In many ways, there is only one rule - to make sales online you have to design a sales process that fits the customers buying process. Rocket science? I don't think so, but 'mono channel vision' means that customer buying behaviour is ignored more often than it is embraced.

A salesman selling a loan wouldn’t just read out a list of questions in a dull voice

And there are a number of pitfalls to designing a sales process that suits both being online and fits to online customer behaviour. But broadly it is about adaptation rather than any radically new ideas. Here are some pitfalls to consider:

A Focus on the Seller, not the Customer

Companies tend to map a sales process according to the organisation of the business or product they are selling. If a business sells Package Holidays and Car Rentals and is organised as separate divisions, you can bet your bottom dollar that they will sell them as separate entities. You buy your package holiday, then you rent your car. But customers don't think the same way that businesses are organised, they want to get a holiday that includes a car and a hotel. They think of them together not apart. Isn't it the customer that this is supposed to be easier for, not the business? Even if the sales process ends up 'looking messy' to the business, then isn't more sales compensation enough?

A 'Data Capture' Process not a Sales Process

Financial organisations often end up producing an unappealing and overly ‘data capture’ process. The business needs data to calculate the loan, for example, so they build an online form. And consequently the customer gets a very dull and boring form to fill in with no excitement or emotion evoked. A salesman selling a loan wouldn’t just read out a list of questions in a dull voice… they wouldn’t get far, sell very little.

A Usable’-but-Wrong Process

This has become awfully common, as usability practice has become more widespread. But you can make the wrong process as ‘usable’ as you like, but it wont make it any ‘righter’. Usability helps but it has to be used in combination with an understanding of the customer away from the interface as well as close up. Just because a customer succeeds in a task to 'buy' in the usability lab doesn't necessarily mean that they will be bothered to even try in their own home or workplace. I can say this. I am a usability expert! But it is an easy mistake to make. To design the right sales process we need to go beyond usability into peoples heads.

All these pitfalls can all be avoided by understanding the customer and accommodating their buying process.