Small Business Savvy | Web Design, Systems, and Marketing

178. Why People Don’t Buy (Even When They Want To)

• Kristen Doyle, web design and business strategy

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In this episode, I break down why people don’t buy (even when they want to) and how understanding this supports smarter decisions and sustainable small business growth.

Most of the time when we lose out on sales, it’s not because our price is too high or a competitor is running flashy ads. The real reason potential clients hesitate or walk away, even when they’re interested, comes down to hidden friction points, like confusion about what they’ll actually get, unclear processes, or simply too many choices. While seemingly small, these roadblocks can quietly sabotage your sales. Once you start to spot these patterns, you have a simple roadmap for strengthening your website strategy and customer experience. 

Throughout the episode, I share stories from my own life and business, highlighting how small obstacles or unanswered questions can send potential customers straight to someone else. I also lay out the five most common obstacles holding customers back, and offer you practical steps to uncover and remove each one in your business. It’s time to eliminate the guesswork and build a small business that makes it easy for customers to say “yes” with confidence.

01:33 – The real reason customers walk away from your business

03:11 – Top 5 obstacles that stop people from buying

08:25 – Real-world examples of local, service, and online businesses creating obstacles

16:30 – Your action plan to map the customer journey and remove roadblocks

Links & Resources:

Show Notes: https://kristendoyle.co/episode178 


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Kristen Doyle:

