The checkout stand

How often do you pick-up an item from the display at the check out stand at the store and buy it?  We're standing there waiting in line to buy $6 worth of batteries for the remote control and we add $6 more in impulse items displayed at the checkout.  Good for the retailer he just doubled his sale and good for us because we just purchased something we could not live without.

The automated online e-commerce system serves this purpose on the Internet.  We are surfing around the web reading news and entertaining ourselves and suddenly the ad appears.  I'm reading an article on skiing and an ad for heated goggles with and integrated late' machine pops up.  Next thing I know I've got my credit card out.  I wasn't even shopping I wasn't standing in the checkout line and they got me.

I think B to B online is different.  The prospects are more intentional in their web surfing.  They are looking for a solution to a specific problem and they are looking to uncover a solution they don't already know about in many cases.  This means when presenting our product we must be informative in our presentation with a clear focus on who we are, what we sell and some basics on how it works.  This is particularly true if our company is not well known, our product is somewhat esoteric or the price point is moderately high.

The tricky part is in providing the "right" amount of information to motivate action.  Too little information and we will not be credible, too much information and the prospect may reach a conclusion and not call us. The secret is getting the balance right so we motivate the right person to call our highly skilled and well informed salesperson.  The salesperson's job is to bring it home by revealing the fantastic benefits of our product and how perfectly they match the prospects requirements.

In this scenario our goal is to get the right person to call so we don't waste valuable sales time on prospects who lack the resources or serious intention to purchase our product.  More to come on that soon.

Thanks for reading

Bill