With the recent economic, uh, ‘cough’, correction, business owners need every advantage imaginable. Unfortunately, tough times means tough business purchasing decisions. There’s no such thing as a ‘sure bet’ in business. Luckily, we have numbers. I did the research and the response was staggering. Here are the results on how you could increase your sales by 73.4%
Would You do Business with a Company that Didn’t Have a Website?
I originally asked this question to a world-wide group of professionals. While they are scattered world-wide, their general demographics put them into the well-educated, professional, computer / internet literate. There was a tremendous response! I’ve included the raw numbers and some select quotes below.
With economic troubles looming, we’re all looking for a better deal on the purchases we make. That entails more deliberation on the necessity of our purchase, investigation on the quality of the good/service we are purchasing and of the firm delivering it, and comparison of that good or service to all other providers.
With all of that homework now scheduled ahead of making what before might have been easier purchases, would you buy something from a company you could not check out on-line?
Early Results
While many people gave their opinion and great quotes, Regina Bell of Passion Marketing here in Charlotte, North Carolina guessed my mind and jumped straight to the numbers with her response – which is exactly what you want a marketing person to do, I might add!
Wow Ted, you opened Pandora’s box didn’t you?
Thought it would be fun to survey your respondent’s feedback. So far here’s what you’ve got (roughly, given the ‘depends’ disclaimers):
YES — 6 (26%)
NO — 11 (47.8%)
MAYBE — 6 (26%)
Summary: having website (using your respondents) will increase sales potential by a minimum of 47.8% and potentially as much as 73.8%.My answer? No. Why take the chance as a consumer OR as a business person of not having the largest pool possible as a customer base? Best to be safe and have a website. But of course you know that, you’re a web guru! ;0)
Heisenberg Principle
Since the question was asked in a public forum, I will never know if Regina’s comments influenced anyone who followed. Even so, I think we should take the rest of the responses into consideration:
Yes – 25%
No – 46.5%
Maybe – 28.5%
It looks like the trends stay roughly steady. Adding a website for your business may increase sales by 75% .
Ok, Ok, I can hear it already. This is highly unscientific. What about other variables? What about in case x, y, or z? Not to worry, analysis is coming. Over the next several posts in the 73.4% More Sales series, I will share some of the most interesting quotes from the yes, no, and maybe camps and diagram how you can use these responses to help your business sell, even in this economy both on the web and off.
In the meantime, why not add your opinion in the comment field below?
