Sales and marketing

Elements of sales and marketing

Research and competitor analysis
When developing or improving products and services, extensive research is needed to establish feature sets or best practice in competitor and other related offerings. The web offers a huge range of business intelligence, and new customer, supplier, process and product sources can be researched with ease. When undertaking this kind of research, you can take advantage of the speed of broadband for moving between websites and downloading relevant documents. You may also share key web references with your colleagues, who will also benefit from the speed of broadband.

Mailshots and other communications
With digital media such as email and the web, it is cheaper than ever to keep in close contact with existing and potential customers. Techniques for keeping on contact include email shots (which may be personalised), regular email newsletters, and special offers and competitions. Email communications can be distributed in a number of ways. If you choose to create them by individually emailing people and have hundreds or thousands of customers, the bandwidth of broadband will enable you to send all these emails quickly. If you use a third party service to run your email lists, you will need regular access to the service to keep your email list up-to-date, and will benefit from the always-on aspect of broadband.

Marketing material
Increasingly the design and production of marketing material is managed via the internet, with material (including final artwork) exchanged and proofed by email and presentations delivered online. This can save travelling time, and allow for designs to be developed in quicker iterations. This kind of work tends to involve exchange of large files (particularly final artwork) which can be done more quickly if you take advantage of the speed at which material can download over broadband.

Interacting with customers
Existing and potential customers often have queries about products and services - and they often expect a prompt response (unreasonable as this sometimes is). With a proliferation of places on the web for them to go and the ease of online purchasing, you should try to address their queries promptly. It follows that you will need to receive their emails almost soon as they are sent so that easy questions can be responded to directly, and more difficult queries passed on to the right people. The always-on aspect of broadband allows for email to be collected and sent as often as you choose, ensuring you get your email as promptly as you want, and replies are quickly dispatched.

Another form of customer interaction could be via a ‘chat’ interface on your website that would allow a text-based conversation between appropriate staff and potential customers. A related model is the ‘call me back’ button that allows the customer to enter their telephone number and the time they want to be called. Instant messaging systems (see the ‘Collaboration’ white paper) can also be used for sales contact. Instant messaging is sometimes used by companies who have more regular and closer contact with their customers, who can then ask questions directly to individuals in the company. All these models require the always-on aspect of broadband, as a customer query or request for a call could come in at any time, and your system has to be available when it does.

Another common model for helping customers is to ‘co-browse’. This involves one of you directing a course through your site while they ask questions about products, or you suggest similar or related products in which they might be interested. A related model is the online demonstration, in which you might talk them through a service, most commonly an online application. You might also setup an online customer meeting, perhaps using video conferencing, which would allow you to discuss properly a proposal or prospective deal without the cost of having to travel to meet the customer. All these models require the always-on, reliable, and high-bandwidth aspects of broadband.

Also, if a potential customer contacts you, or an existing customer mentions a competing product, broadband enables you to quickly navigate to the customer site or to information about the product in question and get up to speed even before you have finished saying Hello. This is likely to inspire confidence in potential customers.

Sales leads and new customers
Developing a relationship with potential customers and supporting and advising existing customers are two key aspects of business. Tools for managing customer leads and relationships can help address these (see the ‘Customer Management’ white paper). Due to cost constraints these tools have typically been aimed at companies larger than SMEs, but application Service Providers (ASPs) have made it possible for smaller businesses to license access to them. Managing customer relationships well is likely to lead to increased sales. As these tools are in effect online applications you will benefit from the high-bandwidth aspect of broadband.

Customer configuration
Increasingly, customers expect to be able to find detailed product information and pricing on your website, and even create and order bespoke product configurations. If they can do this they are more likely to buy from you. To achieve this it is usual to tie your website to the relevant company databases, or regularly copy the necessary data to the web server. In the first instance you will need the always-on aspect of broadband as your database could be queried at any time, and in the second you would benefit from the high-bandwidth aspect of broadband as you are likely to need to regularly copy a significant amount of data to the server.

Online catalogues
If you have a detailed online catalogue of products, including images, you will need the high-bandwidth of broadband to be able to post images to your server, and being always-on it will be easier to edit and add new information to the catalogue when you choose.

