Credibility: your prospect's trust in you and your product is a most vital part of your sale procedure.
No factors for making an Internet sale, are more important than both the credibility of the seller and the credibility of the product or service.
The buyer's belief in the value of what you are offering and that you will deliver your offer as you say you will is paramount.
You may have the greatest product known to Internet marketing, however, if the customer does not believe this to be true then there is no chance of a sale.
The slightest doubt about you or your product ushers in a buyer resistance.
Sales on the Internet are difficult enough without added destructive influences being introduced.
Some years ago, I completed a PhD in the study of fear and the psychological interventions used to overcome the fear processes.
I tested the very best known Psychological techniques then used for overcoming the fear process.
Then I tested these strategies against a placebo (an inert pill).
I found, after testing with a large barrage of physiological, psychological and self reported measures, that none of the techniques I tested were as effective, in the combat of fear, as an inert pill.
Credibility in a Psychological treatment was the main ingredient that effected fear reduction.
If the patient thought the treatment would work it usually did.
Or certainly did so more positively than if the patient thought the treatment would not work.
A basic inert pill with a high credibility rating was more successful than any of the Psychological treatments used.
Apply this to selling.
The chance of a sale increases dramatically with the increase of trust your prospect has in you.
How credible you are and how credible you make your product seem to the prospect.
Such a ratio is directly proportional to the success of your sale.
oWill you keep the promises you make? oWill your product do what you say it will? oIs the product worth the money you ask for it? oWill you leave town on the next train after the sale? oLet the slightest breech of credibility occur and goodbye to the sale.
In general, trust comes from contact and relationship building.
So, build the relationship.
Don't be in a hurry to close the sale.
A good way to add to the credibility of your product is to sell its benefits and not its features.
In selling the benefits of your product you are able to enhance credibility by stating your market advantage for you and your product or service.
If you can convince your buyer of a distinct market advantage (in the form of a benefit) and that you will deliver this advantage, then the sale is virtually made.
Your market advantage will come from one or more of your product's features but remember features do not add to sales, it's the product benefits that make the sale.
The more benefits the more the credibility the product radiates.
Remember, the slightest credibility lapse and "Bingo" the sale is gone.
Concentrate on those benefit points that give your product total reliability and credibility.