Enhance website with new media
Question: I need to get more traffic to my online company’s website. Can new technology help me accomplish this?
Answer: Internet bandwidth, advances in technology and content-driven websites are growing exponentially and, like yours, many small Web-based firms face increasing competition for Internet users.
Online experiences today tend to be multimedia adventures utilizing graphics, games, video and audio. Thankfully, there are easy, cost-effective ways for you to take advantage of the faster bandwidth that many of your potential clients now have at their disposal. The growth of sites such as MySpace.com and YouTube make it simple to produce content for a small-business website.
“A smaller company or shop can easily speak directly to their customers via blogs, podcasts or vidcasts,” said Mark Valva, president and founder of Web development firm DataPositive.com. A podcast is a downloadable audio program and a vidcast is a downloadable video file.
A small-business owner might use new media to record his or her expertise on industry-specific topics that connect with the firm’s target audience.
Len Peralta, president of Cleveland-based Nobby Nees, a small advertising firm, uses blogs, vidcasts and podcasts on his website. His online shows, “Jawbone Radio” and “Len TV,” have brought in many hours of new business.
“The two worlds sometimes collide,” Peralta said, “but it’s a good thing and great for my business. Clients become fans and fans become clients.”
Valva said his community-based business clients, such as local motorcycle and bike shops, were most likely to benefit from adding new technology to their websites.
“They are making what are essentially their own online reality TV shows,” he said, and using in-store promotional events to keep their clientele up to date with their online video content.
Effective salespeople
listen to customers
Q: I’m hoping to hire some salespeople later this year. How can I measure their effectiveness?
A: The best salespeople spend more time listening than talking. Although a salesperson’s product expertise is important, a website can deliver that expertise in greater detail than he or she can -- and with pictures.
The added value that a salesperson brings is the human ability to listen to customers’ needs and tailor products or services to best meet those needs, said Ron Hubsher, a sales consultant and managing director of Sales Optimization Group in New York.
“Ask your salesperson if you can work on a call together,” Hubsher advised. “Then sit back and listen to whether your employee probes the client, asks questions and gets company- and buyer-specific information. The thing you don’t want is for your employee to ‘product dump,’ where he just spouts off a sales pitch.”
Measure effectiveness by noting how much time your salesperson spends talking versus listening and asking questions. Hubsher said an ideal sales call was 95% listening and questioning and 5% talking.
“Buyers have a preconceived notion that a salesperson is lying anyway, so they’re wasting time doing a lot of talking,” he said. “If they let the buyer do most of the talking, that buyer will tell them everything they need to know about this sales opportunity. And there’s the added bonus that most people don’t feel listened to by their bosses, spouses or kids. If a salesperson really listens to their concerns, they’re bound to love him.”
An effective salesperson should ask what products buyers have used before, what improvements they’re looking for and what they do and don’t like about their current products or suppliers. The answers will tell the salesperson exactly how to position your product or service to fit the buyers’ needs and help ensure the sale.
Got a question about running or starting a small enterprise? E-mail it to karen.e.klein@ latimes.com or mail it to In Box, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012
