The gold standard of a strong brand is fast, efficient selling. When your customers get your value proposition, they buy.
It’s really that simple. Your customers are looking to solve defined problems, and they will gravitate towards the companies that make buying easy.
What’s striking is how few companies make buying easy. They needlessly complicate things by committing these three buying sins.
1. Too many options
“It depends” is one of the most frustrating phrases. A customer doesn’t want to hear “it depends” when they ask for the price. They want to be guided towards clear options.
You can make buying easier by streamlining the available options. Give customers a clear recommendation of what they should buy based on your experience working with similar companies.
2. Too much content
We are experiencing a strange phenomenon in marketing. Companies are creating too much content, and more importantly, they are giving their customers too much content.
The buying process can start on the wrong foot by overwhelming a customer with free content. Salespeople like to be generous, and will share white papers, videos, and blog posts. They’re coming from a good place. They want to “educate” their customers, but that can complicate the buying process.
Dial the content back by asking two questions:
- What information does a customer require to make a purchase decision?
- When does the customer specifically require that information in the purchase process?
Give the customer exactly what they need at the right moment. Anything above and beyond that is complicating things.
3. Too many benefits
Companies can kill their credibility by presenting too many benefit statements.
Here’s an outrageous example. Pemberton’s French Wine Coca was the cocaine infused precursor to Coca-Cola. In an 1880’s ad the brand claims, “The ideal nerve tonic and intellectual beverage … for the cure and prevention of mental and physical exhaustion, chronic and wasting diseases, dyspepsia, kidney and liver affections, heart disease, melancholia, hysteria, tired feelings, etc. This marvelous tonic acts like a charm.”
To our modern eyes we call bullshit. No product, not even one loaded with cocaine, can offer that many benefits. A strong brand has one, two, or maybe even three key benefits. Anything more, and you can quickly dilute the brand’s value proposition.
Customers want to translate in clear, practical terms “what they will get.” This is the story they tell to themselves and others to justify the purchase decision.
Make Buying Simple
Strong brands drive sales, because they make buying insanely easy. This translates into very tangible and measurable outcomes for your company:
- Better customers. Companies that make buying easier are 62% more likely to acquire high-value customers — customers that are less price sensitive and choose premium offerings.
- Happier customers. Customers that have a smooth, easy buying experience are less likely to regret their purchase or to speak negatively about the brand.
Repeat customers. Customers are more likely to repurchase from companies that make buying easy.
Simplifying the buying experience is good business, and that’s what grows your brand. Successful companies create great brands.
The buying process is a critical customer touch point that shapes your brand and how people feel about your company.
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