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My
name is Mr. Christian Dillstrom and I have been a global growth
hacker for over 10 years. During this time, I have growth hacked 10%
of Fortune500 companies and done 113 marketing and sales innovations.
Currently, over 350 millions of my marketing solutions are active on
the Internet.
Also,
I have founded and managed 4 global startups as well as consulted
over 300 startups and multibillion valued .com's around the globe.
Today, over 15-31 million business readers read my articles every
month making me the most read business article author in the World
since February 2015.
”Of
all the marketing and sales innovations, I have done, the
most important innovation is The Sales Obstacles.”
This
is an article series in which I shall first explore what sales
obstacles are and why removing them is so effective in increasing the
sales of any organization quickly and without any additional
marketing costs.
After
this initial article, I shall publish interview articles of hundreds
of interesting business leaders around the globe about how they are
dealing with sales obstacles in their organizations.
-
- Christian Dillstrom
-
- -
WHAT
IS A SALES OBSTACLE?
A
sales obstacle is the reason someone who is considering buying
from your organization decides not to do so.
Each
sales obstacle prevents the sales conversion of your organization
from ever reaching 100%.
”Unresolved
sales obstacle is a voluntary way of donating sales
of your organization to its competitors.”
WHAT
MAKES MR. DILLSTROM AN AUTHORITY TO TALK ABOUT THE SALES OBSTACLES?
Since
the start of my growth hacking career ten years ago, many of my
clients felt the pressure of quarterly reports. They anxiously wanted
to make sure that they would never fail to meet their quarterly
targets.
”As
a result, they always wanted me to find them new ways of increasing
their sales.”
Eventually,
I started to feel that instead of constantly hunting and finding more
sales for my clients, I should take a step back and understand on a
more philosophical, abstract level, where do the sales come from.
”That
was the moment when I realized the
difference between actual and potential sales
–
and the
reasons, which were keeping those two figures apart.”
Today,
I am the lead growth hacker of SalesSalvage.com and we are
discovering sales obstacles in 131,042,437 organizations, online
stores, and web sites – in 240 countries [
click here to see them all ]. We can achieve this high volume as
we offer sales obstacle discovery as a free service to help
organizations take the first real step of growth hacking.
”Therefore,
I dare to claim that I really know sales obstacles.”
WHY
DO THE SALES OBSTACLES MATTER?
Sales
obstacles are the cause of a very large difference between the actual
and the potential sales of your organization.
Discover
and remove the sales obstacles of your organization and its sales
will quickly increase as much as those removed sales obstacles caused
lost sales. It is as simple as that as you can see in the customer
interaction situation examples below:
Online
stores: for example, if an online store with $1 million actual
annual sales has an industry average checkout rate of 25% of its
shopping carts, it loses $3 million of its potential annual sales
since 75% of its shopping carts are abandoned.
Sales
obstacles are the reason each of those shopping carts is
abandoned. Discovering and fixing all the sales obstacles will remove
all the reasons why shopping carts are abandoned, and lost sales are
converted into actual sales increase.
Physical
stores: for example, to find out what the client did not find or
like in a store that results in lost sales.
Each
client makes hundreds of non-buying decisions while strolling around
the physical store and glancing the shelves filled with products.
This
information makes it possible to remove the sales obstacles of the
physical store of your organization. It increases the sales average
per client exactly as much as the sales obstacles are removed.
Products:
for
example, find out why a client did not buy the product of your
organization, although noticing it and picking it up in a store. Or
find out why the client would not consider buying the product of your
organization again.
This
kind of information will help your organization to increase
sales of its products per square foot in stores and to keep or to win
that premium shelf location.
Also,
this information makes it much easier to successfully launch new
products as your organization can learn what it needs to improve or
change very quickly during smaller test launches.
Invoices:
for
example, to find out from existing clients what the sales obstacles
of your organization are, just put a short text in all the invoices
of your organization. What if your organization could remove its
sales obstacles and increase sales by as much as you remove sales
obstacles? Also, what if the invoices of your organization could
generate instant upsell?
