Eliminate the stress of selling WordPress maintenance packages with these three tips

Imagine that you have finished with a WordPress project and you are in the process of closing out the project. As you are handing your new client the keys to the car, you ask if they need one of your WordPress maintenance packages.

Look, you had plans to throw a party. The project is done, the final payment is in, and you breathe a sigh of relief, but you hear those dreaded words from your client after asking about maintenance.

Go ahead, fill in the blank. What do your customers usually say when you ask if they would like to purchase a maintenance plan?

Today we are going to discuss three tips that might help you eradicate the stress of selling your WordPress maintenance packages.

Help your target customer see the pain

One of the most used copywriting formulas is the PAS – Pain – Agitation – Solution.  Learn more about Problem – Agitate – Solution from copywriter Belinda Weaver.

The formula calls for the writer to introduce the pain the potential customer is feeling.

To truly find the pain points for potential customers, you will need to have conversations, to use surveys, and scour data from forums and other online places where your customer congregates.

Guessing at the problem is going to cause you to swing and miss.

If a customer is hung up on cost, then he or she does not see the need and value for a WordPress maintenance package. They need to feel the need.

To help them see the problem, here are two things you can do. First, you can paint a picture of what the problem looks like. Second, you can tell a story, a true story, of how not having a maintenance plan affected your customer.

To paint a picture, one of the best things you can do is lead with the word “imagine.” This works for helping your customer see what the solution looks like as well. At this point, you are trying to get your customer to know the pain of going to work one morning to find their website has crashed.

You could use copy like this,

“Imagine one day you have arrived at work. You start the coffee and you can smell the aroma filling the office. You are ready for the day. In fact, you have your task list all organized and you sit down to your desk with coffee in hand ready to tackle the day.

“One by one you start seeing emails about your website. All of sudden, you have a crisis as it seems your website has crashed during the night.

“You reach out to your website developer to find out they don’t have any room in their calendar to fix your website until next week. You can’t wait until next week! Your business depends on your website.”

Using this type of copy, your target customer may begin to feel the fear of a crisis when their website goes down. How can the keep this nightmare scenario from happening?

You can paint a picture during the agitation part of your copywriting. Copywriter Amy Harrison warns about striking a balance,

It’s a fine balance, so take care when writing this. The picture of her pain should be vivd, but so should the solution you offer. You always want to leave her feeling hopeful and excited about what it is you are offering.

Next, consider telling a true story. In fact, it might be the story you just mentioned.

For example, maybe you acquired a customer because they came to you with a hacked website. Perhaps they weren’t keeping their plugins and WordPress updated and were exposed to a new vulnerability.

This story can also go a long way to helping potential customers see and even feel the pain they might experience not using your service.

Anticipate & Overcome Objections

When I worked at the bookstore ten years ago, the company decided to roll out a rewards program. We already had the email newsletter, but they wanted to do more.

So, we rolled out this rewards program which, like the email newsletter, was free.

They decided it was so vital that we were trained on how to offer and close this rewards program to a customer.

One of the things they instructed us to do was to attempt to overcome an objection. Over time, I have found that overcoming objections is a necessary part of a business.

You will always have objections. Most of the time it is along the lines of “Why should I use you?” This is especially the case in service-based businesses.

When you are selling maintenance packages, what are some of the objections you hear? Write them down. One by one, go through how you can counter these objections.

Work them into your sales process.

Copywriter Nicki Krawczyk explains,

This tactic of taking what people are already thinking and putting it into your copy is going to help to disarm their objections, let them know that the company understands them, and make it that much easier for them to take action. It might not be literal mind-reading, but really, it’s just as magical!

Is it the cost? Ask them the value of their time and how long it would take them or a member of their team to do the tasks you do. Anyone who understands value will immediately begin to see the value of having a WordPress maintenance package.

Sell them the benefits

We know the benefits of a WordPress maintenance package, don’t we? I mean, we make sure the site is secure, their website is backed up, we update the software and the plugin, we keep the database optimized, and much, much more. How could they not see the benefits?

First, those are not benefits.

What I mentioned above are the features of a maintenance package. That’s right; those are various features of your maintenance package. Those words have little meaning to your business owner unless he or she is also in the website industry.

They need to see the benefits.

Now, admittedly, determining the benefits is tricky, even for the most seasoned copywriter.

First, let me answer your pressing question, “How do you define a benefit?”

Glad you asked!

Using expert copywriters, here are a couple of ways to define a benefit.

First up is Henneke Duistermaat of Enchanted Marketing,

Benefits give customers a reason to buy because they explain how your product or service improves their lives

The key here is a “reason to buy” and how it improves the customer’s life. Benefits, as Henneke explains, will connect to your customer’s desires,

Finally, Sonia Simone from Copybloggers defines it this way,

The features of your offer are what make it work. The benefits are the results it creates for the customer.

I am going to give you a couple of simple ways to get you started on determining benefits from the features of your service.

Simone gives us a transition phrase made of three very simple words. You can use this phrase when you are determining the benefits,

so you can …

Here is how it might look.

“Our website maintenance packages provides daily backups so you can rest easy that you will never lose data from your website if there is a problem. We can restore that with a click of the button.”

Duistermaat uses a simple question with only two words.

To translate features into benefits, answer the question “So what?”

Ask yourself “so what?”

She advises to keep asking the question until you reach the “real benefits.” As she notes,

Real benefits connect to your customer’s desires, such as saving time; reducing costs; making more money; becoming happier, healthier, more relaxed, or more productive.

Benefits help sell.

Wrapping it up

There are so many reasons you may not be able to sell your maintenance packages. One thing many WordPress consultants have begun doing is making it part of the project. They simply include it as a non-negotiable in their project. In doing so, they also take on the hosting.

Another thing you can do is mention the need up front. It is better to begin your project with you explaining the need for maintenance.

In addition, make sure you include the Pain, Objection-busters, and Benefits in your sales copy. It will go a long way in helping customers understand.