Capturing lost sales

I was having a discussion just today about setting up goals for Google analytics to see what number of drop outs are occurring during their sales process. The client said that if they could average 3 sales a day throughout the eyar, that would be fantastic, but if they could increase it to 4..... Some days they see 7 sales a day of their niche product, but obviously there are other days with very few sales.

We talked about having Live chat or help agents to try and capture anyone 'dithering' over a sale who needed an instant answer to any questions they might have, which could help them to purchase.


One of the problems small businesses face is not having enough manpower to monitor issues such as this, let alone cater for the CRM side of the online business.

Then, oddly, one of those dreaded mass emails from another internet marketer dropped in. (They are always selling a "friend's" product, or promoting a colleague's attempt at becoming an Amazon Best Seller -today only! I tend to read through the middle of them to see what the latest sales technique is between internet marketers as that is who they generally have on their lists!

Today, it caught my eye because it happened to be for a virtual sales agent. And, most importantly, it was not a product/service that was particularly costly, or being pushed on a pay per sale, or lifetime cost, but a one off fee of $97. Which is about £50 even on a good day so it's not hugely expensive.

I read the blurb, pages and pages of it, which is now the general mechanism for selling internet marketing tools, and looked beyond the calls to action, and emotional triggers. Mainly because having read something similar the other day which seemed like a bit of a 'no brainer', the catch was the need to have a hosting account with a different company. At extra cost, obviously.

The small print here appears to be what your host is running on their server in the way of PHP and Unix/Linux. So, if you are on a Windows box, you can't use this software, but that's a minor issue if the sales agent works to 1) capture sales you were potentially going to lose 2) build an opt-in list of interested parties for follow ups and 3) get an email newsletter tool thrown in.

Anyway, before it goes up in price, I'm going to buy one and stick it on our Linux server and have a play with it. Because it seems to me that it is all very well having an e-commerce shop open 24/7, but if your customers leave without getting their questions answered, and without a personal approach by one of your sales staff (even if they are an avatar), you may not just be adding that extra touch that could bring back the money you are potentially losing. And it's got a lifetime money back guarantee on it, so what is there to lose in trying it?