Design Website For Pre-Selling

How do your feel when salespersons knock at your door at
odd times trying to sell something you are not interested
in? I feel pity for these people who have to toil from
house to house facing rejection at most of the places. And
yet they wear a forced smile as they start their rehearsed
sales speech. When they come to me at most inconvenient
time (for me) and insist on selling when I do not want to
talk to them, I find it, if you will pardon me, irritating;
although I do my best not to show it as I turn them away as
politely as I can.

Websites which have only sales pitch as their main content
are very much like these salespersons who arrive when you
are not looking for them. Visitors go web browsing
primarily looking for specific information and not sales
offer. When a visitor arrives at a website which offers
information she finds useful and solutions to her problems,
she is likely to visit again.

A website should not be designed only for selling
something, though that may be purpose for setting up the
website in the first place. The website should provide
information and commentaries which can pre-sell the product
to the visitor. It should attract targeted visitors
interested in the content. Pre-selling arouses interest in
the product prompting the visitor to visit again. She will
try to satisfy herself with information provided,
testimonials, bio of the webmaster, links to related sites
and other considerations before she will actually buy the
product. In a way, pre-selling tries to guide her in this
direction and makes it easier for her to make a decision.

People are more inclined to buy what they "want" instead of
what they "need". Once they set their minds on buying
something, they look for reasons (or call it excuses) why
they should buy, only to satisfy themselves, though the
decision for the purchase has already been taken.
Pre-selling provides reasons which they find "compelling"
enough to part with money.

The website which has valuable content the visitor is
looking for produces a pleasant experience for her. By
pre-selling she is made to develop trust in the website and
the webmaster and will look at the recommendations with an
open mind. Once the visitor decides to buy, the website
should ensue that she does not face any problems in making
actual purchase. The links provided for the order page
should work properly and the whole process should be kept
simple. It will be very unfortunate if the prospective
buyer calls off the purchase only because she finds that
the ordering process does not work.

How will your website appear to your visitor? That is an
important question which should be asked often. Try to
visualize yourself as a first-time visitor to your site.
Then see you site as if you looking at it for the first
time. How does it appear? Does your headline create a
curiosity? Are you drawn towards the main content or other
features of your site grab your attention? Is your main
content "readable", interesting and not a sermon?
How far does it succeed in pre-selling?

Ask your friends to see your website and give their opinion
on these and other questions. Website building is a dynamic
process and is never complete or perfect. But whatever
changes are made, they should enhance its pre-selling
ability. It is good idea to actually test the website after
changes are made. Any change which tends to reduce the
traffic needs to be modified. The changes should gradually
refine the website to attract more visitors.

Pre-selling should be seen as a service to satisfy the
needs of the visitors who arrive at the website. It should
be considered as the first step before actual sale.
Pre-selling forms a bond, an understanding built on trust
between the seller and the prospective buyer which eases
the process of actual sale.