SME's Using Technology to Cut Cost of Sales Visits

For any business that has staff travelling to personally visit customers it is time to review how you can capitalise on the use of modern technologies.

You don't want to lose the personal touch by going totally online. But then again you can benefit - and provide better service - by using some well-chosen technology tools such as online conferencing and Skype video calls.

This article from wall Street Journal Online has some great real-life small business examples:

"Then, once back in the office, the sales representatives would conduct follow-up
meetings – virtually. "We do a lot of teleconferencing," says Ms. Paradise.
"Through Skype and WebEx, we can solidify relationships and the education of
product."

The company has managed to reduce travel overhead by 20% compared to last year while boosting sales by 13%.

Read the whole report here.

When you are face to face with customers, whether in person or via video or telephone, make sure you are using effective sales strategies like the ones I teach at my sales training workshop.

How online is affecting your business. Everyday.

Have you seen the news lately? There are constant stories about how the internet IS changing the face of business. It's not just a fanciful notion coveted by computer geeks. It really is happening. Are you ready to take part?

See these recent stories.

Ringtones Out Sell Singles
A post by AdverGirl (in her advertising industry blog) highlighted that some record labels now make up to 40% of their revenue from ringtones by their artists - not the traditional single. AdverGirl mentioned a report at NPR (on audio) about hip-hop artist T-Pain and how he sells more ring-tones that singles. Don't laugh! This is a serious change in business strategy for the music industry.

The NPR report tells how T-Pain recently released a single:
- His top single had 1.5 million downloads at $0.99 each.
- The same single was downloaded 3 million times as ringtone at around $2.50 each.

Why so many ringtones vs singles? The world is changing... and people want personalised products. Ringtones can give them that personalisation.

Australia Post Loses Mail Volume, but Gains Parcels
A recent report in The Australian explains how the business mix of Australia Post is noticeably shifting. Fewer personal letters are being mailed due to the proliferation of email services. Profit from the letter division was down 8.4% on the previous year.

In contrast, the parcel division (at half the sales volume of the letter division - $1.2 billion vs $2.4 billion) generated nearly $100 million more dollars profit than the larger letter division. Thats a 116% increase on the previous year. And this growth is driven by the delivery of products ordered online.

Adobe Sees Software being Delivered Online - Not CD's in Boxes
Another news item quotes Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen (Adobe makes the ubiquitous Adobe Reader, and is a major player in graphic design software) as saying:

"Running software on the desktop is still optimal for most of its customers, but that will change over time. The desktop is a powerful, powerful machine in which to run applications. Broadband, as quick as it gets, is still going to have some limitations in the short term."

Mr Chizen answered a question about whether a complete shift to web delivery would take five or 10 years and he indicated it would be closer to a decade.

Like many traditional software makers including Microsoft, Adobe must fend off rivals delivering competing applications over the web and it also needs to adopt a new business model after years of selling software in boxes.

Major changes are happening in most industry sectors.

Are you staying up to date with how those changes impact your business?

I hope so.