I was consulting with a client the other day and they were upset that their one product was not selling. They were getting plenty of hits to the site but people were not buying. The people were staying on the page long enough and they were clicking on a few pictures (They had pictures hosted elsewhere so could tell they were being clicked on).

So we had a look at the site. The layout was OK, Pictures we OK, but the buyer was left after the sales letter as to what to do. It then got me thinking, how many sales do we loose in a week, due to not telling our customers how to buy from us, and what the sales process is.

Throughout our sales process we need to tell our buyers what is happening, why it is happening and what happens next. We need to make them feel at ease, and warm, and once this happens they will trust us and will buy from us time and time again, and not only that they will also tell other people about us and our business will grow and grow.

For instance if we need them to tell us the colour they want, we need to teach them the steps on how to do that, and show them with both words and pictures the simple steps they have to take to complete the sales process. And once my client had put these simple steps into their sales process their sales started to climb and now they make sales every day.

Andrew Milburn is an eBay Consultant based in Lichfield Staffordshire.