I went to the local mall today to enquire about a 3G wireless card for the company I work for (the day-job). When I got to the entrance of the store, there were about 6 or 7 sales people standing there, presumably waiting to pounce on the next potential customer. I continued walking past the entrance, saying “I’ll come back when you aren’t all standing at the door”.

I’m not sure if it’s just me, but I find situations like that intimidating. There’s a national computer chain which apparently trains its sales people to approach the customer within seconds of entering the shop, and ask the traditional retail question - “Can I help you, sir?” When I manage to pluck up the courage to actually go in, I’m always ready with the equally traditional “No thanks, I’m just browsing”.

I can’t believe that they’re not losing sales because of this. Common sense suggests that you wait for the customer to acclimatise themselves, let them look at products, watch unobtrusively for signs that they need assistance, and only then approach them and try to build a relationship. “Good morning, sir/ma’am. I see you’re interested in our mountaineering boots. Maybe I can help you choose the right pair?”

Is it the same with web copy? One of the marketing aphorisms I’ve always liked is “People love buying, but they hate being sold to.” It seems to me that the huge, brash red headline which traditionally starts a sales letter does a pretty good job of telling the visitor they’re about to be sold to.

Maria Velosa, in her excellent course, says that you should try to make your sales page look more like the kind of information your visitor is looking for. This makes perfect sense to me. Make it look like a page from wikipedia, gently draw them in to your sales message, give away useful information - explain what they need to do to solve the problem, then sell them the solution - the “how”.