Web
sites:
for
example, find out what are the sales obstacles of your organization
which result in visitors of your website not filling in the contact
request form. Usually only 1 out of 200 visitors leave their details,
although they were all thinking of buying from your organization.
Why
did 99.5% of the visitors to your organization’s web site
choose not to even leave their contact details?
”The
same applies to every interaction with a client in which he
decides to buy or not to buy from your organization.”
IS
SALES OBSTACLE DISCOVERY DIFFICULT?
Like
with everything we do, it is not difficult if you have a lot of
experience in it. Sales obstacle discovery follows that rule – you
can discover all the sales obstacles of your organization if you
invest enough time and resources to learn how to do it well.
Another
option is to use a service provider. They can do it for you, and they
will make the sales obstacle discovery easy and effective for your
organization. I recommend using the more experienced service
providers as they can usually discover sales obstacles from a large
variety of client interaction points.
For
example, SalesSalvage.com is discovering sales obstacles in
131,042,437 organizations, online stores, and web sites – in 240
countries, and they can discover sales obstacles from almost any
interaction situation and all their sales obstacle discovery points
are free.
IS
SALES OBSTACLE DISCOVERY EXPENSIVE?
Sales
obstacle discovery used to be expensive, but that is not the case
anymore. For example, my company, SalesSalvage.com, offers it as a
free service.
We
are hoping that other growth hacking companies will follow our lead
on this, but so far, we are the only ones offering it as a free
service.
IS
SALES OBSTACLE FIXING EXPENSIVE?
That
really depends on what it takes to fix each discovered sales obstacle
in your organization. Some sales obstacles are very easy and low cost
to fix, and some might require major changes in your organization's
current processes.
It
really comes down to cost-benefit calculations – some sales
obstacles are not worth fixing, but that’s rarely the case.
IS
THE SALES OBSTACLE FIXING AN ENDLESS TASK?
To
be honest – yes, it is. Offering of your organization changes, what
your clients want changes and even offerings of your competitors’
change. As a result, new sales obstacles will turn up due to these
changes.
One
good thing about fixing the sales obstacles is that they will
increase sales for your organization. Of course, not fixing them means
that your organization will keep on losing sales.
IS
THERE A POINT IN FIXING SALES OBSTACLES FOR LOW-VALUE PURCHASES?
Usually
yes, as in almost any case, a sales obstacle doesn't affect just a
single buyer, but hundreds or even thousands of potential buyers of
your organization. Also, sales obstacles do not disappear until your
organization removes them.
”Therefore,
even the low-value purchases can make a
difference in sales of your organization.”
For
example, if a $10 purchase is lost for 50 potential buyers per day
due to a sales obstacle, in three years the worth of lost sales is
$547,500. And that's just a single sales obstacle – 20 such
obstacles mean lost sales worth of almost $11 million in three years.
DOES
SALES OBSTACLE FIXING REQUIRE ADDITIONAL MARKETING INVESTMENTS?
No,
it does not. By fixing sales obstacles your organization will just
receive more sales out of its current marketing investment.
In fact, a ROMI (Return on Marketing Investment) ratio of
your organization goes up as your organization removes its sales
obstacles.
HOW
TO GET THE FULL BENEFITS OF FIXING THE SALES OBSTACLES?
Although
the benefits of fixing the sales obstacles don’t require additional
marketing investments, you should utilize the improved ROMI so that
the amount of your profit can be further accelerated.
For
example: If the organization has a sales conversion of 20% with
marketing costs of $100,000 generating sales worth of $200,000, they
are left with $100,000.
If
the organization discovers and fixes the sales obstacles and
increases their sales conversion to 30%, the same $100,000 marketing
investment leaves them $200,000 – an increase of 100%.
”Now
they can triple their marketing investment to $300,000 and they are
left with $600,000.”
WHY
WOULD CLIENTS TALK ABOUT THE SALES OBSTACLES?
