April 3, 2009 at 17:06How to make the Internet one of the main Sales Channels?
This is my first article on the hub, if I posted it on the wrong blog, I'm sorry, I could not find a more suitable one.
This article was written by me in the summer of 2008, made specifically for managers and marketers, now it is still relevant. By posting it here, I would like to know what you, those who are on the side of the developers of Internet projects, think on this issue. I’m publishing the full article:
For those who believe that in his company the Internet as a “sales channel” is used at 100%, 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 area within companies.Hence, there is no understanding of what is effectiveness, how to evaluate it, what needs to be done. The consequence of this is not productive work with the site, with applications, requests and requests from visitors to the company's website.
Why it happens?
As a rule, successful companies already have an established sales volume through other channels. Each sales manager has established business processes that he considers successful and familiar. They look at sales via the Internet pessimistically, as an additional load that they consider to be ineffective. Their attitude is passed on to the whole 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 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 the site creation company is selected, all work within the company is transferred to the marketer. Through it, the setting of tasks and the monitoring of the performance of work by specialized contracting organizations is done. Other employees of the company are not willing to help them in this work, considering it an additional burden that they do not need, and to demand, they do not have the authority. The leadership in general has other important matters for them not to the site.
When creating sites, a common situation is when marketers do all the work. They set the tasks for the developer, provide materials, control the progress of work, approve the intermediate work and show the finished site to their Manager, but he does not like it, he sees it differently for himself.
The problem of the head: When delegating authority for the setting of works, it is necessary to delegate and responsibility to accept these works. If you are not ready to delegate the authority to your employee to accept work, then do not delegate to him the responsibility to do this work!
After the creation and launch of the site, their responsibilities are the placement of materials on the site, the organization and monitoring of search engine optimization (they monitor the places by keywords), the selection of advertising sites and advertising campaigns. Their responsibility lies in the timely execution of these works, the expenditure of funds within the framework of the approved budget and that the site liked the management (mainly design, sometimes texts). In the best cases, they report for the number of visits to the site. All! They can tell you how much they spent and what was done. Marketers are not responsible for sales, so marketers will forgive me, but sales are of little interest to them. They sell and are responsible for sales in the company sales, which pays minimal attention to the site. They have no time to deal with the site, they need to sell.
Characteristic problems.
1. Information on the site is not tailored for sales, is not relevant and not interesting. The competitive advantages and uniqueness of the company are not obvious. Most tex are outdated and do not change according to changes in the company. Site content is not optimized over time for increased sales. And from the point of view of submitting information - everything is in order, there is information on the site. And attendance can be created by advertising and optimization.
2. Applications are lost. As a rule, notification of applications is configured on the mailbox of the responsible manager. In our practice, there have been cases, when leaving, leaving on vacation and other circumstances, the company forgot about this mailbox. It is possible to use a company’s public mailbox, which has got into all SPAM mailings and has become, we do not control the company because of the huge number of SPAM emails. It often happens that an alert is configured for several managers, here losses are possible, that one relied on the other. Well, the most commonplace is no time, and the priorities for applications from the Internet are the lowest. They respond to applications not when she arrived, but when time appears, usually when it is no longer relevant. The following paragraph follows from this.
3. Forget to call back or call very late. The quality of the call is also very important so that it is not a formality. For calls received to the office from the Internet, no one is specifically responsible.
4. Do not answer questions from the site. There is no one responsible for this work, and marketers are not competent enough to answer professional questions. It happens that notification of questions comes to an uncontrolled mailbox.
These are common problems that are common to most commercial organizations. There are still many individual nuances in each organization that exacerbate the situation. This is the specifics of the business, the structure of the company, personal relationships between employees, etc.
Today, a 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 channels, it is necessary to set the highest priorities for this purpose. Management should convince ALL employees of the company.
Allocate the necessary monetary, temporary and labor resources. Responsible for achieving this goal and direction should be appointed as the head responsible for the commercial result in the company. In a large company, it can be the Commercial Director, the Head of the sales department, if the company is small, then the General Director or the owner of the business. This does not mean that he himself will have to carry out all the work on the site. But the main functions of management and leadership should be performed by just such a leader. His tasks:
1. Defining criteria for assessing the achievement of goals. Approval of planned indicators by periods. Year, quarter month.
2. Organization, distribution and control of work within the company.
3. Approval of the budget for expenses by periods. Year, quarter, month.
4. Selection and approval of contractors for the main work. Website development, development, advertising, optimization, etc. The fewer contractors, the better, ideally one (there is no extreme)
5. Control over 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, like organizing any other new sales channel or opening a branch in another city. One marketer is not able to do this, no matter how good he is.
Once again, I want to say that I didn’t want to offend anyone with my article, especially Marketers and Company Managers.
