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Q: Most of my jobs are sold over the phone by my staff, but their closing rate is less than 45 percent. Do you have any suggestions about how to increase it?
First, focus on differentiating your company by stressing value before describing services or quoting price. Otherwise, price becomes the differentiation point. Second, initiate a comprehensive sales training program, including role playing, for your customer service reps.
Q: My website takes about 30 seconds to load. Is this normal? If not, how can I speed this up?
If your site takes 30 seconds to load, your bounce rate (the number of people who leave your site soon after clicking on it) will be sky high. Make sure your pages are as technically optimized as possible. This includes image file sizes, page structure and the functionality of third-party plugins. The faster your site loads, the better. Hire a search engine optimization (SEO) professional who specializes
in the pest management industry to manage your site. The investment will be well worth it.
Q: I keep reading that a website needs to be “responsive.” Can you explain what this means in layman’s terms?
The days when Internet browsing was done exclusively on desktop computers are long gone. Today, more people are using mobile devices to access the web. If you force your visitors to pinch and scroll their way around your website, you’re basically telling them to go elsewhere. Ensure your website is accessible and comfortably viewable across a wide range of devices, including tablets and smartphones, which are smaller.
You can reach Harvey Goldglantz, president of Pest Control Marketing Co. and author of Marketing Matters, at hgpcmcinc@aol.com. His book, Marketing Matters, is available from the PMP bookstore.
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