By: John K Johnson

It is always easier to sell to someone that you have an existing relationship with: family, friends or existing customers. The relationship gives you trust and a rapport that removes many of the natural barriers to a sale.

In the automobile sales industry, we talked all the time about working your personal network of friends, family and associates as well as your database of previous customers. These people already knew and trusted you. They knew that you were not the stereotypical, slimy salesperson, but a normal guy trying to make a living. They knew that what you wanted was to make a sale at a fair price and that you would be there for them after the sale, if a problem arose.

The same concepts apply to any salesperson or business, these groups of people already know and trust you; you don’t have to win them over. Read more...

The problem with this approach is that there are a limited number of people in these groups. You only have so many family members, you have a finite number of friends and your church and civic organization ties will bring in a larger, but still finite, set of potential customers.

If you want to be successful, and who doesn’t, you need to find a way to expand this set of people that you have a trust relationship with.

Many businesses look at using a website to draw in the seemingly infinite numbers of netizens to their business. This is a great idea; if you are lucky, and good, you will get many new potential customers onto your website, but you are going to run into the problem of trust.

A typical, static website is more like an ad in the newspaper than a relationship building tool. All of those new customers are going to be looking at your site, AND MANY OTHERS. While looking at all of these sites, these potential customers are going to ask, “Which one of these businesses do I want to spend my money with? Who can I trust?”

Most likely, all of the websites are essentially the same; they tell about what is sold and have pretty much the same pricing structure. The site will show a few pictures, have some snappy graphics, an email address and a phone number. All of the site owners are patiently waiting for the customers to call or send that email.

How do you get these potential customers to choose you? You have to find a way to build a relationship with them. It would be great if you could talk to each one of them, individually, but not very practical. Instead, use your website as a relationship building tool, not just an electronic version of your newspaper ad.

Your website should be a two-way communication device; there should be a way for you to talk with your customers and potential customers. There are many ways to build relationships online:

Blogging -- Spend a few minutes, every day, writing a short article about what is going on in your business: what is on sale, what special event is going on and even what you have been doing in your personal life (do NOT go into details, but do let your customers know that you are a real person).

FAQs -- A Frequently Asked Questions section on your site is a central place for your customers to get information quickly; this is the real reason most people use the internet and they reward businesses that give them the information they need.

Forums – This is a section of your site that allows you to talk with your customers and they with each other. Your customers can ask questions and get answers, quickly. You can, in just a few minutes a day, carry on conversations with hundreds of your customers.

Almost every business person has the concern that a disgruntled customer will say something negative in the forums and scare off other customers. If you are an honest business person, who made an honest mistake, you should view that negative comment as an opportunity, not a threat. You should jump on that comment and fix whatever the problem is and make sure you post it to the forum that you fixed the problem and invite the original poster to respond as well. If you can satisfy this person, or at least publicly make an honest effort, other potential customers will see that you are someone who will take care of them.

These are just three ways that you can use your website to build relationships with potential customers. The best part is, that these same tools can be used with existing customers, both new and long-term, to build and strengthen those relationships. Use your site to make every customer a dedicated, customer for life.

There are many other ways that you can use your website to start, build and nurture relationships. The more you use, the better your chances of building a larger, stronger customer base and business.

The websites hosted at Johnsons’ Consulting can affordably provide all of the features listed here - and many more. New modules are added almost weekly; if there is something you need that we don’t currently offer – ask us – it may already be in the works!

Contact me at John@JohnsonSconsulting.com to start building relationships with your online customers! No obligation, naturally!