Want to sell more services? Well start here!

 Eliminate the techno-babble.

Developers are often jargon bound in their communication. Your web site should talk to your customers - not your customer's CTO. Write to your customers management staff. If you're selling programmers' time and expertise, the buyers are usually senior management.  Sure you can talk to their staff on instant message in techo-babble. But you're selling to consumers, business people, and usually these are not programmers. Talk to them in plain English, or they'll buy from your competitor.

Avoid words like rails and cross platform. When an end-user sees gibberish like this, they know that your management is technical. They will assume you have no idea of what ROI is. Your prospects are interested in problem solving and ROI and they have a host of competitive choices. They care about their problem! If they don't understand you they WILL buy from your competitor who they understand. And they will pay a premium for it if they must! They will not learn to speak your techno-babble. For them there are plenty of other developers, some of who will not require them to learn a new language.

Use "you" and "your" and "you're" on your web site. Write in a relaxed, conversational style. Look at the home page of www.osmxp.com to see a sample of focused conversational style.

Remember, you're not writing your Ph. D. Thesis and you are not writing to impress your competitors. What you are doing is trying to reach your clients who are business people. You want them to know you understand them and they should be able to understand you. More importantly they want to know you understand their issues. A website is a sales brochure, write like a sales presentation. Talking to your prospects just like this report talks to you. It should be on point, understandable, simple, and clear. It should be easy to read and speak to your clients in their language.

Give visitors a good reason to do business with you!

After you have consolidated your sales message and expertise - the "Who you are" and "What you do" you have to answer the next ‘W' question. "Why you?"

This is where you give a differentiation message. Buyers already know about outsourcing. So save your energy. They are deep in deciding who is best. Who will they decide to engage?  Know they're comparison shopping. So the ‘why' is the close. 

If you made it this far to get on their short list. Now is time to close!  You are there because you have shown expertise and competency. Now most prospects have to decide among the short list. They will read the detail.  Sell your self Why? Why? Why? If prospects can't tell the difference then they will go to the one with the best reasons.  Don't understand? Go to www.OSMXP.com and click on About Us >> Benefits.

Appeal to their emotions.

Logic is great. Without logic computers wouldn't work. But people are not computers! They are worried about delivery, about cost, about schedule and about functionality. They are justifiably worried!

Make your impression on your client's emotions. Calm them. Make sure they know their trust in you is well placed. Be confident. Tell them they are smart to chose you and deserve to have you as their vendor. You should know they have their own set of worries - and often they are beyond your sphere of influence. For example their competitors might be launching a new system or will have soon.  They are in dialog with you because they believe that hiring you might keep them from falling behind. You can make them money! Tell them how you can be trusted.

 Make it easy to find things

We have all gone to sites because we know the information is there.  We know because we read an ad in a magazine or someone told us. So we visit the site for the gem. What we find is concentrated frustration.

Poorly organized sites are more than frustration they are the best sales tool the competitor has. For example say I need a development tool for C++ I know there are many but one comes recommended by an associate. i go the site and can't find the price or features or some piece of critical information which would favorably influence my decision to buy from them.  After spending enough time I will become frustrated and move to a competitor's site. If the critical piece of information is there then I will buy from the competitor, perhaps spending more, perhaps buying an inferior product, or perhaps not. But the opportunity to buy from that vendor was lost in a convoluted information delivery system. 

For me as a buyer, this software tool is critical and I don't care about flash, or pretty pictures, or mission statements or anything but the one piece of information I need to make a purchase.

The first law of information is: If you can't find the information you want, for you, that information doesn't exist!

Summary

Your website is your first line salesman  - and nearly free! Use it wisely. Remember your competition has the same salesman and may very well have recognized that it is Okay to seek the assistance of a professional. Make yours neat, clean, easy to navigate, informational and friendly.

Fine-tune the wording and use selling messages. Don't rely on tricking the search engines because even if you get visitors they will click through if don't have content that reaches them.

If you need help go to Off Shore marketing Experts - www.OSMXP.com. We know about sales and marketing for software developers. It is what we do It is who we are.