How do your customers buy? That is what I asked a group of 20 CEOs last week in Dublin, Ireland, and I immediately got their interest. If you haven’t thought about this in the past year, you’re overdue. It doesn’t make much difference to me what you are selling or to whom. How they are buying now is probably different from how they bought in 2005.
Think for a moment about Google and the impact it has on how your customers may or may not buy from you. Type in your company’s name, a space, a plus sign, followed immediately by the word “problem.” Hopefully there are no hits. Or key in *.ppt, then “site:” and add your company’s Web site address, like this: *.ppt site:www.YourCompany.com.” That will allow you to see what PowerPoint presentations may be residing on your site, available for all to see. Use *.xls for Excel spreadsheets and *.doc for Word documents in that search formula. Now you know what it means when you hear that buyers have more access to information than ever before.
Add into the mix reverse auctions, consultants/middlemen, buying-service Web sites, the abundance of options and choices for buyers, and the overall increase in skills that those buyers now possess, and you have a call to action. Does the way that you sell and market align with how your customers are currently buying?
Comments