Tools and services

Mailshots and other communications

Lyris
Considerable control possible over the software configuration. Supports email discussion groups.
Platform: Windows, Linux, and Solaris. Hosted service also available.
www.lyris.com

Yahoo! Groups
Basic but popular, consumer-oriented service. Emails will not appear to come from your domain.
Platform: web-based
groups.yahoo.com

Microsoft bCentral
Allows customised and personalised messages to be sent.
Platform: web-based
www.bcentral.com/products/lb

Mail Chimp
Supports creation and sending of HTML-formatted emails. Pay-per-use model.
Platform: web-based
www.mailchimp.com

eMerge
Allows customised and personalised messages to be created. Supports opt-in email lists.
Platform: MacOS
www.galleon.com/emerge

Online interaction
Some of the tools discussed in the ‘Online Collaboration’ white paper will also be useful for technical support, particularly those for instant messaging.

Instant messaging

AOL Instant Messenger
www.aol.com

Microsoft MSN Messenger
messenger.msn.com

Live interaction

LivePerson
www.liveperson.com/sb

eGain
www.egain.com

Shopping carts

Actinic Order Manager
Supports picking lists, invoicing, part orders, and credit card clearing.
Platform: Perl-based, uses Microsoft Access
Ease of use: high for setting up
Cost: around £300
www.actinic.co.uk/products/orderman.htm

WebObjects
A high-powered tool for shopping carts and a wide variety of interactive, database-driven products.
Platform: MacOS
Ease of use: medium
Cost: $99 to $50,000
www.apple.com/webobjects

What you need
You will need a broadband connection to allow your company to be contactable at any time, to allow remotely-hosted applications to be serviced, and to allow applications hosted on your network to connect to your website.

Next steps

Who to contact
For specific advice on which applications discussed might fit your business needs, or on finding and evaluating suppliers and products, you can contact your local, government-funded, Business Link service (www.businesslink.org). You might also review the UK Online for Business website (www.ukonlineforbusiness.gov.uk).

The Office of Government Commerce

Provides guidance and expertise to support procurement-based projects.
www.ogc.gov.uk

Learn on
One to One B2B: Customer Development Strategies for the Business to Business World

Don Peppers, Martha Rogers (Currency, 2002)

Looks at the reality of implementing so-called customer-relationship management in organisations including American Airlines, 1-800-FLOWERS, and General Electric.
http://www.1to1.com/Building/CustomerRelationships/content/books.jsp

Business 2.0 magazine
A US-based publication broadly covering business, technology and innovation with a strong journalistic approach. The website offers daily editorial features and columns.
www.business2.com

CIO magazine
A US-based publication covering topics including e-business, knowledge management, ERP, supply chain management, and staffing. In print but also available online with a full archive of articles.
www.cio.com

The Chartered Instituteof Marketing
Addresses online marketing. Its ‘Marketing on the Internet’ briefing (www.cim.co.uk/mediastore/Briefing_May_2003/it18mark.pdf) is free to download.
www.cim.co.uk

Watch out for...

Getting in contact
Ensure that if (potential) customers want to contact you, your contact details are easy to find on your site, and unambiguously presented.

On the campaign trail
You need to think about when you send out newsletters and other communications to your marketing or customer lists. There are technical issues to consider such as not overloading your server (if you run your own lists), as well as logistical issues such as ensuring that if customers are likely to respond by phone adequate staffing is available. You also need to consider when people are likely to be most receptive to your communication. It is argued that on Mondays and first thing in the morning people may be clearing their mailboxes of spam, and that if your message is there then it may be similarly culled.

Spam alert
Now that email is ubiquitous, and spam even more so, you should very carefully consider the messages you send your customers. Clarity of communication extends beyond the message to the subject line and sender, and also the frequency of communication.

Consumer confidence
People are rightly not as confident about buying online as they are on the high street. You need to reassure them that your business is legitimate, transactions will be secure, and that they can expect the kind of service they receive in the ‘real world’. This might be communicated by the design of your website, prominent contact details (including a street address), or ensuring that transactions are made using secure connections and your site has a certificate from a recognised organisation. Certificate authorising services include BT’s Trustwise (www.trustwise.com) and Verisign’s SSL Certificates (www.verisign.com/products).

Too much business
If you find that your online sales grow substantially (or suddenly), due to direct or indirect marketing, you may have fulfilment problems, and you will need to plan for this eventuality.