Friction in your sales process is anything that stands between a customer deciding they want what you sell and actually handing you money. Every form, meeting, delay, and surprise fee costs you sales, and the customers who survive all those steps tend to spend less than the ones who never had to fight through them.
Why do people spend more when buying gets easier?
Think about how your own spending has changed over your lifetime. When we paid cash, I handed the guy a twenty for a pizza, he handed me back $11 and change, and I felt every bit of it. Then cash became a card, and a card doesn’t hurt. You tap it, you walk out with the pizza, and somehow you spent $13 instead of $9. Then commerce moved online, where you found the product, added it to a cart, and stared at a screen telling you the $19 thing was actually $25 with shipping and tax. Now websites are turning into conversations, and you can say “buy me dog treats” out loud without ever seeing the price or the fees.
Amazon says its U.S. customers who shop by voice through Alexa spend about 40 percent more per order than customers who don’t. That number isn’t really about Alexa. It’s about what happens to a person when the friction disappears.
Where is the friction hiding in your business?
A lot of us set up the buying process once, years ago, and never looked at it again. So go walk it yourself, start to finish, like you’re a stranger who found you this morning and wants to give you money by lunch.
Do I have to have a meeting with you, or can I buy straight away? Do I have to fill out a bunch of forms before we can start working together? What is it actually like to fill out your payment form on a phone? What happens when I want to renew next month, is that easy or is that a whole thing? Do you only take ACH? Do you need me to write a check and mail it? Every one of those questions marks a spot where someone who wanted to buy from you gave up and did something else instead.
What should you fix first?
Fix the step that comes latest in the process, because those are the people who already decided they want you. A customer who abandons your checkout page is worth more than a stranger who never clicked, and the fix is usually smaller. Show the total price earlier so nothing surprises them. Take one field off the form. Accept the card. Put a payment link in the proposal so they can say yes the moment they feel like saying yes.
Then work backward. Kill the meeting that doesn’t need to happen. Replace “let’s find a time to talk” with “here’s the price, here’s the link.” You’ll know it’s working because the same amount of interest turns into more money.
Is reducing friction the same as lowering your price?
No, and this is the part people get backward. Reducing friction usually lets you charge more, not less, because the thing you removed was never the price. It was the hassle. When buying from you is easy, the price stops being the loudest thing in the room. When buying from you is a project, the customer starts looking for a reason to walk, and price is the easiest reason to grab. Service businesses feel this the most, because the sale tends to hide behind a discovery call, a proposal, and a contract. So before you cut your rate, cut a step. It’s cheaper, and it usually works better.
Questions owners ask
What is sales friction?
Sales friction is any step, delay, form, or unanswered question that sits between a customer wanting your product and paying for it. It includes real obstacles like a broken checkout and mental ones like an unclear price.
How do I find friction in my own sales process?
Buy from yourself. Go through your own funnel on your phone as if you were a first-time customer, and count every action you’re asked to take before money changes hands. Anything you’d rather not do, your customer definitely doesn’t want to do.
Does reducing friction work for service businesses?
Yes, and often more so, because service businesses carry the most steps. Publish a starting price, offer a smaller first engagement, and put a payment link in the proposal. None of that changes what you deliver.
What’s the fastest friction fix for a small business?
Take one field off whatever form you make people fill out, and add a way to pay you by card. Those two changes take an afternoon and they move money.
Here’s the homework. Pick one step in your buying process this week and remove it. Just one. Then watch what happens to the number of people who finish. If you want other owners to walk your process and tell you where it’s clunky, that’s what we do inside the Small Business Owners Community. You can watch the full episode of Businessing with Pat Miller for the whole conversation.