Most of the time when we lose out on sales in our business, whether it's products or clients, it is not about what we think it is. I know a lot of times we think that losing out on sales is about the price or our competition being better than us. We think we're losing sales because so and so is undercutting our pricing, or they're running some flashy new ad campaign. But most of the time when we actually lose sales in our own business, it is really about some friction that the customer feels before they purchase. So today I am going to talk about some common points where customers get stuck or they hesitate and they walk away. These patterns will apply whether the customer is booking a service, walking into your shop, or clicking buy on your website for something, and once you see them, you really can't unsee them. So let's talk about it. You've got happy customers and a solid business, but you're stuck guessing about what to focus on next. Is it your website, your systems, your marketing? If that sounds a little too familiar, then you are in the right place. Welcome to Small Business Savvy. I'm your host, Kristen Doyle, and every week we cover business systems, website strategy, simplified marketing and the decisions that actually grow your business. No fluff, no shiny objects, just what works. Let's get started, y'all. I want to start with the truth about why people don't buy. See, as business owners, most of us think that when people don't buy, we think, Well, maybe they just weren't interested. Maybe my prices were wrong, or they probably found someone else that was better than me. But a lot of times, what's really happening is hesitation. That potential customer is feeling hesitant to buy or to sign up or to hire you because they aren't sure about something, and our job as the business owner is to make them sure. Here's the thing, we tend to get stuck thinking that our potential customers will figure it out. Whatever their hesitation is, they'll figure it out. People are smart, they'll know. In fact, I have had clients literally tell me, I don't think we need this on the website, because people will know. I've had that phrase used more times than I can even tell you. But it's just not true, because yes, people are smart, and yes, they can figure it out, but the reality is, we as humans are just resistant to doing that extra mental work. We will naturally gravitate towards the easiest place to get the thing that we want. And if the easiest place isn't your business, it's going to be someone else's. Right. So let me walk you through the five most common obstacles that stop people from buying even when they want what you have to offer. The first one is when the outcome isn't clear. See, people are wondering before they make a purchase, Okay, but what do I actually get out of this? They want to know what they're going to get after they check out, whether that's a product they're purchasing and they haven't gotten to see inside the package yet, or a service that they are hiring you for, or an appointment they're booking, something digital that they're downloading, and they want to know, what am I going to get when I download this file? The second one is processes that are hidden. People are always naturally wondering what's going to happen next? What happens after they say yes? What happens when they show up for their appointment with you? What happens when you come out to their house for a service call? What happens when they open this package after they order something from you? People don't want to walk into an appointment and look like they have no idea what they're doing, or find out that they're not prepared for what they needed to be prepared for that day. And so having the process too hidden is one more obstacle that people have to overcome. Likelihood is they're going to go to someone else who makes it more clear. The third obstacle is actually giving people way too many choices. This is one that a lot of times we make this mistake in an effort to give people better options, because we want to serve them better. It's a mistake we make out of a really good place of wanting to be more helpful. But the reality is that choices, too many choices anyway, create overwhelm, and overwhelm creates decision paralysis. And decision paralysis is that situation where you have so many options and you don't know which one to pick, and so people just don't get started. They just avoid picking anything because they don't want to pick the wrong thing. So even though we think that we're being helpful by giving people more options, sometimes what we can do is leap into that decision paralysis. Now, there are ways around that. That doesn't mean you have to only offer one thing, one way to everybody. Some ways around that are to limit your choices a little bit, to give people kind of a clear way to segment themselves. If you need this, go here, if you need that, you need this service. If this sounds like you, then that's what you want to purchase. Giving people that clear way to figure out which thing is for them can really help eliminate that decision paralysis even if you do have a lot of options. There are also some ways to kind of maybe hide the next decision so that people don't have to make all the decisions at once. They make them in a logical order. Anything like that that can help make those choices a little easier for people. Obstacle number four is not giving people a clear starting point. They need to clearly know what to do next, how to get started. And if you're missing that first step, then it's a lot harder for people to say yes. Once someone thinks, Okay, this is all sounding good. I understand the process. I know what I'm going to get when I book this appointment or when I order this item. I know it's going to be right for me. I figured out which one is best. The next thing is they have to know how to purchase, how to book the appointment, how to add to their cart, check out, whatever it is, those need to be very obvious and clear. And then number five is making people take too much effort before you've built trust with them, before they know that they can trust you to do what you say, before they know they can trust you to have the expertise that they need. Even if you're in a business where you don't feel like trust is that important, or you don't feel like people really come to you looking for an expert in what you offer. They just need the thing because it seems very simple. Think about something as simple as a restaurant. We don't leave. I won't go to a gym where I think the trainers are going necessarily need to know that the staff at our restaurant or that the owners of our restaurant are the most expert at making whatever type of food they serve there, but we do need to trust that their facility is clean, that they are following food safety protocols, that the food is going to be good, that their kitchen staff isn't going to burn everybody's pancakes. to give me things to do that might injure me. Trust is always important no matter what type of business it is. So let's talk about what these obstacles or these friction points look like in real businesses. We'll start with local businesses. Maybe the problem is I can't find your address, or when I plug it into my GPS, it tries to take me to the wrong place. I've actually had this happen to me where a hairstylist that my kids were using had moved salons, and I vaguely knew where the new salon was. I knew kind of what part of town and all, but when I plugged the address into my GPS, it directed me somewhere all the way on the other side of town. I would have been 30 minutes at least away from where I was supposed to be had I not noticed that it was pointing me in the wrong direction. And what I found out was the GPS was searching and trying to find the right place because the address was written wrong, and so it was directing me to a very similar place at a different address. Think about that from the lens of the business owner, what if I had gone to the other place, the other hair salon on the other side of town. Now I've gotten there, I know I've missed my appointment and I'm too late. What am I going to naturally do? Probably walk in and see if I can get my kids' hair cut at this place and see if they have an opening. So now our hair stylist has lost out on business. Now, fortunately, in that case, I did actually notice it and was able to get to the right place and all, but it could have led down a path that would have been really bad for the business owner. Another one is if the business hours aren't clear, or if I can't find them at all. Pricing surprises, not being sure what at least a general price range is for the services or products that you offer will really keep people from showing up, because nobody wants to show up to your business for, you know, a haircut (I don't