The concept of guided sales is not, of course, a new one. It is what a sales associate practices in a brick-and-mortar store, in their interactions with a customer that are geared towards providing suggestions and guiding the consumer towards the product or service they may be most interested in buying (and which, crucially, will bring meaningful value for that customer). 

The present moment, however, arguably calls for brands – encompassing both retailers and direct consumer brands – to embed proactive guided sales approaches and technologies in ways they might not have done previously. 

By lowering the amount of time and effort a customer requires in order to decide on – and purchase – an item or solution that caters to their needs, you will be going a long way to boosting your brand’s competitiveness among its target audiences. 

Below are just some of the reasons why you should be moving especially quickly to implement guided sales technology right now. 

It will assist inexperienced shoppers 

Not everyone who approaches your brand or store will necessarily have a strong sense of exactly what they are on the lookout for. 

A given customer may have an approximate understanding of their needs, but they might not be familiar with the technical requirements they need to fulfill with whatever solution they purchase. Nor might they be well-versed in the advantages and disadvantages of a particular product, or how one product or service might compare to the leading industry competition. 

The most effective guided sales technology will ask the customer relevant and useful questions. It will also set out the features and benefits of your offering, and help direct the customer in the direction of a particular product or service they might not have even realised they needed. 

It will help maximise conversion rates

In a business and economic environment that presents no shortage of challenges to brands across the sectors – encompassing high inflation, high interest rates, and a generally high cost of doing business – your brand might not be able to depend on a sales funnel that “worked fine” 10 years ago. 

Guided sales approaches have helped brands to double their conversion rates. Part of the reason for this is because guided selling technology goes several steps further than simply presenting the customer with a list of products or services, which can leave them overwhelmed or indecisive. 

Instead, guided selling has a more penetrative impact. By asking customers relevant questions and providing relevant answers on the products and solutions that are likely to be right for them, your brand’s guided sales platform can enable you to cultivate trust with those target customers, while building up your organisation’s reputation as an authority in its industry. 

It will help you be more authentic with your upselling 

Past research has indicated that guided sales can help drive up the average order value a brand achieves. This should not be a great surprise; after all, guided selling is so much about developing a deeper relationship with, and understanding of, the target customer. 

This in-depth understanding, in turn, places a brand that uses guided sales technology in a stronger position to put forward product recommendations and upsell, in ways that are genuinely relevant and useful to the target shopper, instead of feeling artificial and “pushy”. 

Implementing the right guided sales platform for your organisation can help enhance every stage of the customer journey, at the same time as giving your brand better results from its finite budget. 

Our team at Conversity would be delighted to discuss how we can bring such benefits to your business; simply arrange a 30-minute introduction with a member of our team today, to discover how our technology could help your brand grow.