How to Convert Leads to Sales Online

I recently had an insight about converting leads to sales online and wanted to share it with you today.

All my usual data-driven stuff is great and produces high quality leads for cheap…

But… the problem of:

How to make the person on the other end of the screen buy...

...still exists.

I think I’ve solved this now.

(I’m currently experimenting with this on my end and will share results when I have them.)

The main thing I learned is this:

People Buy from People (They Trust)

The “they trust” part is in parenthesis because it’s a silent agreement between the buyer and seller.

It’s assumed.

If there was no trust, there is no way someone would be willing to part ways with their hard earned cash.

It’s this trust factor that is the first (and biggest) domino that we have to topple.

This is also why you hear things like:

• The hardest dollar you ever earn from someone is the first one, and
• It is easier to sell to your existing customers than find new ones

And it is also the reason why your customer list is so valuable.

So let’s dive in to:

How to Build Trust With Someone
on the Other Side of the Screen

Using an analytical approach, here’s the conclusion I have come to:

Our prospect must be able to independently verify what we are saying is true, in order to trust us.

It is only after this independent verification, that trust can be established.

And it is only after this established trust, that our prospect will even consider buying from us.

This is why reviews are so powerful.

And why social proof works.

Because we can take other people’s word for “yup, this guy knows what he’s talking about”

BUT… reviews are secondary to independent verification.

The experience of our prospect verifying for themselves (that our stuff works)... is better than any review they could ever read.

The best thing we can do is:

• Give our prospect a tip to help solve their biggest problem
• And tell them how to verify it

As soon as our prospect goes and verifies this on their own…

And sees that it works just as we said it would…

Our prospect begins to build trust.

That’s when someone new has successfully entered our audience.

And will now look for more content from us.

More content to help with solving their biggest problem.

And if we continue to deliver tips and advice that actually works…

Then our prospect will have no other option but to trust us.

Then buying our products becomes a matter of 2 questions:

1. Timing — is it the right time for our prospect to buy our product?
2. and Price — can they afford it without going bankrupt?

This is assuming that our prospect believes that we are the “real deal”.

Morality aside (in my opinion) this is the real reason why

Honesty Matters in Business

And why being the “real deal” is important.

We’ve all had the experience of getting scammed.

Or, at least, paying for something that didn’t quite live up to expectation.

In both cases, we thought that the person we were buying from could deliver what they said they would.

BUT… we were only led to believe that they could deliver.

Meaning: we trusted them to deliver on something... and they didn't

Let me ask you a question:

Did you ever buy from that person again?

Even if you didn’t think they were a scammer, you must have some apprehension to buying that person’s product again.

Because you’ve had the experience of them "not delivering”.

Trust was broken.

And this is also a practical reason for why

Customer Experience is Paramount

If someone has a bad experience with us, they’re never buying from us ever again.

Period.

I recently got scammed by Drive on Holidays (a car-rental company) here in Portugal.

These bastards hit me with a €264 fine for “damaging their car”.

It’s not true.

There’s barely a scratch.

But they pressed me hard and charged me.

I told them straight to their face: “You guys are fucking me over, and I’m never using your service again.”

This same experience could’ve been them telling me: “Sir, there’s a very minor scratch on the car. Usually we charge for this but because you’re a new customer, we will waive the fee.”

I would’ve told EVERYONE I know about this car-rental company.

But, instead, I am here advising everyone I know to NEVER use their service.

Experience matters.

How we make our customers feel, matters.

A lot.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever heard was from a Portuguese contractor in Canada, Manny.

Manny told me:

You do a bad job, your customer tells 15 people. You do a good job, they tell 3. That’s just how it is.

The lesson I extracted from his advice was that it is so much harder to build a positive reputation than a negative one.

And, you can have a positive reputation and ruin it 5 times faster.

Reputation is just a measure of how much people trust you.

From the first sale, to a referral, to the next sale…

It all boils down to trust.

Here’s a Practical Way to Create Trust With New People in Your Audience

1. Get super clear on what your audience’s biggest problem is.
2. Ask yourself the following questions:
   1. What’s something I can share with people that they can verify on their own quickly?
   2. What’s something super simple I know that they won’t know?
   3. What is a free tip I can give them that they can try out on their own quickly?
3. Lastly, create this as a piece of content.

If you would like examples of how I’ve seen this implemented, here you go:

1. TikTok Growth Strategist — Angel Talamantes

I detailed this story in this blog post here.

You can check it out to see how everything played out from start to finish.

TL;DR — I bought several of his $47 products and trust him for his advice and strategy on TikTok Growth.

2. Facebook Ads — Ben Heath

I was watching a video of his on how to optimize Facebook Ads and he said something that clicked for me.

Ben said: “You have to optimize for what you want, not what you hope will happen.”

I already knew this.

But I wasn’t taking it seriously.

I listened to him.

Duplicated my campaign and optimized for a custom conversion…

…and BOOM!

My Cost per Lead is now ~$2 for my exact target market.

Note: This last part was a bit technical. If you don’t understand FB Ads, just know that I was able to implement and immediately verify one tip from Ben.

I trust him now for his advice on FB ads and am looking to buy his $597 Facebook Ads Insiders course.

3. Quit by Healing — Us at ikario

I told you that I am experimenting with this very concept myself.

The biggest problem in our target market is Porn Addiction.

And the hardest part about porn addiction is dealing with urges.

We have a guided meditation that helps stave off urges.

This is something immediately usable and verifiable.

If this works for our target audience, they will instantly trust us more.

And want to see how else we can help them.

Which, eventually, leads to sales.

In Conclusion: It’s All in the Basics

I feel like, in our desire to succeed fast, we lose sight of the basics.

One of these basic, core principles is:

People Buy from People (They Trust).

And all the second and third order principles:

Honesty. Ethics. Creating positive customer experiences...

...are all downstream of trust.

I would love to hear your experience with this.

Have you ever paid attention to why you bought a product?

What part of your sales cycle do you think you could implement this immediately verifiable concept in?

Would love to see you try it and share your results with me.

For now, thank you for lending me your ears (and eyes).

Have a wonderful weekend.

Cheers,

Abhi