Content writing · 23 May 2019 · 2 min read

Sales copy is your website's salesman

What makes a person genuinely good at selling something? Is it because they’ve memorised every product detail and can impress a customer with it? Is it because they lean on “appealing” words — free, long-lasting, inexpensive, the best company — to nudge someone toward an order? Or is it just personality: someone likeable and easy to talk to?

Friendliness, product knowledge, and the right words all help. But almost every salesperson tries to do all three, and most of them can. That isn’t what separates the best from the rest.

What actually makes a salesperson work

A genuinely successful salesperson can read the customer. They understand what someone is actually looking for — a skill built through trial and error, years of experience, and a fair amount of hard work, not something picked up overnight. Crucially, they understand that what a customer needs and what they want don’t always match.

Take someone shopping for a new phone. They need a way to stay in touch with friends and family. But what they actually want might be a phone with fast internet, good games, and a design their friends will notice. A skilled salesperson reads that gap between the stated need and the real want, and sells to both.

What this means for your website

Your website’s copy has to do the same job. Understand what your visitors genuinely want and need before writing a word, and bring in an experienced web copywriter to translate that understanding into persuasive copy. Every page, newsletter, and sales message should be built to do one job: promote, help, and sell. Let your website’s copy be the salesman your customers actually respond to.