How to make the Internet one of the main sales channels?
This is my first article on Habré, if I posted it on the wrong blog, sorry, I didn’t find a better one.
This article was written by me in the summer of 2008, made specifically for executives and marketers, now it is still relevant. Placing it here, I want to know what you think on this issue, those who are on the side of the developers of Internet projects. I publish the full article:
Those who believe that in his company the Internet as a “sales channel” is 100% used, it is not necessary to read this article.
')
Today, the main problem of commercial organizations in using the Internet for business is the low priority of the importance of this direction within companies. Hence, there is no understanding of what efficiency is, how to evaluate it, what to do. The result of this is not productive work with the site, with requests, requests and appeals of visitors from the company's website.
Why it happens?
As a rule, successful companies already have a well-established sales volume through other channels. Every sales manager has established business processes that he considers successful and familiar. They look at sales through the Internet as pessimistic as an additional burden, which they consider to be ineffective. Their attitude is transferred to the entire company, including management. Hence, the attitude to the Internet, nor the creation of an “additional sales channel,” but as an auxiliary information platform.
Work with the Internet in Russian companies is most often delegated to the Marketing or PR departments. Responsible make marketers. And this is not the worst option that occurs.
Can a marketer create a new online sales channel?
After a site development firm has been selected, all work within the company is transferred to the marketer. Through it, setting tasks and monitoring the performance of work to specialized contractors is done. Other employees of the company do not willingly help them in this work, considering it as an additional burden that they do not need, but to demand, they have no authority. The management has other important things to do with it.
When creating websites, a common situation is when marketers do all the work. Setting tasks to the developer, provide materials, control the progress of work, approve intermediate works and show the finished site to their Manager, but he does not like it, he sees it differently for himself.
Problem leader: Delegating authority for the formulation of work, you need to delegate and take responsibility for these works. If you are not ready to delegate authority to your employee to take work, then do not delegate to him and the responsibility to do this work!
After creating and launching the site, their duties, placing materials on the site, setting and monitoring work on search engine optimization (follow the places by keywords), selection of advertising sites and advertising campaigns. Their responsibility lies in the timeliness of these works, the expenditure of funds within the approved budget and that the site is liked by the management (mainly design, sometimes texts). At best, they report for the number of visits to the site. Everything! They can tell you how much they spent and what was done. Marketers are not responsible for sales, so marketers will forgive me, but their sales are of little interest. Sell and is responsible for sales in the company sales, which the site pays minimum attention. They have no time to engage in the site, they need to sell.
Typical problems.
1. The information on the site is not ground for sale, not relevant and not interesting. Competitive advantages and uniqueness of the company are not obvious. Most of the texts are outdated and do not change according to changes in the company. Site content is not optimized in time for the increase in sales. And in terms of the presentation of information - everything is in order, the information on the site is there. Yes, and attendance can be created by advertising and optimization.
2. Lost applications. As a rule, notification of applications is configured in the mailbox of the responsible manager. In our practice, there were cases of dismissal, going on vacation and other circumstances, the company forgot about this mailbox. It is possible to use the public mailbox of the company, which fell into all SPAM mailings and became, we do not control the company because of the huge number of SPAM letters. It often happens that the alert is set up by several managers, then losses are possible, one hoping for another. Well, the most banal is no time, and priorities from applications from the Internet are the lowest. They react to applications not when it arrives, but when the time comes, as a rule, when it is no longer relevant. From this follows the next item.
3. Forget to call back or call very late. It is also very important to the quality of the call so that it is not a formality. For calls to the office from the Internet, no one is specifically responsible.
4. Do not answer questions from the site. There is no person responsible for this work, and marketers are not competent enough to answer professional questions. It happens that the notification of questions comes to the unmonitored mailbox.
These are common problems that are common to most commercial organizations. There are still a lot of individual nuances in each organization that aggravate the situation. These are the specifics of the business, the structure of the company, personal relations between employees, etc.
Today, the characteristic picture is when the company and the site work separately from each other. The site itself. The company itself. Sometimes intersect.
Make the Internet an additional sales channel!
In order to make the Internet one of the main sales channel, it is necessary to set top priorities for this goal. The management should convince ALL of the company's employees.
Allocate the necessary cash, time and labor resources. Responsible for the achievement of this goal and the direction should be appointed the head responsible for the business result in the company. In a large company, it can be a Commercial Director, Head of Sales, if a company is small, then the CEO or business owner. This does not mean that he himself will have to do all the work on the site. But the main functions of management and management must perform just such a leader. His tasks:
1. Definition of criteria for assessing the achievement of the goal. The approval of planned indicators for the periods. Year, quarter month.
2. Organization, distribution and control of work within the company.
3. Approval of the budget expenditures by period. Year, quarter, month.
4. Selection and approval of contractors for basic work. Website creation, development, advertising, optimization, etc. The fewer contractors, the better, ideally one (the last one cannot be found)
5. Monitoring of the results for the reporting period, comparison with planned indicators.
6. Making adjustments to future plans and work.
And so in a circle.
It is difficult, difficult, long and not cheap. Probably, as well as organizing any other new sales channel or opening a branch in another city. One marketer is not able to do, no matter how good he is.
Once again, I want to say that I did not want to offend anyone with my article, especially Marketing Specialists and Company Managers.
