As website operators, our website conversion techniques often focus primarily on the nuts and bolts of web design—should I make the button bigger, does the site function as it should, is the shopping cart intuitive?

We forget that conversions aren’t just actions performed in cyberspace: they’re people.

Every conversion represents a person who made a cognitive decision to accept your proposition because they wanted what you had to offer.

In that sense, conversion happens before your CTA receives the click. It happens in the mind of the consumer when he makes the decision to surrender his money or information.

What does that mean for your website conversion techniques? Well, it means that no matter how you approach the conversion process, your goal is to persuade.

Computers have a tendency to remove the human element from the sales process, making it harder to connect with your customers.

But by implementing some targeted techniques, you can restore the emotional connection and convince your visitors to click.

Bypassing Your Prospects’ Hard-Wired Conversion Obstacles, Pt. 1

In his 2003 book Resistance and Persuasion, Dr. Eric Knowles explores the psychological reasons people to say “no.” Understanding why your website’s visitors tell you “no thanks” can go a long way in helping you change more of their responses to “yes please.”

Dr. Knowles talked about 3 main root causes for the natural resistance to the sales process: skepticism/distrust, inertia and reactance. Today, we’ll analyze skepticism in more detail to see how you can neutralize it and increase your site’s conversion rate and profitability.