Tickling your fish — the role of eCRM in the online sales cycle

27 March 2010 | The peculiar ancient art of catching fish by tickling them into submission might seem far removed from the world of digital marketing, but online customers can be as twitchy and slippery as any Trout.

Online customers can prove as twitchy and slippery as fish. Move too quickly or too clumsily for their liking and they’ll bounce away from your site much like fish darting for the shadows and shelter of the nearest rock or riverbank.

It’s understandable. Every sales process has to help a customer satisfy their concerns and feel confident that they are making the right decision. It’s an involved task under the best of circumstances, but often especially difficult when all you are, for all intents and purposes, is a page on the web.

Like most anglers, we digital marketers are often guilty of focusing exclusively on luring our prospects with ever more attractive bait, but there is an alternate approach and it’s one that is exemplified by the fishermen that ‘tickle’ their prey into pleasant submission.

It might seem fantastical, but there are people who can catch fish by tickling them into a trance-like state. By slowly and carefully reaching under the fish they are able to stroke the jittery creatures’ bellies until they become totally docile and will let themselves be held.

It’s an amazing ability that shows how even the most agitated and slippery of prospects can be soothed with the right attention and approach. It’s also the perfect analogy for the effect eCRM can have on your online customers.

Calming jumpy prospects

eCRM is often mistakenly considered the extending of traditional CRM online, but the approach is much more. It is intelligent, data-driven marketing that is focused on building trust and credibility through personalised exchange and engagement.

eCRM is a bundle of methods and technologies that not only helps marketers get to know their prospects and understand their needs, but, crucially, enables them to show this willingness as well — through consistently personalised and relevant communications. As a result, it can help them calm even the most jumpy of prospects down.

It’s not always about the ‘hook’

eCRM is capable of ‘tickling the fish’ because it helps marketers address two fundamental issues in the sales cycle: trust and fear.

For example, if a company or brand is new to the prospect or they fear that they have not had enough time to make the correct decision, they are likely to dart away from the site if the purchasing process starts too soon.

Rather than resisting this by loading your sales ‘hook’ with more bait, eCRM encourages you to make twitchy prospects feel comfortable by engaging with them over a period of time — without requiring a time or monetary commitment from them.

This process is called profiling and should begin the minute you make contact. If that moment is the first time the prospect visits your site, a typical eCRM approach would be to use analytics and cookies to subtly ascertain what they are interested in (from the information they view).

Ideally, this information should then be confirmed by asking them a couple of very quick, non-intrusive questions that show you have been paying attention and want to help them sort through the information being presented to find exactly what they are after.

Armed with this rudimentary profile, your eCRM platform will be able to reload the site to show only the information that is pertinent to their interest and ask their permission to share further, valuable information with them for free through a personalised email or newsletter. Provided the information you send them is genuinely useful and relevant, they will appreciate it and, over time, start to feel more comfortable with you.

From an eCRM perspective, this is merely the start of an ongoing process of exchange and reciprocal learning. As prospects start to benefit from the useful information you share with them, they will slowly be willing to exchange more information in return and allow you to build an increasingly detailed profile of their preferences and needs. Just like the expertly tickled fish, they will slowly become more relaxed and comfortable with you and, as a result, more likely to buy.

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Tickling your fish — the role of eCRM in the online sales cycle