Attracting Offline Customers To Your New Online Business

Here’s what Cash Edge, Inc. did to attract offline businesses to patronize an online business according to Start Up Journal. Cash Edge offered online services to local financial institutions. Their efforts were based on the size of the fees involved so they took steps that differ from a website whose model is to make money from pay per click ads or affiliate sales, but some principles are universal.

How can you apply them to your website?

1. Though you’re business platform is a website instead of a brick and mortar business, you’re still dealing with people. People more likely to do business with folks they know, like and trust. Cash Edge had sales people “in the field” visiting with decision makers “belly to belly”.

Online, conveying that you’re a “real person” who can be known, liked, and trusted instead of some dude with a 1000 websites on topics from A to Z chosen for sheer financial reasons and designed to skim pay per click from faceless visitors who never will be return buyers requires a blog or forum where the the company gets a “human” face even if it’s a huge corporation…

2. They used “relationship managers” so that each customer had a direct contact with the company instead of getting some “voice mail tree”.

If you’re a small business, you’ll likely the only “relationship manager” and that’s an intrinsic advantage to your business until you want to grow and take some time off possibly!

3. Ask – “What will it take to do business with you?” Then do it if it’s within reason and if you hear the same “objection” multiple times! Online this can be forum comments and surveys. Your business might be flamed on some forum… it could be worth reading. Perhaps it’s legitimate. Or maybe it’s a psychopath but even those complaints are usually based on a grain of truth or misunderstanding others may share but be too polite to point out.

4. Show how your product or service will work in the “real world” of the customer. This company asked permission to work with the customer’s existing data system … this isn’t realistic for most small businesses but dramatic demonstrations do sell.

What can you do to provide a “dramatic demonstration” on your website? Could you do an online video? Could you market your website on Google Video to pre sell your product or service?

5. Get to the objections early instead of trying to avoid conflict. The more frequently you hear and overcome objections, the more you can sell.