Clients
love to talk about the sales obstacles as they feel at least a bit
disappointed because their intent to buy from an organization fell
short due to that sales obstacle. Telling about the sales obstacle
reduces their disappointment.
Also,
clients love to help to solve problems if they feel that they can
make a difference – empower your clients and they will love to help
you out to increase the sales of your organization.
Today,
paying them for their efforts benefits your organization to be able
to sell more. Therefore, every sales obstacle reported to
SalesSalvage.com can win the latest iPhone.
”Customers
feel that a prize draw is a sought-after form of payment for their
efforts.”
Lastly,
remember to make it very easy in all media. Most clients dislike
filling in forms. Rather add a human contact for reporting the sales
obstacles as we do in Salessalvage.com.
So,
it is easy to discover sales obstacles from clients – your
organization just needs to follow those four rules or use the sales
obstacle discovery service that follows those rules.
IS
IT POSSIBLE TO PROFIT INSTANTLY FROM THE SALES OBSTACLES?
Yes,
it is, if your organization or the service you use, sends its sales
obstacle reports to mobile phones of preset persons in your
organization immediately when it is received.
”That
makes it possible for employees of your organization to try to save
the sales it just lost.”
Thus,
that is the optimal moment to offer those clients upsell offers
related to what they are interested in right now. Sales conversion of
such upsell offers is very high.
WHAT
ARE THE BEST PLACES TO DISCOVER SALES OBSTACLES?
I
have learned that the best way to discover sales obstacles is to give
every client the possibility to report them wherever they face anything
that hinders the client's buying experience.
Otherwise,
your organization is relying on those clients who feel a long-lasting
urge to remember its sales obstacles and to report them to your
organization when it is convenient for it. Good luck with these rare diamond-grade clients.
”I
think these are the best places to discover sales obstacles:”
Offline
store: shelf edge sticker or notice, store department wall
sticker or notice, checkout counter sticker or notice, cash register
receipt notice, printed notice, shopping bag text, window sticker or
notice
Online
store: page border tab at web page, clickable link, plain text
online message, package, packing tape, printed notice on the package,
packing list, paper invoice
Web
site: page border tab at web page, clickable link, plain text
online message
Social
media: clickable link, plain text social media message
Email:
clickable link, plain text email message
Invoice:
plain text unclickable message, clickable link
Brochure:
plain text unclickable message, clickable link
Flyer:
plain text unclickable message, clickable link
Online
advert: clickable link, plain text online message
Printed
advert: plain text unclickable message
Product:
product packaging sticker or text
Service:
wall sticker or notice, checkout counter sticker or notice, cash
register receipt notice, shopping bag text, window sticker or notice
Clothing:
clothing tag sticker or text, printed notice
Accessories:
accessories tag sticker or text
Restaurant:
wall sticker or notice, menu sticker or text, table sticker or
notice, cash register receipt text
Cafe
or pub: wall sticker or notice, menu sticker or text, table
sticker or notice, napkin notice, checkout counter sticker or notice,
cash register receipt notice
Waiting
room: wall sticker or notice, table sticker or notice
Event:
ticket text, wall sticker or notice, plain text unclickable message,
program text
Shows:
ticket, wall sticker or notice, program text, seat sticker, plain
text unclickable message
Sports
venues: wall sticker or notice, program text, seat sticker,
checkout counter sticker or notice, cash register receipt text
Transportation:
wall sticker or notice, seat sticker, window sticker, plain text
unclickable message
As
you can see from the list above – every place or media where
clients face your organization is a good place to offer them the possibility to report a sales obstacle.
If
your organization uses the service for sales obstacle discovery, make
sure they can cater enough different kinds of discovery points for
free or at least for a very low cost.
CONCLUSION:
WHY
DISCOVERING AND FIXING SALES OBSTACLES OF YOUR ORGANIZATION IS THE
MOST EFFECTIVE WAY TO INCREASE ITS SALES?
Since
your organization already has clients with the intent to buy but
who did not complete their purchase – just discover their sales
obstacles and remove them by fixing them and the sales of your
organization will increase. It is as simple as that – and very
effective.