How many web sites have you visited and seen on their home page something like this:

"We are the ABC Widget Company. We are the largest distributor of new fangled widgets anywhere, manufactured to XYZ specifications. Take a look at our products and buy some today!"

Hmmm, "What's In It For Me?"

Unless you hook the visitor's interest in the first few seconds, in terms of some need that the visitor has, that visitor will simply click away. All of your hard work in producing a fantastic product or service and in generating the traffic to your site will be wasted.

I have now reviewed hundreds of sites for customers. I hate to tell you how many fail the "What's In It For Me?" test. To be successful, you must get those people benefits right up there front and center where the visitor can immediately see that the site will be of interest to them.

A benefit is the result of our product or service that allows a person to feel the way he needs to feel.

People buy when they understand how their buying action will result in gaining the satisfaction of their needs or helping them avoid the loss of presently satisfied needs.

People don't buy products. They buy how they imagine owning the products will make them feel. In most cases, they have to understand how they will both gain and avoid.

Motivating people to take some action is the job of the web site designer. The designer is an activator rather than an initiator of other people's needs. You motivate by clarifying the visitors' needs, problems and solutions.

Most sales presentations, offline or online, do little more than tell customers what the products are, and do little more than give a nuts-and-bolts description of the product itself. The customer is left to his own devices to figure out how the product will help him solve a problem and satisfy a need.

But the problem is, people don't buy products, they buy solutions to their problems. In common terms, people don't buy power drills because they want the drill; they simply want the holes that the drill can make. In other words, you need to translate the products features into people benefits.

For example, in the opening statement, the site could say:

"We are the largest distributor of new fangled widgets anywhere, and our large inventory and selection allows you to get the part you need when you need it. You will avoid having to tell your increasingly irate customers once again that they will have to wait "just a few more days".

Because our widgets are manufactured to XYZ specifications, you can feel confident that your customers will be satisfied, resulting in higher repeat sales, and of course, higher profits."

Offline, in the personal sales presentation, the solution the salesman advocates must grow out of what has been mutually discovered with the customer. A series of fact finding and feeling finding questions are asked, in an attempt to discover, clarify and intensify an unsatisfied need.

The solution presented, in terms of a product or service, must address the specific causes, the specific problems, and the specific needs that you and your customer have discovered. Only then will the customer find real meaning in what you are presenting.

In your web site, however, you will not have this opportunity for the back and forth, "getting warmer" kind of experience. You will need to address common causes, common problems and common solutions to those problems and discuss normal expected benefits from those solutions.

Over time, by numerous well designed tests, you can discover which problems, causes, solutions and benefits are the ones that customers respond to the most. But all of the processes that occur during the offline sales presentation should be gone through online nonetheless.

Our customers will reach the conclusion that we have the right solution for his problem and need feeling after he is satisfied by our answers to these three questions:

• Will it work?
• Is it the best available?
• Will it be the best in the future?

if those questions are answered in terms of the customer's needs.

Increase your sales by telling your customers "What's In It For Me" by translating your product or service features into people benefits.

Go to "Why People Buy Your Product or Service" for a primer on human motivation and how that translates into online sales at http://www.ibizcenter.com/why_people_buy.htm

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Rick Olson, from Internet Business Center, http://ibizcenter.com offers a FREE Web Site Review with at least three ways to improve your site. Avoid the big mistakes that cost you money! See for yourself the high quality of the advice for profitable web sites. Click on http://ibizcenter.com/critique.htm or send a message to him at mailto:olson@ibizcenter.com