No, I’m not being sexist or stupid (although I probably have a little of both in me). I’m being totally realistic and strategic and you’d be wise to read on. Running a social media marketing company has brought me in front of numerous business owners who are desperate to increased sales in our current recession market.How they go about this is critical and one of the main reasons so many fail is that they approach social networks with the exact wrong strategy.

Here are the main features of the strategy I see most often and the one that works least:

1. Collect as many contacts in as many networks as possible.
2. Begin to communicate with these contacts about your business.
3. Keep communicating until you get someone to respond.
4. When they respond invite them to your sales funnel or to talk on the phone.

What I have described above is the same process that millions of online business owners use every day. When initial reports began to suggest that social media was NOT a good arena for propagating business success, it was this strategy that most of them used. If it helps, don’t feel bad, I did also. Social media is a very new medium and four years ago this is exactly how I started. I made a lot of contacts but little money.

Let’s look at why this strategy will never work. Then we’ll turn our attention to the need we all have for an attractive, well built, sensitive, and highly responsive Hubby. You’re going to love this…so stay tuned.

The four point process above is excellent if you want to brag about the number of people who are connected to you through social networks. I even see sales pages for products that will help accomplish this goal. Recently I saw several Twitter products, software and training. The main selling point was the testimony of how the product owner had filled his social contact list as a result of his new Twitter tool, as if this alone
will magically produce sales. As you may have already discovered, this is not true. Making a sale is a highly interactive and involved process, even when it happens quickly. Knowing something about a typical sales exchange will help you to not fall prey to simplistic and ineffective tactics and will allow you to understand why a more complete instrument is needed to monetize social networks.

Let’s examine some of these sales components:

1. First, sales and marketing 101 says that the best way to create new customers is to get your product or service before people who NEED or WANT it MOST. Do you see the problem with social networks in general? Unless this new person on your list has connected with you BECAUSE they know your product or service can help them they will most likely NEVER become a customer. Most people who have a high number of social contacts have not stopped to consider that these people have very little if anything in common with the product or service they are selling.

2. Once someone who needs or wants your service is in front of you they almost NEVER buy from you IMMEDIATELY. We know this from years of testing and monitoring numerous offline and online sales strategies. For example, many of us have heard that the optimal number of email messages needed before a sale can be expected is seven. Whether this is still scientifically true or not the principle behind it is. Most people need to be SOLD before they purchase. That means that they need to read, hear or see something from you that convince them that their need or want can best be met through YOUR product or service. This is even more so true in our current recessionary climate. People are holding tight to their money and before they release it you must convince them that what you are offering is totally worth their investment.

3. Once you have established that your product or service meets your customers need you still may not be home free. This next fact is going to surprise you. Did you know that most people do not have the confidence in themselves to select the right product to meet THEIR need? I know, I know, this sounds crazy, but follow me here and I think it will make sense. Today we have an unprecedented capacity to compare and to research products.  Never before have so many comparable options been so accessible to so many. Unless your customer is already highly schooled on your market niche they probably feel inadequate to make an informed decision. What may seem obvious to you is not so obvious to them. Insecurity has never been a great disposition for generating a sale. People love to talk about the things they buy. They want to believe that they secured the best product or service for the best price. Some even like to brag. Buy the way; our social world makes this factor even more important, as more people communicate more often than at any time in history. Therefore the need to feel confident is going to loom large in the unfolding sale process. What steps can you take to help instill this conclusion? The most trusted and effective form of producing confidence in your business and therefore in your customer is the use of sincere and heartfelt TESTIMONIES. How many times have you purchased something because someone you trust recommended it to you? This one fact alone is now a PRIMARY ingredient for any online business. You MUST have a growing list of articulate testimonies if you hope to make sales a way of life.

4. Once a potential customer feels confident about your product, the sales process is underway, but it’s still not complete. What if they purchase your product and then find out it does not work as planned or they feel it does not exactly fit their need. The customer needs to be assured that they have some recourse in the event this happens. This is where the sales guarantee comes into play. In general, you will sell a lot more if you back it up with a solid guarantee.

5. So, now you have EVERYTHING needed to make a sale. Would you believe that it’s possible to meet every one of the criteria above and still not ring the cash register? One of the most elusive areas of online customer behavior has been the high number of shopping cart abandonment that take place day after day throughout the world. Why would someone who has come so close to making a final purchase exit the process right before it’s completed? Although we now know some of the answers, only time and more research will give us a complete picture. What we know is that many people use the shopping cart as a means of finding facts they could not discover on the sales page. For example, did the purchase price include shipping, sales tax, etc? Are there any other fees associated with the sale? Often the ONLY way to discover this is by engaging the check out process to see EXACTLY how much is being charged. Another reason for abandonment is the difficulty of completing the sale, which means the customer finds the shopping cart or check out method complicated and therefore becomes unsure that they are going about the purchase correctly. Since they don’t want to lose money or order two of the same items they just leave.

My point is this. If a high number of customers never complete a purchase because you have not adequately met several of the sales requirements listed above, how do you expect to overcome these hurdles through your simple 4 step social media campaign? The fact is, you won’t. No one will. Sales do not happen this way. A sale is a very complex social exchange and it is naive and shortsighted to think you can overcome traditional sales barriers simply because someone has linked to you in a social media context. It isn’t happening now and won’t happen anytime soon.

What I have described as barriers is only a partial list. My goal here is not to give a total outline of the psychological components of a sale. The goal here is twofold. First to underscore why social contacts and social interaction alone will never produce the kind of sales all business people covet. The second is to lead the reader into a better understanding of what will accomplish this, which brings us to our final section.

The most productive sales take place online through what I call a finely tuned sales funnel, one that is attached to a business content syndication HUB. When I say that everyone needs a HUBBY what I mean is that everyone needs a central HUB, a center of operation, a place where everything and everyone can find you, your writing, your products and your services.  Most of all, this HUB is your primary link to your finely tuned sales funnel. Those who make money online (and believe me, those who are good at this make a lot of it) have this kind of robust HUB. It’s this HUB that will overcome all the barriers I’ve listed to the sales process. Once you understand what goes into the design, execution and ongoing development of your central business HUB you have your first real chance of monetizing your social network traffic. Stay tuned as the next post will examine the creation of a highly effective central HUBBY.  You’re going to love this sexy beast…

Thomas Rozof,  SocialMediaScience.com

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