Discovering the communication style of your prospects and customers is extremely important. It can often help you cut through the noise and communicate effectively, making a real conversation possible.
One of my clients recently discovered how to tell what a style a significant portion of his business was based on how they found his website.
My client has a listing on Angie's List, and has won their Super Service award more than once. He shared with me that he was at a manufacturer's seminar a while back, and they were talking about analytics surrounding website traffic.
What they were actually talking about and the analytics program isn't important. However, they were showing traffic sources for a website, including where the traffic came from and how long people stayed on the website.
Now, I may be a little off on the exact numbers. But I know Google was number one on the list, and it showed an average of 16 seconds or so on the website.
There were all sorts of other results like chambers, LinkedIn, and other websites. But down at the very bottom was the traffic that came from Angie's List. Every click that came from Angie's List spent an average of over seven minutes!
Now, combine that with what how actual Angie's List service works. Angie's List customers pay a monthly fee for access to the information. This would typically be the same type of people who like Consumer Reports magazines?
That's someone who likes a lot of information! The "aha moment" my client had was that it was highly likely anyone who found him through Angie's List was someone who liked a lot of information. So much so that they were willing to pay a service like Angie's List for additional information?
Now he communicates with those people drastically different than he did before. Before, he was closing almost no business that came from Angie's List. Now his close rate has skyrocketed to almost 100%!
While he still looks for signs that he's wrong about their communication style, he has found that if they came from Angie's List, it's a good indicator that they're details driven.
While you may be able to discover more about your prospects by looking at how they found your website, the key is to keep your eyes peeled for different signs, and adjust accordingly.
