The internet has flung the doors of most businesses wide open, regardless whether you’re offering products or services, the traditional roles of sales people and management teams have changed. With the death of the traditional BDM (Business Development Manager), a new era of sales and business promotion has dawned.
Most people now have 24/7 access to the internet and are able to examine your products or services as well as those of your competitors at their leisure This has caused the emphasis of sales management to naturally change.
Instead of the traditional approach with sales teams trying to entice and convince customers to buy their merchandise the new sales systems are dealing with well-informed people who have pretty well made up their minds about what they want to purchase and which service or store is best for them.
The old style of door knocking and handing out leaflets as well as high pressure sales personal trying to persuade customers to buy items has in most modern successful businesses given way to internet marketing.
The new style of internet marketing has caused the death of the traditional BDM the newer techniques involve proactive websites where customers can look at all the available options and ask questions without feeling intimidated or pressured. Having all the product details as well as prices right on hand and knowing that what they are seeing is the latest and most up to date version of the products they are interested. All this information gives the customers a real freedom of choice.
The advantages of having a business with a good internet presence are not only on the side of the customer, the retailer or business owner also has a huge advantage over their predecessors as they can offer a much larger range of products and variations of those products without having to have the stock on hand. This will allow business premises to be smaller and more compact, saving in rents and other overheads as any required stock can be distributed directly from the warehouses.
The need for staff can be reduced considerably and the main sales promotion can be, once set up, almost self-help over the web.
A Business development manager and the associated sales team that goes with it along with their wages and commissions can run into many thousands of dollars each month with a very limited or unpredictable result.
With internet marketing using the latest techniques and a program developed by a local web developer, a marketing campaign that is targeted directly at the people who are already looking for your type of product or service can be instigated.
The bottom line for all business, the return on total investment, is the most important consideration and one that concerns most business owners. It is far more realistic to spend your promotion budget on a program where you can see a definite result from each dollar spent.
Having a proactive SEO website, that is also optimised for the local area that your business serves will give you the best chance of becoming the most successful business in your field. If you were to also run a campaign based on the word choices that research has shown is best suited for your potential customers, using the keywords they are likely to use when looking for the types of products you are selling, you have an affordable recipe for success.