visitors tried to come to your website, and you are not
respecting them with the service.
What
is even more annoying: When you go to a company webpage, and you see
that they have a chat service, but it is not available now!
Am I not important enough to get customer service?
”I
would just take my business somewhere where my efforts to buy are
respected.”
WHEN
CAN I HAVE ”WE ARE OFFLINE - PLEASE FILL IN THE FORM” -MODE ON?
The
only exception to the ”respect your customer”-rule is when most
of your customers are expected to be offline or sleeping. That is the
time visitors do not expect to get service.
WILL
A PROACTIVE LIVE CHAT EAT AWAY A LOT OF EXPENSIVE WORKING HOURS?
Let
me give you a perspective on this: I just talked with a CEO whose
small business lost €60,000 from a single visitor on their website
because they did not have a proactive live chat on.
”Can
you really afford not to have a proactive live chat on?”
HOW
DO YOUR CLIENTS HANDLE THE PROBLEM OF EXPENSIVE WORKING HOURS
REQUIRED BY A PROACTIVE LIVE CHAT?
Some
clients just understand that proactive live chat really is a part
of an effective sales process and also good customer service.
Therefore,
they do not see the cost of working hours a proactive live chat
requires as a problem.
”Some
clients outsource the work to companies that handle the chat for
them.”
We,
for example, handle chats in 130 countries and on millions of web
pages. It is not our core business, but we do whatever is needed to
boost the sales of our clients, and therefore we do it for €5 per hour
including everything.
IS
THERE A CHAT SERVICE YOU RECOMMEND?
There
are so many different services, and each offers different options, so
it really depends on your business and its needs.
My
advice is to first think about your business needs and then research
which chat service can cater to those.
I
would strongly advise clients to stay away from passive live chats.
Why lose sales if your business does not have to?
WHAT
NEVER TO DO WITH A PROACTIVE LIVE CHAT?
Never
lie! This happened to me a couple of times, and I have not gone back
to those businesses, and I never will. It is because the human touch
makes it personal, so lying becomes personal, too.
We
have also verified that in our test; making things personal increases
sales leads but being dishonest will anger people and angry people do
not buy.
-
- -
That
concluded my interview this time. I now have something new to tell my
clients regarding a triple increase in sales leads from their
websites.
It
will be interesting to see what kind of live chat solutions they will
implement, and it will be even more interesting to see who dares not
to have a live chat at all.
-
- -
Christian
Dillstrom.
Please
stay tuned for more interviews.