They Ask, You Answer, 2nd Edition

26 A Dramatic Discovery

Let me start by asking you a very important question: On average, how many pages of your website do you think someone would be willing to read before they do business with you?

This is a question I’ve asked audiences all over the world. And in every industry and every country, I get pretty much the same answer: “Two or three pages.”

Let’s look at that figure. How long do you suppose it would take someone to read two or three pages of your site?

Conservatively, let’s assume the length of time is about five minutes.

What you’re really saying when you say that you can only envision a prospective customer reading (on average) two or three pages of your site is this: “Marcus, doing business with us is worth about five minutes of someone’s time.”

But do you really think the process of deciding to do business with you is worth only five minutes of someone’s time? I’d certainly hope this isn’t the case.

As businesses, we grossly underestimate people’s willingness to consume information in their quest to become informed and comfortable with a buying decision. To help you understand this point further, let me tell you about a dramatic discovery I made in 2012 related to my swimming pool company—one that has since affected many, many other businesses with its universal effectiveness.

At the beginning of 2012, I was comparing two groups of people who had filled out the “I want to get a quote” form on my swimming pool website.

By filling out the form, both groups ...