The process of going from lead to customer is a delicate one. It's not enough to just present your product or service on your website and hope that the right people will find you. In order for this to happen, you need to know how and when to trigger the appropriate reactions in visitors so they convert into leads and eventually into customers.
This blog post discusses psychological triggers that cause us as humans to react with urgency, curiosity, fear, excitement-and more importantly-to act! Let's explore the psychology of how to convert leads into sales.
How to Convert Leads Into Sales
These psychological triggers have been proven to consistently convert leads into customers, and customers into raving fans.
1. Pain Avoidance
Psychologists and great salesmen will tell you that pain avoidance is the largest motivator of all human behavior. Explain how your product or service helps your leads avoid pain in their life in some way, and you'll be well on your way to a sale.
Prospects motivated by the need to avoid pain require a different approach than prospects motivated by perceived value. They are more interested in finding someone else to take care of much of the process so that they are not subject to any pain they could experience.
In the consumer space, Apple is a classic example of targeting “Pain Avoidance.” While they frequently tout the functionality of their devices, one of Apple’s most compelling “value propositions” is Pain Avoidance—avoiding viruses and spyware, avoiding complicated interfaces, ease of setup, total interoperability, and so on.
2. Pleasure Attainment
What is the second most efficient motivation for getting someone to do something? Help them gain pleasure. It can be argued that either pain avoidance or pleasure attainment is at the core of every human decision.
Some people want something that provides pleasure or satisfaction at little cost, such as physical, educational, or psycho-social tradeoffs. Additionally, attaining pleasure indicates that consumers generally want to do less work for more fulfillment – a sentiment echoed by Dr. Maxwell Maltz’s “work smarter not harder” mantra.
Make it clear how your product or service addresses the pleasure side of the equation.
3. The Power of "New"
When you hear about a new restaurant in town, doesn't it create some interest in your mind? On a physiological level, novelty boosts the release of dopamine in your brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, and one of its functions is to stimulate your belief that a reward is just around the corner.
There's nothing like adding a brand-new experience to your memory bank that had a positive influence on your life. Every time you take a chance and go outside of your comfort zone, you're training yourself to appreciate the positive rewards associated with taking risks--the adrenaline rush, the endorphins, the sense of accomplishment.
Make your offering new and novel and your conversion rates will rise.
4. The Need to Know Why
Psychologist Ellen Langer conducted a psychology experiment. To people using a photocopier, she asked, "Excuse me, I have 5 pages. May I use the Xerox machine?" A full 60% of the people she asked allowed her to cut in line in front of them. Then she began asking, "Excuse me, I have 5 pages. May I use the Xerox machine BECAUSE I'm in a rush?"Compliance shot up to an incredible 94%. Explain to your leads exactly why they should become a customer, make sure you use the incredible power of the word ‘because’, and you will fulfill the psychological need in your prospects' minds to know why they should do something.
5. Social Proof
Social proof is a psychological term coined by Robert Cialdini in 1984. The phenomenon might also be loosely called informational social influence, and it's when people copy the actions of others to emulate behavior in certain scenarios.
Testimonials, referrals, and case studies from satisfied customers prove to your leads that they will benefit from your offer. If everyone else has... they must too!
6. The Desire to Belong
Most human beings have an innate desire to be part of something that is bigger than themselves. Online project management provider Basecamp harnesses this desire effectively. In different marketing campaigns, online and off, they inform prospects how many companies have "... signed up for Basecamp to manage their projects. Today it's your turn." This appeals to the human herd mentality.
7. The Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)
Give your leads a time limitation to become a customer. No one likes to think they missed out on a good thing. You can compound the effectiveness of this psychological sales trigger by limiting the number of products or offers you have available.
Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash
Turning Leads into Paying Customers
With the above psychological triggers, you're well on your way. But there are a few more key principles to convert leads into customers that work particularly well online:
The Scarcity Principle
The scarcity principle states that we are shaped by our environment and will always want what is scarce, so if there's a limited-time offer involved in converting leads to customers then it should work better for you. How can you use the Scarcity Principle online?
The Consistency Principle
The Consistency Principle means that people will want to complete what they have started and this usually applies in the case of a sales process too, so if someone has already invested time or money on your website then it may be wise not to scare them off with an expensive upsell. How can you use the Need for Consistency principle online?
The Power of a Guarantee
The power of a guarantee is also useful in converting leads into customers. A guarantee provides a measurable improvement for a customer, such as the amount of cost-savings achieved by using your product. A guarantee also indicates the penalty for nonperformance. How can you incorporate this to convert your prospects?
Make it Visual
Many people are visual learners so if you want to convert them into customers then explain everything visually: make the benefits of your offer obvious and avoid any text that might confuse potential buyers. How can you incorporate this in order to convert leads?
RELATED: No Demand For What You Sell?
More Marketing and Sales Tips to Help
These proven tips sharing how to convert leads into sales are solid. One thing all organizations should also consider is their current customer base, and team. If you're only looking to fill your bucket with new sales without addressing your current systems and sales, you'll simply be filling a leaky boat.
Here are some additional ideas to ponder.
- Consider your existing customers.
- Build your strategy to attract online leads.
- Keep your sales pipeline filled.
- Be there when your customer is ready to buy.
- Generate leads through a strong social media strategy.
- Showcase an example or two by sharing customer reviews.
- Many businesses focus on qualified leads, don't forget to consider customers in your entire sales funnel.
- Properly map out what you consider to be a lead conversion.
- Data doesn't lie! Follow your lead from when they make a purchase through their entire interaction with the sales team and pinpoint what's working vs what's not working.
- Keep your sales team happy and engaged.
There are many psychological triggers that can help you convert leads into customers. You need to know which ones will work best for your industry and your audience, but the ones we’ve outlined in this post should get you started. If these tips have piqued your interest or if you want a more detailed look at how neuroscience is being used online today, reach out to us! We would be happy to discuss our analytics research with you and provide insights on what messages resonate most with audiences across industries.
Which of these topics have been most helpful for increasing your conversion rate?
Main Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
