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Top Reasons To Get On The Internet
by Gerry Robert
First, some controversy.
"By year 2000, every person in the developed world will have access to internet."
- Sam Fuller, Digital vice president.
Warning: "The Internet is going to suffer catastrophic collapses in 1996, at least temporarily."
- Dr. Robert Metcalfe, Inventor of Ethernet, April, 1996.
"The Internet is an unbelievable gold rush where there really is gold."
- Bill Gates, Comdex'95, keynote address.
I was recently asked to conduct a series of seminars across North America to help companies
figure out if the Internet could help them boost sales.
In doing the research for this assignment, we found that there was a lot of surprising opinions
about the World Wide Web (WWW). Everyone argued about its size. Everyone argued about the costs.
Heck, they argued about everything you can imagine.
For example, "We're going to see another 20 million people hop onto the Internet. Then I think
you'll see 18 million hop off after a few weeks." - Daniel Dern.
Internet Potential
"The WWW is clearly the most powerful marketing too since the telephone and it's going nowhere
but up, up, up!" - Karen Blue, Direct!Direct! Corporation.
My concern was two fold. One, can it help salespeople boost sales. Second, how do you evaluate
when to get a Web site to help increase sales.
There are so many studies about how many people are on the Internet that one is not sure what
to believe about the actual number of users.
I read this quotation in the Harvard Business Review: "At this point, the amazing thing about
the size of the Internet is that no one really has a very good idea how large it is!"
- Hoffman/Novak.
A Toronto Star reporter summed up the numbers controversy with about as much class as I have
ever seen, "Yeah, we're in a hurricane, and they are arguing about whether the wind is blowing
150 miles an hour or 120 miles an hour.
The argument is intellectually interesting, and it totally misses the point.
At this point, from a salesperson's point of view it does not matter much if there are
30 million or 60 million users. Whatever the exact number is, it's too big to ignore!
The question is, "Can the Internet help my sales?"
Top Reasons To Consider Getting A Web Site
- To Establish a presence
Until now, it was difficult for an individual salesperson or small company to afford to
compete with the "big boy".
A Web site allows you to have a significant presence to, potentially, millions.
- To network
Many of you go to breakfast, luncheons and dinner meetings to "network".
You hand out calling cards and you "network". Well, the Internet is an opportunity for you to
do exactly the same thing with prospects and contacts around the world.
- To make business information available.
I know of one financial planner who gives his whole philosophy on investment on his Web site.
His Web site allows him to share his views about relevant topics to his prospects. You can
share your customer service policies, your statistics, etc.
- To serve your customers
You can make forms available to pre-qualify for loans, or have your staff do a search for that
class jazz record your customer is looking for, without tying up your staff on the phone to
take down the information? Allow your customer to punch in sizes and check it against a
database that tells him what color jacket is available in your store.
- A Web site allows to heighten public interest
You won't get time magazine to write up on your local store opening, but you might get them to
write up your Web page address if it is something new and interesting. Even if Newsweek would
write about your local store opening, you wouldn't benefit from someone in a distant city
reading about it, unless of course, they were coming to your town sometime soon.
With Web page information, anybody anywhere, who can access the Web and hears about you is a
potential visitor to your Web site and a potential customer for your information there.
- To sell things
You would probably be surprised of the things that are currently being sold on the WWW. In my
seminar, Sale Booster - Internet Marketing, I show several examples of people making money
selling on the Net.
There is Virtual Vineyards (www.virtualvin.com). They are currently selling about US$10,000
per month.
There is a taxi cab on the Internet (www.ultimatetaxi.com). He's received international
coverage and sold tonnes of stuff on the Internet.
Financial planners and real estates agents report increase in sales. It's not the only benefit
of getting an on-line presence but it's surely on of them.
- To differentiate yourself
I have mentioned this before but differentiation is ver important in selling.
Getting your personal Web site allows you to be different.
If you are going up against a strong competitor, and you say to the prospect, "Mr. Tang,
before you decide on a supplier, you should know something about the person. I'm on the
Internet and if you would like to look at my site, you will see a complete bio on myself,
testimonials from happy clients, a complete description of my products and you will see that
I am different."
- To make pictures, sound and film files available
Let's say your company makes a very fast widget. With a Web site, you can show it moving at
lightning speed.
What if you are selling a book or a music compact disc? Well, you could add a file to your
Web site and let people hear you reading book or letting them hear the music.
The WWW allows you to add sound, pictures and short movie files to your company's information
if that will serve your potential customers. No brochure will do that.
- To search a highly desirable demographic market
The demographic of the WWW user is probably the highest mass-market demographic available.
Wired magazine, the magazine of choice to the Internet community, has no problem getting Lexus
and other high-end marketer's advertising.
Even with the addition of the commercial on-line community, the demographic will remain high
for many years to come.
- To answer frequently asked questions
Whoever answers the phones in your organisation can tell you that their time is usually spent
answering the same question over and over again. These are the questions customers and
potential customers want to know the answer to before they deal with you.
Post them on a WWW page and you will have removed another barrier to doing business with you
and freed up some time for that harried phone operator.
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