It is said that everything you could want to know is
somewhere on the internet, and quite possibly it is, but that doesn’t mean you
can find it.
A friend of mine came to me today asking about a product
that my company sells. He wanted to know things like how to use it, where and
when to use it, and how my product compared to other products similar to it
that are on the market.
Now this may sound like he is asking normal questions that
any customer would ask, and in fact he was. The one thing that you don’t know
about him is he is an internet junkie. I have never seen him buy anything
without first looking it up on the internet and researching it beyond what any
sane person would call absurd.
To give you an idea of how he looks things up, he spent
hours looking up the best brand of gas to put in his lawn mower. True story,
and to make it even better he found the best gas was a brand that isn’t even
sold in Georgia. Enough said?
Anyway, for him to ask me about my products was a little out
of character so I decided to go on the offence and find out what was going on.
He started out by telling me about the research he did, and gave me a quick
overview of what he found out. He then pulled out his folder and showed me what
he had printed off about the products and what he thought was important.
To be honest, it was an impressive amount of information
that he had gathered.
I asked him why then did he need more information from me if
he already had all of this information. This is where the conversation got very
interesting. He told me that he could find all sorts of information about each
product, but what he couldn’t find anywhere was the differences between the
products. He wanted to know why he should buy one over the other.
This made me think, how many of our customers run into the
same problem? How many of your customers get tons of facts about products but
have no idea of which product to buy based on the information they just looked
up?
I started thinking about my customers and how many times one
of them told me they looked my product up online or in my catalog. I thought
about how many sales I lost because a customer looked up my product and someone
else’s and the other product looked better on paper.
I told my friend about the two products he was considering
and why one was better for him than the other. I explained that both products
are excellent but my product was much better suited for what he intended to use
it for.
What I am saying is I did what a sales rep is supposed to
do, I didn’t just give my friend a bunch of features and benefits about the
products and leave it up to him to make up his mind. I helped him to understand
what the features and benefits meant to him and which ones were important to
him based on his needs.
I thought to myself how easy buying would be if every
product had a review of how it worked in every possible situation and a
comparison chart to illustrate the pros and cons. That is when the concept of “everything
is on the internet” became a little fuzzy to me.
The internet is here to stay. It is today, and always will
be from now on, a major source of information for buyers. But I can say with
complete confidence, THE INTERNET WILL NEVER TAKE THE PLACE OF A SALEMAN when
comparing products for specific applications.
So the next time a customer says they looked up your product
on the internet don’t assume they know how the product will work, they may only
know what a marketing person decided was important about the product.
Lorin
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