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Volume 1, E-Edition #2, April'09.
The economy sucks and revenues are down, but sales have not stopped! Even with 10% unemployment, 90% are still buying, (the 10% are too, just less frequently and more selectively.) Important expenditures are being purchased…but we must ask…are our companies products, ideas or services important enough?! In most cases…the answer is YES! Customers are simply not finding you the same way they have in the past...thumbing through the Yellow Pages or Newspapers! They are finding you on the web, doing research on you, finding out what you sell, what is your warranty, what makes your unique AND as hard as this is to swallow...they are researching your competitors.
Continued from previous, Market Snapshot 09 They like your website to be professional and on par with what they are used to seeing…they want your logo or page design to be professional as the quality products or services you promise to sell. They want to look for your information in the same general area as other sites…they don’t want to work to hard at it. Above all, they don’t like inconsistencies in products, promises or deliveries and they judge you based on the feelings that they get from your site, the way you answer their questions and how you deliver on what you promised! With fewer dollars to spend…consumers can afford to be picky. They can afford to compare pricing vs. deliverables…they want someone trustworthy coming to their home and fixing their plumbing, serving their food, fixing their PC or selling them a cutting edge product that improves their lives. They don’t like nameless, faceless corporate giants, who don’t give good phone, don’t honor warranties, terms or modified payments. (No offense to India or the Philippines), They, we and I want to celebrate entrepreneurial drive and ambition, a commitment to our clients that exceeds, at times, that given to our own families. They, we and I appreciate honesty…more than ever. We don’t want abnormal returns on our investments! We want good service and acknowledgment that we are spending increasingly valuable and hard fought dollars on their product, ideas or services. We want to know that we are buying from someone, like us...vendors, entrepreneurs, business people who give a damn about our clients experience and satisfaction. |