Lerner Yevgeny, Artus Internet agency head.
This article was written by me in the summer of 2008, made specifically for executives and marketers, now it is still relevant. Placing it here, I want to know what you think on this issue, those who are on the side of the developers of Internet projects. I publish the full article:
Those who believe that in his company the Internet as a “sales channel” is 100% used, it is not necessary to read this article.
')
Today, the main problem of commercial organizations in using the Internet for business is the low priority of the importance of this direction within companies. Hence, there is no understanding of what efficiency is, how to evaluate it, what to do. The result of this is not productive work with the site, with requests, requests and appeals of visitors from the company's website.
Why it happens?
As a rule, successful companies already have a well-established sales volume through other channels. Every sales manager has established business processes that he considers successful and familiar. They look at sales through the Internet as pessimistic as an additional burden, which they consider to be ineffective. Their attitude is transferred to the entire company, including management. Hence, the attitude to the Internet, nor the creation of an “additional sales channel,” but as an auxiliary information platform.
Work with the Internet in Russian companies is most often delegated to the Marketing or PR departments. Responsible make marketers. And this is not the worst option that occurs.
Can a marketer create a new online sales channel?
After a site development firm has been selected, all work within the company is transferred to the marketer. Through it, setting tasks and monitoring the performance of work to specialized contractors is done. Other employees of the company do not willingly help them in this work, considering it as an additional burden that they do not need, but to demand, they have no authority. The management has other important things to do with it.
When creating websites, a common situation is when marketers do all the work. Setting tasks to the developer, provide materials, control the progress of work, approve intermediate works and show the finished site to their Manager, but he does not like it, he sees it differently for himself.
Problem leader: Delegating authority for the formulation of work, you need to delegate and take responsibility for these works. If you are not ready to delegate authority to your employee to take work, then do not delegate to him and the responsibility to do this work!
After creating and launching the site, their duties, placing materials on the site, setting and monitoring work on search engine optimization (follow the places by keywords), selection of advertising sites and advertising campaigns. Their responsibility lies in the timeliness of these works, the expenditure of funds within the approved budget and that the site is liked by the management (mainly design, sometimes texts). At best, they report for the number of visits to the site. Everything! They can tell you how much they spent and what was done. Marketers are not responsible for sales, so marketers will forgive me, but their sales are of little interest. Sell and is responsible for sales in the company sales, which the site pays minimum attention. They have no time to engage in the site, they need to sell.
Typical problems.
1. The information on the site is not ground for sale, not relevant and not interesting. Competitive advantages and uniqueness of the company are not obvious. Most of the texts are outdated and do not change according to changes in the company. Site content is not optimized in time for the increase in sales. And in terms of the presentation of information - everything is in order, the information on the site is there. Yes, and attendance can be created by advertising and optimization.
2. Lost applications. As a rule, notification of applications is configured in the mailbox of the responsible manager. In our practice, there were cases of dismissal, going on vacation and other circumstances, the company forgot about this mailbox. It is possible to use the public mailbox of the company, which fell into all SPAM mailings and became, we do not control the company because of the huge number of SPAM letters. It often happens that the alert is set up by several managers, then losses are possible, one hoping for another. Well, the most banal is no time, and priorities from applications from the Internet are the lowest. They react to applications not when it arrives, but when the time comes, as a rule, when it is no longer relevant. From this follows the next item.
3. Forget to call back or call very late. It is also very important to the quality of the call so that it is not a formality. For calls to the office from the Internet, no one is specifically responsible.
4. Do not answer questions from the site. There is no person responsible for this work, and marketers are not competent enough to answer professional questions. It happens that the notification of questions comes to the unmonitored mailbox.
These are common problems that are common to most commercial organizations. There are still a lot of individual nuances in each organization that aggravate the situation. These are the specifics of the business, the structure of the company, personal relations between employees, etc.
Today, the characteristic picture is when the company and the site work separately from each other. The site itself. The company itself. Sometimes intersect.
Make the Internet an additional sales channel!
In order to make the Internet one of the main sales channel, it is necessary to set top priorities for this goal. The management should convince ALL of the company's employees.
Allocate the necessary cash, time and labor resources. Responsible for the achievement of this goal and the direction should be appointed the head responsible for the business result in the company. In a large company, it can be a Commercial Director, Head of Sales, if a company is small, then the CEO or business owner. This does not mean that he himself will have to do all the work on the site. But the main functions of management and management must perform just such a leader. His tasks:
1. Definition of criteria for assessing the achievement of the goal. The approval of planned indicators for the periods. Year, quarter month.
2. Organization, distribution and control of work within the company.
3. Approval of the budget expenditures by period. Year, quarter, month.
4. Selection and approval of contractors for basic work. Website creation, development, advertising, optimization, etc. The fewer contractors, the better, ideally one (the last one cannot be found)
5. Monitoring of the results for the reporting period, comparison with planned indicators.
6. Making adjustments to future plans and work.
And so in a circle.
It is difficult, difficult, long and not cheap. Probably, as well as organizing any other new sales channel or opening a branch in another city. One marketer is not able to do, no matter how good he is.
Once again, I want to say that I did not want to offend anyone with my article, especially Marketing Specialists and Company Managers.
Lerner Yevgeny, Artus Internet agency head.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/56385/
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