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Going To MarketThe Web-Driven Business

“When I took office, only high energy physicists had ever heard of what is called the Worldwide Web.... Now even my cat has its own page.”

Bill Clinton

Going to Market

After this session, you will:

1. Understand focus on internet as key direct channel to market with best synergy.

2. Assess when and if direct sales force should be established.

3. Optimize marketing communications and identify best vehicles.

Session Objectives

Discussion Topics

During this session, we will discuss:

1. Is your business web-centric or web-agnostic?

2. What are your routes to market?

3. Which marketing vehicles have worked well for you? Failed?

4. What changes will you consider as a result of this presentation?

Your Business

Internet

The Web-Centric Business

InternetYour

Business

The Web-Agnostic Business

Best-Practice Web-Driven Business

Demand Generation

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Channel Marketin

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Self-GuidedWeb Sales

Direct Sales

ChannelSales

Public Relation

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AdvertisingEvents

Promotions

Web Search

10%50% 40%

Why a Web Driven Model?

• Reduce marketing and selling costs• Take advantage of web reach & scale• Leverage growth of broadband and wireless access

in small business• Tap into growing SMB market• Your business is a web business!

The Web-Agnostic Business

• Web-agnostic businesses have a limited perspective on the value that the Internet offers to their business.

• Further, there are many, many, businesses today that are (in theory) selling products and services online that are web-agnostic!

• How is this possible? Simply stated, they do not do the right things to allow prospective customers to search, find, self-qualify, and make the buying decision.

• Web-agnostic businesses do not attract web-centric buyers, even when they have the ability to purchase online, because they fail to recognize the behavior of the web-centric buyer.

InternetYour

Business

The Web Centric Business

Web-centric businesses (no matter what kind of business they are), recognize that the Internet can be a place to:

Your Business

Internet

• Generate Demand• Qualify Buyers• Transact sales• Provide Support• Understand their customer

Web-centric businesses embrace the Internet as a core part of their core business strategies.

So What?

Web-agnostic businesses do not attract web-centric customers.

Segmenting Buying BehaviorBusiness Decision Maker

Technology Decision Maker

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eb-Agnostic Buyer

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Web-Agnostic Buyer

Technology &Feature-CentricPositioning Works

Customer-Centric (e.g. Business Value-Centric)Positioning Works

Business Decision Maker

Technology Decision Maker

Demand GenerationW

eb-C

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uyer

Web-Agnostic Buyer

THEY FIND YOU

YOU FIND THEMTHEY FIND YOU

Technology Decision Maker

Business Decision Maker

Impression Selling Concept• Traditional, direct sales are made through a structured

conversation involving marketing demand generation, a customer, and a sales team.

• Each ‘step’ or communication vehicle in that conversation is a customer or sales impression.

• The range of ‘impressions’ involved in a traditional sales process include:

• Marketing collateral and product specifications• Sales proposal or quotes• Contracts and agreements• Friendly lunches and inter-personal relationships• Managing all of the ‘impressions’ that go into the best sales

route, and repeating what works, is a vehicle for optimizing sales results.

Impression Selling in a Web-Centric World

• A web-centric business model and online ‘search, find, try, buy’ can significantly disrupt a traditional sales model, and might make many classic impressions obsolete:– High-gloss marketing collateral becomes web pages (that people

only have the patience to read 12 words of)

– The sales meeting is replaced with Live Chat

– Referrals or reviews from your customers (good or bad) become more critical impressions than any collateral you can design

– Contracts become online Ts and Cs with simple check boxes

Impression Selling in a Web-Centric World (continued)

• In fact, the web-centric business and SaaS is merely a shifted form of impressions:– Customer paths and journeys – Each step a customer takes on a web

page is an impression, from a tour to a trial to a conversion page. This path can be optimized just as the ‘best sales route’ can be optimized for traditional sales.

– Online journeys lend themselves to even better data collection. Salespeople might ‘forget the truth’ of how they’ve communicated with customers, but using web analytics you can always know who clicked where, downloaded what, stayed for how long and signed up.

– Each step, click, web page or form in the customer journey should be considered as a distinct impression, and the best impressions have but one key theme they are trying to impart.

Impression Selling in a Web-Centric World (continued)

• Unlike with offline materials, in a web-centric world (thanks to MSN, Google, and Yahoo) customers expect the key theme of a given impression to answer their EXACT question.

• Therefore think of online impressions as a fishing expedition:– Bait Fishing, Not Net Fishing – Every impression is a baited hook to

catch one particular fish. You are not casting a wide net (as one would with traditional offline collateral). Relevance means bites.

– Fish At Every Depth – There are tasty fish at the surface, in the reefs, and way down deep. This is the power of niche marketing and long tail targeted impressions.

– How You Get them In the Boat – Online supports multiple calls-to-action, each as a distinct impression in the process. Do you want the customer to sign up for a trial? Submit lead information?

Search, Self Qualify, & Buy-- Impression Selling

1. Search

2. Find

3. Self Qualify

4. Make the buying decision

5. Buy

6. ***Activate

7. ***Support

8. ***Interact with others

9. ***Refer and promote

Web Selling Success – Optimize Usability

• Design customer-centric site• Limit jargon

– Speak End User

• Build efficient navigational structure– “3 clicks or die“

– Logical links

• Focus above the fold, upper left of screen

• Maximize speed– Optimize or limit large

graphics, animation

• Test user interface on different browsers, resolutions

• Consistent look and feel throughout

Web Selling Success – Create ‘Sticky’ Site

• Foster Interactivity– Online tours, working demos– Dynamic tools like cost calculators – Live awareness tool (e.g. LivePerson)– Shopping cart self-quoting capability– Dynamic Knowledgebase or FAQ– Interactive schematics depicting and comparing key features

Web Selling Success – Convert Clicks to Customers

• All info needed to make buying decision– Clearly stated features and prices– Free trial or try before you buy – References, certifications, awards– Case studies (Microsoft, create your own)– Transparency (terms of use, SLA, privacy)

• Flexible terms and payment plans • Clear and easy sign-up module• Sales responsiveness

– Phone number / Live chat / Call back

Web Selling Success – Can You Say “Yes” to These Questions?

• Are changes made by my web design team actually in response to measured web behavior?

• Has the analytics process ever suggested directions, products, services or systems that significantly changed my business approach?

• Do findings about user behavior ever influence other media strategies or messaging?

• Does anyone really read or do anything with the reports they receive?

Web Selling Success – Track & Measure Performance

• Monitor site traffic and adjust accordingly– Analytics tools like WebTrends & Omniture

• Where do they come from?• What pages do they visit?• How long do they stay on pages?• Where do they exit?

• Classify important pages– Router/Billboard, Landing, Closers, Re-assurers

• Analyze sales conversions– Landing pages, track sources