By understanding their public statements and messaging, you can gain insights into their brand image, market positioning, and strategic direction. I think that in the age of social media, there’s no excuse for calling or emailing a buyer without knowing what they do and what they care about. If a buyer says something like, “Is that a Midwest accent I hear? I think this is a great opportunity to establish some common ground with a buyer. If you immediately try to deflect attention to focus on the buyer or product, the buyer might think you are evasive or desperate for a sale. I’ve learned that the first rule of sales is to make almost every conversation you have with your buyer about them.
- Choose the strategies that are feasible for you to maintain consistently and are most likely to reach your target audience as you start selling online.
- Providing customers with self-service resources (e.g., online help and knowledge bases) is crucial, and more and more sales pros are seeing that.
- You’ll be able to see their background, skills, and experience, and their posts might yield some insights on how to approach a sale.
- With the Shopify Planet app, customers can choose a carbon-neutral shipping option for between 3.5¢ and 15¢ per order.
You’ll need to make sure that you cover the cost of everything that goes into your product or service, both direct (e.g., manufacturing costs) and indirect (e.g., marketing costs). You can do extensive independent research to understand the market for that industry, the key players you’ll be competing against, and the potential your business will have over time. Use credible sources like The Pew Research Center and the Small Business Administration to get started. Be honest and real when talking to your buyer about your product or service. For example, don’t make exaggerations or promises you can’t deliver on. When communicating with drivers, I think it’s best to be direct with them and get to the point.
Focus on products that are simple to ship and market for online success. You can also consider providing various channels for support, such as live chat, email and social media, to make it easy for customers to reach you. Offering personalized service, such as follow-ups and thank-you messages, can foster a positive relationship too.
Choose a selling platform.
One option is to use Shopify Collective to sell products from other Shopify brands. By showcasing positive feedback and experiences, you reassure potential buyers about the quality and reliability of your offerings. There’s a lot to know about how to start a business online and building your online store is a critical step in your journey toward selling online. The best eCommerce platforms, like Wix, make this process straightforward and accessible, even for those with no technical background. Once you’ve built your online store, added products, and configured shipping and payment options, it’s time to start driving traffic to in order to be able to sell online profitably. Your website is your online storefront, and should be as inviting and user-friendly as a physical shop.
- I’ve also seen sellers sink hundreds into stock that ends up collecting dust in their garage.
- Depending on your sales cycle, pre-call research can take as little as 5 to 10 minutes.
- Make sure you have them ready to go before online shoppers are able to look for them.
- In the context of sales, if you are “too familiar” with your product or service, you might struggle to explain it in a way that a prospect can understand.
- Depending on the type of deal you’ve just closed, the delivery process could be a software installation, a brick-and-mortar sale, or a home delivery after an online purchase.
Decide which products to sell
When you start selling products online, you’ll have to convince a competitor’s audience to buy from you instead. Uncover the customer persona they sell and market to through competitive analysis. Selling products online can feel daunting when you are staring at a blank screen with no sales history. Maybe you already have an idea for what to sell or a product in hand. The challenge is figuring out where to sell, how to set up shop and how to attract those first buyers. From just $5 a month, the Starter Plan gives you the tools you need to sell across the social media channels your target customers are using.
What’s the best platform to sell online?
Researching the industry, choosing a target customer, setting prices, and building a website are only the beginning of learning how to sell anything online. You now need to thread the needle between all four of these steps, and that starts with lead generation. Debit or credit cards are the most popular payment methods for online shoppers. Accept credit cards on your online storefront to capture those customers.
What is the most profitable thing to sell online?
When speaking to sales prospects, you’ll need to put yourself in their shoes and explain things simply. I’ve already covered the importance of focusing on your customers (step one) and getting to know them (step three). Social proof points including customer reviews, testimonials, ratings, and user-generated content are all critical in online shopping. These are powerful persuasion tools to drive purchases, as people trust the experiences and opinions of others. Customers can’t physically touch products online, so you want to provide high-quality photos from different angles and thorough descriptions. This gives customers a clear understanding of what they’re buying and can help reduce returns.
For example, selling digital products typically requires a specialist platform. Whereas, physical products can be sold via most general-purpose ecommerce platforms. Personally, I love seeing a salesperson bring their unique personality to their job. But it’s worth mentioning that not every prospect will respond well to certain personalities and behaviors. For example, some customers love the Turkish ice cream trick, while others don’t like being the butt of the joke. Being aware of the curse of knowledge is the first step to overcoming it.
Start
Once you know what to sell and where, and have added your products to your site, it’s time to handle the setup behind the scenes. As a salesperson, you might also be shocked to hear that 71% of prospects prefer doing their own research instead of speaking to a human. It doesn’t surprise me — when I’m researching a product, I go to great lengths to avoid bothering sales or support staff. Of the sales professionals surveyed by HubSpot in the recent Sales Trend Report, 64% said they provided self-service resources to customers to guide their purchase decisions. What’s more, 85% of participants said it was an effective strategy.
If you notice that one prospect went with a competitor while the other chose your product, you can narrow down the reasons why that happened. Before you decide what to sell, gather information about the industries that appeal to you, such as technology or ecommerce. When I get an outreach email, I read at least the first few lines.
With the Shopify Planet app, customers can choose a carbon-neutral shipping option for between 3.5¢ and 15¢ per order. Customers can pay for online purchases without entering their entire credit card number each time. Digital wallets, such as Shop Pay, store a customer’s credit card information.
If you’re a solo entrepreneur, you may need to start with one or two of these strategies and add more as you go. Choose the strategies that are feasible for you to maintain consistently and are most likely to reach your target audience as you start selling online. This is called an ideal buyer profile, and it’s like having a secret weapon. The amount of tax your ecommerce business pays depends on where you’re operating from. In the US, you’ll need to collect sales tax on any products you sell online.
Providing customers with self-service resources (e.g., online help and knowledge bases) is crucial, and more and more sales pros are seeing that. When you set a price, you protect your business and prevent overcharging your customers. Like most buyers, I like to feel that I’ve gotten a good deal from a purchase. For this reason, I think a good salesperson should leave some wiggle room around selling prices. When deciding which ecommerce platform to choose, you will need to find the right platform for the type of products you want to sell.
Once you have set up your online store, it’s time to set up a reliable, efficient, seamless payment system. Wix Payments offers a streamlined card payment solution to handle transactions smoothly no matter where your customers are located or what currency they use. Selling products online doesn’t require a business degree or thousands in startup capital. It takes the right product, the right platform and consistent marketing. Once you land that first sale, you can build a system that keeps orders coming without guessing what works. If you’re just starting and want sales quickly, marketplaces are selling hashing power a solid entry point.