Lerner Eugene, head of the Internet agency Artus.
This article was written by me in the summer of 2008, made specifically for managers and marketers, now it is still relevant. By posting it here, I would like to know what you, those who are on the side of the developers of Internet projects, think on this issue. I’m publishing the full article:
For those who believe that in his company the Internet as a “sales channel” is used at 100%, 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 area within companies.Hence, there is no understanding of what is effectiveness, how to evaluate it, what needs to be done. The consequence of this is not productive work with the site, with applications, requests and requests from visitors to the company's website.
Why it happens?
As a rule, successful companies already have an established sales volume through other channels. Each sales manager has established business processes that he considers successful and familiar. They look at sales via the Internet pessimistically, as an additional load that they consider to be ineffective. Their attitude is passed on to the whole 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 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 the site creation company is selected, all work within the company is transferred to the marketer. Through it, the setting of tasks and the monitoring of the performance of work by specialized contracting organizations is done. Other employees of the company are not willing to help them in this work, considering it an additional burden that they do not need, and to demand, they do not have the authority. The leadership in general has other important matters for them not to the site.
When creating sites, a common situation is when marketers do all the work. They set the tasks for the developer, provide materials, control the progress of work, approve the intermediate work and show the finished site to their Manager, but he does not like it, he sees it differently for himself.
The problem of the head: When delegating authority for the setting of works, it is necessary to delegate and responsibility to accept these works. If you are not ready to delegate the authority to your employee to accept work, then do not delegate to him the responsibility to do this work!
After the creation and launch of the site, their responsibilities are the placement of materials on the site, the organization and monitoring of search engine optimization (they monitor the places by keywords), the selection of advertising sites and advertising campaigns. Their responsibility lies in the timely execution of these works, the expenditure of funds within the framework of the approved budget and that the site liked the management (mainly design, sometimes texts). In the best cases, they report for the number of visits to the site. All! They can tell you how much they spent and what was done. Marketers are not responsible for sales, so marketers will forgive me, but sales are of little interest to them. They sell and are responsible for sales in the company sales, which pays minimal attention to the site. They have no time to deal with the site, they need to sell.
Characteristic problems.
1. Information on the site is not tailored for sales, is not relevant and not interesting. The competitive advantages and uniqueness of the company are not obvious. Most tex are outdated and do not change according to changes in the company. Site content is not optimized over time for increased sales. And from the point of view of submitting information - everything is in order, there is information on the site. And attendance can be created by advertising and optimization.
2. Applications are lost. As a rule, notification of applications is configured on the mailbox of the responsible manager. In our practice, there have been cases, when leaving, leaving on vacation and other circumstances, the company forgot about this mailbox. It is possible to use a company’s public mailbox, which has got into all SPAM mailings and has become, we do not control the company because of the huge number of SPAM emails. It often happens that an alert is configured for several managers, here losses are possible, that one relied on the other. Well, the most commonplace is no time, and the priorities for applications from the Internet are the lowest. They respond to applications not when she arrived, but when time appears, usually when it is no longer relevant. The following paragraph follows from this.
3. Forget to call back or call very late. The quality of the call is also very important so that it is not a formality. For calls received to the office from the Internet, no one is specifically responsible.
4. Do not answer questions from the site. There is no one responsible for this work, and marketers are not competent enough to answer professional questions. It happens that notification of questions comes to an uncontrolled mailbox.
These are common problems that are common to most commercial organizations. There are still many individual nuances in each organization that exacerbate the situation. This is the specifics of the business, the structure of the company, personal relationships between employees, etc.
Today, a 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 channels, it is necessary to set the highest priorities for this purpose. Management should convince ALL employees of the company.
Allocate the necessary monetary, temporary and labor resources. Responsible for achieving this goal and direction should be appointed as the head responsible for the commercial result in the company. In a large company, it can be the Commercial Director, the Head of the sales department, if the company is small, then the General Director or the owner of the business. This does not mean that he himself will have to carry out all the work on the site. But the main functions of management and leadership should be performed by just such a leader. His tasks:
1. Defining criteria for assessing the achievement of goals. Approval of planned indicators by periods. Year, quarter month.
2. Organization, distribution and control of work within the company.
3. Approval of the budget for expenses by periods. Year, quarter, month.
4. Selection and approval of contractors for the main work. Website development, development, advertising, optimization, etc. The fewer contractors, the better, ideally one (there is no extreme)
5. Control over 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, like organizing any other new sales channel or opening a branch in another city. One marketer is not able to do this, no matter how good he is.
Once again, I want to say that I didn’t want to offend anyone with my article, especially Marketers and Company Managers.
Lerner Eugene, head of the Internet agency Artus.