(Read time – 1.5min)

If you have a website for your business, then you obviously don’t want it just sitting there as a kind-of online business card right?

Your hope is that it will actually generate business for you.  Essentially, you want it to act as a virtual salesperson, to bring in leads, drive sales and increase profit, right?

Sadly, more often the not, websites owners with these kinds of intentions are frustrated with the lack of business that comes from their website.

Hey – maybe you get most of your business offline, or from referrals (that’s actually the way it’s been for me recently).   But sticking with the idea that want your website to act as a virtual salesperson for you, it’s necessary that you equip your “web-salesperson” with the right tools.

Over the last 18 years of my working career, I’ve been in some kind of sales position (give or take a few months for some of the warehouse jobs I’ve held).

I sold books, movies, photos, hotel rooms, shuttle rides, cell phones, homes, insurance, just to name a few.

But sadly, with almost every sales job that I had, I ironically struggled with putting into practice the #1 key to being a successful salesman.

I mean, I was a “natural” at being able to strike up a conversation and quickly build rapport with someone.  And then to be able go on about how wonderful the product or service was I was trying to sell – well that wasn’t hard either.

The biggest mistake that I made is actually the same mistake that many website owners  make on their own website.  You see, the #1 key to increasing your online conversion comes about by simply asking for the sale.

I’m serious.  I mean it sounds kinda too simple, right?

But as you think about your website and all the work that you may have put into it – creating the look and feel; the beautiful graphics; the copy you slaved over; and all the time, sweat and “virtual” blood you put into it (I wouldn’t doubt real blood may have been spilled too .

… And still, your website is not acting like the successful salesperson you built it to be.  I know it’s frustrating.

Well, it’s gonna come down to this.  You need to look over the pages of your website and find places where your copy is talking about how great your company, service or product is and ask yourself an important question.

Something like – “If I were in a conversation with a customer telling them all about these great features and benefits of my widget; or even how past customers have benefited from using my widget (testimonial page – hint, hint), would I just stop there, or would I would ask them if they’d be interested in trying it out?”

Chances are, given the fact that you’re not standing in front of them being affected by the awkward silence in the moment, or wondering if and when you should ask, you’ll probably have more guts to ask for the sale on your website than in person.

So ASK!

In my next post, I’m going to share with you some simple but extremely effective ways to ask for the sale.  You’ll see that they’re not very intuitive, for you as the website owner, but they’re super friendly for your website visitor to give the response you want, because they speak directly to them.

*If you found this helpful, or you’ve had luck with other methods, comment below and share.