know why I'm on haircuts today, but I am). No one wants to show up at your your salon for a haircut, thinking most haircuts are this much and yours are three times that price, because now they feel awkward about leaving, or they've spent more than they want to. Not knowing about pricing will absolutely keep people from showing up, because nobody wants that experience. Not knowing what happens. What's going to happen when I walk in, what's the process like? Now, if you are something like a boutique or a locally owned pharmacy, then this is a little less important, because people know the drill. They come in, they shop, they get their stuff, they leave. But think about something like a permanent jewelry shop, where maybe they've never done this before, or a hair salon, where your processes might not be like others they've been to. People want to know what to expect when they walk in. Let's talk service providers for a minute. If your process is vague, so they're not quite sure what's going to happen when you work together, that can lead them to work with someone else who makes that process clear. If it's not obvious what people's next step is, how do they get started, what's going to be expected of them after? And definitely, if they have too many options and they get overwhelmed, if you're a service provider and you offer more than three or four options, you definitely need a way for people to segment themselves and clearly figure out which one is for then. Let's have online businesses now. So if you are someone who's selling digital products or courses, if your sales pages are confusing, or if they are too long with too much scrolling, if people get lost in, maybe other options that are on your sidebar instead of the product they are supposed to be looking at, any of those things will keep people from purchasing. The other thing that will really stop people from purchasing from an online business is if there is not a very clear, very obvious next action step to purchase, whether that is add to cart, buy it now, whatever that is. When it comes to that clear next action step, you need to have a lot more of those on your page than you might think. Don't make people scroll too far to look for one because they'll get distracted and walk away. And don't give people a button that makes them have to wonder what's going to happen when they click on it. It should be very obvious that this button is going to add to my cart, or it's going to take me to the checkout, or it's going to automatically upgrade my purchase. All of those things should be very obvious in the way that you word the button and in the placement of that button on the page. Before we wrap up and talk about your action steps, I want to share a perfect example from my own life of how this might play out. So some girlfriends recently texted and asked me if I wanted to join them for a sauna party at this local float spa and sauna. They were running a special where you get a bigger sauna and you can bring in three or four friends and do a girls day. Sounds fun, right? That was my first thought. This sounds fun. Let me check my calendar. I think I want to do this. But my next immediate thoughts were all questions. The first one was, how long am I going to be in there? The second one was, how hot is it really? Because the last time I went to a sauna, I was only in there for 10 minutes, and it was really, really, really hot. So I'm wondering, how hot is this one going to be? Am I going to be expected to be in a sauna that hot for an hour? What's it going to look like in there? What do I need to take with me? I'm going to get all sweaty and gross. Can I shower after? I was wondering all of those things, and before I was ready to commit, I needed answers. So being who I am, I went looking at their website, and while I was clicking around, I got a little distracted by float therapy, but that just pulled up even more questions. What do you wear? What is going to happen when I get there? What happens during the float? Is it dark? Am I going to feel claustrophobic? I've seen those, like, clamshell kind, and I'm just not sure that's for me. What do I do after? Am I going to leave with, like, soaking wet hair, looking like a drowned rat after? Now I know some people will just walk in and figure it out, because that's their personality. They're not worried about that kind of stuff. But the majority of people are a little more like me. See, I don't want to walk in and not be prepared for what I'm going to do or look like I have no idea what I'm doing. I want to feel confident and prepared on my way into something new. Fortunately, that business did answer all my questions on their website, but so many businesses don't, and they lose customers by not answering the right questions and not making things clear. So I want to encourage you to make a mindset shift. A lot of times, when we are trying to get business, we start adding ways to persuade people that we're right. We try so hard to reiterate, yes, you can trust me. Yes, come work with me. And it doesn't always feel good. It can almost feel like we're begging for business. So instead of going that direction, think about how you can remove obstacles. Think about those five friction points that I shared as those obstacles to purchasing, and what can you do to remove them? Make them sure that they can trust you. Make them sure they'll actually get what they need after they purchase. Make them sure of what the process will look like, so they're not worried that they may show up unprepared or they won't understand how to use something. Make them sure they're making the right choice by either limiting the options you lay out, or guiding people to the one that's right for them. Make them sure they know how to get started with you with a really clear starting point. So practically speaking, here is what I want you to do this week, list out every step a customer takes, from interest in the type of service or the type of product that you offer, all the way to action, to spending the money. Write out every single step in your customer's path from that first time that they think I might want this, and they've never, maybe never even heard of you before, or they've certainly not looked into you very much, all the way through to where they have spent money with you. List out those steps. Put a star next to any of them that right now might require a little extra effort or guessing or trying to figure it out on the customer's part. And then I want you to also list out all of the questions for someone brand new might be wondering certain things Think about someone who's never worked with you before, never had this type of service done before, never owned this type of product before, and list out every question you can that they might be asking. What would they want to know about the process? What concerns might they have? Where might they get stuck or confused with using this? And then star the ones that aren't clearly answered on your website, and I don't mean in an FAQ page that's hidden at the bottom of some menu, I mean in the sales copy, on your homepage, in places where people are already reading. A mistake I see a lot of times, especially with these questions, is people saying, give us a call or send an email. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them. And that's good. It's important to give people that way to contact you, but people don't want to call and ask what they think is a dumb question. And I know you might not think it's a dumb question, and you might be happy to answer, but people just don't want to feel dumb, feel like they're asking something they should already know the answer to. So you have to answer those questions right on your website for them. And then for each of those starred things, those places where they might need extra effort, or be guessing, those questions that maybe you haven't answered, for each of those starred things, I want you to ask yourself, How can I make this easier? Or how can I make this answer more clear for people? Address the questions right on your website or in your process, make that next step crystal clear for people at every point in the process. Alright, so let's wrap things up today. What I really want you to walk away from this episode with is understanding that the real reason people don't buy, it's usually not about price or competition. It is usually about obstacles that we don't overcome or friction that we accidentally create. So remove those obstacles and watch what happens to your sales. Over the next few weeks, we are going to keep talking about how to get people to say yes to your services and to your products. So if you are not already subscribed, hit that subscribe button on your favorite podcast app or YouTube so you'll get notified when new episodes go live. I'll talk to you soon.