There is a business secret hiding in plain sight. A secret so powerful and easy to implement you would think it would be commonplace in business, not a secret. And the secret is…make it easy for people to buy from you.
When you sell a product or service it should be easy for someone to buy it from you. As simple and basic as this seems I constantly see businesses violating this principle (and governments are even worse). Making it easy has three components –
- Make it easy to place the order.
- Make it easy to pay.
- Make it easy (and fast) to take delivery.
And I would add a fourth component – make it easy, and a pleasure, to work with you after the purchase.
- How many options and alternatives does the customer have to order your product/service and to pay for it.
- Can they order online, by phone, fax or email, by text, or in person?
- Do you take cash, charge, check, barter, trade, bitcoin, gold, silver, foreign currency, gift cards, etc.?
- In B2B sales, how flexible are your terms and conditions?
- How much paperwork is involved?
- Amazon has set the standard on customer expectations. How does the buying experience compare to Amazon’s?
We live in an age of flexibility, speed, and high expectations. Everyone has their own favorite way of doing business and when you can be the easy option people will tend to choose you over the difficult ones.
In business, it pays to be the easy solution.