Creating Sales Flow
Not having Sales Flow is costing many businesses lots of money in lost opportunities. If people can't happily engage with your offering they will go somewhere else. Just because you understand what you offer and see its value doesn't mean that others will too. Your sales message not only has to speak to the need of your users but has to present itself in a way that flows.
Sales Flow is a natural expression of the Path of Least Resistance in sales. Simply put, the Path of Least Resistance says that objects (including people) will always take the easiest path at the moment. If your users don't feel completely engaged by your offer and the way that it is offered they will walk away. All good salesmen know that the longer you can hold a prospect the greater chance you have of them falling in love with you (most unrequited lovers know this too).
The psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi spoke about the concept of Flow* being the point when people are most happy. Flow is the same as being in the zone. People who are in Flow are completely engaged. Engagement breaks down barriers. As Csíkszentmihályi said, Flow is "being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost."
Barriers at the Disco
I started to really consider Flow as a concept when working as a function and venue DJ. In some functions (weddings and school dances) and venues it was really easy to get people up and dancing and others were hard to impossible. We spent quite a bit of time discussing the reasons for the successes and failures of specific events. We noticed patterns, where certain conditions were present function success or failure was more likely.
The younger DJs always wanted to take the suburban 18ths & 21sts. The theory was that these shows would be cooler and more fun but the Boss and I knew better. Experience showed us that domestic parties with too many youngsters didn't really take off. The kids didn't dance. Parties where we could get the grandparents and parents up first were far more likely to be lively. Matter of fact the best domestic shows I did were 50ths.
The reasons for the unexpected results were completely logical when we made the connection. People only dance when they feel relaxed. The kids had the expectation that they were comfortable to dance in nightclubs where they felt more anonymous but parents were from a simpler (better lit) time where dancing was more integrated into life and could occur in the back yard. Kids would rarely start dancing on their own. Once parents were dancing, kids would join in. The same occurred in Blue Light Discos and some Primary School shows. The kids needed to be led and shown that dancing was Ok.
Room layout was also a big factor in function success. If the area was too large the crowd didn't come together. One Pub had set up the dance floor across the walkway to the toilets, despite having a nice stage. This venue closed in a few months because people couldn't feel comfortable so beer sales were low.
Back to Sales
A web site is an environment where people go to perform a task. If people don't feel flow in the environment they don't become engaged and buy. If you offer a product that will create world peace but users can't grasp the concept then you have to change your approach till they do. Blaming the customer will not help them to get your wonderful invention. You either have to change target customers, change your product or pitch so that it fits the expectations of your users.
There is no one single thing that you can do to magically put flow in your web site but if you pay attention to all the details and understand why your users do what they do then you stand a much greater chance of getting users into the flow of being your customer. Most of the articles in the How To section give practical advice on flow based design.
*The concept of flow in sales is perhaps under researched in part because sales is often seen as a contrary activity. Attempts to get in-tune with customers are often artificial - like "mirroring". If you are naturally in-tune with someone then that is great but to attempt to create an in-tuneness must always ring as false. Flow happens when things are in-tune.
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