Tomicide Solutions September 2007: Eleven Website Mistakes That Turn Premium High-Tech Companies Into Cheap Commodities
By Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan
1. Failing to Introduce Yourself And Your Company
When two people meet in real life, they introduce themselves. How does this play out on the web? It doesn't. You visit 10 high-tech companies' websites, and you're likely to face 10 faceless monstrosities, eight of which are hyped beyond human imagination. Even if you walk into a store, in the best stores, you're greeted by a sales clerk with a nametag. You instantly know whom you're meeting.
So, introduction is just normal and natural. And necessary. So, why would the web be different? What's the logic in asking for people's money without even telling them who's asking? I know this is harsh but most high-tech websites are blatant sales pitches with lots of self-aggrandisement.
The other day I did a bit of research on membrane switches. I did a Google search and checked the top 10 hits. Guess what? They are virtually identical. The only differentiation is the names and logos of these companies.
Individual people can't be contacted because there is only one email, usually called "info." But visitors are unique human beings in search of human beings to discuss their problems with. They're looking for Fred, or Jill not info. The other feeling I get from faceless enmities is that if I hire this firm, no one will ever be responsible for anything. Have you ever had a complaint or refund issue with large faceless companies? There is a strong chance that sooner or later you get frustrated, cut your losses and move on.
Magic hands within the company are passing your issue on and on to the next person and the buck never stops. But as a result of many passings, the problem slowly and surely grinds to insignificance. Not to you but to them. Just think about it. You read the company's guarantee on the website, but the company is not transparent to reveal to you who is actually behind that guarantee. A faceless legal entity called the corporation. That's not enough.
The reality is that human beings want to deal with human beings. And before that they want to have access to information that will aid their decisions. Remember business is done between people. It's a human interaction.
2. Failing to Demonstrate That Your Company Cares About Your Website Visitors
Many of your visitors have the preconceived notion that web-based sellers are greedy and they just want to grab the money and then keep hiding behind their domain names and email addresses.
And you may be an IT or other high-tech professional, but nevertheless you're a seller. And your people are salespeople. And we all know that people have very low opinions of salespeople. So, the prejudice applies to your company too.
And the default setting is that on the web we're guilty until we prove otherwise.
So, how can we prove that?
I believe the best proof is valuable information. Your website must become a solution to your target market not merely a virtual salesperson. When you ask your visitors and then prospects to give you money in return for something that will take place in the future, they are taking a huge leap of faith that you can live up to by helping them to achieve whatever they want to achieve.
But before we ask others to take that leap of faith, I believe we have to take one. And that one leap of faith is that if we put out good information that is relevant to our target market, then visitors will reciprocate the gesture and buy from us. It's human nature really. Visitors see that you have so much knowledge and expertise in your area that you don't mind sharing quite a lot, knowing that there is a lot more where this stuff is coming from.
3. Failing to Publish Clients' Success Stories
This is easy on the surface. Joe needed an ERP system and we gave him ERP. Great, but this type of case study misses one point: The economics of the intervention. What is the financial impact on the client by having ERP deployed? We must be careful here because case studies, after white papers, are the most widely read stuff by top decision makers.
Some people may say that they can offer references. Great, but I believe that well-written cases studies are much better than references. If I want to fly from Vancouver to New York, I don't need references on the pilot and the air traffic controllers. It's enough for me to know that my chosen airline has a track record of taking people and their luggage from Vancouver to New York alive and on time.
When people hire high-tech companies, it's not practical to obtain references and school grades on each person who is involved in the project. But we know that the company has successfully done this before.4. Failing to Position Yourself As An Expert In Your Area
There is a difference in the sales process. Some high-tech companies are chasing prospects and some others are being chased by prospects. What's the difference between the two types? Market positioning. The market positioning is about perception.
And here we have to talk about inner reality inside your company and outer perception, that is, how your market perceives your company. And the outer perception is created by the inner reality.
Think of commissioned salespeople. They are not greedy manipulative scumbags per se, but the general perception of salespeople is that they are. And the only way of fighting this perception is that you eliminate both the commission structure and the traditional sales model.
And the better you can align your inner reality with the outer perception, the more profitable your company is. When commissioned salespeople are selling IT consulting services, it creates a significant problem. Why? Because you're not perceived as an IT consulting firm but as a bunch of peddlers.
So, back to becoming an expert... How can we pull it off?
You can write articles and get them published both off- and online. Write white papers and special reports. Create some podcasts. One important point though. Don't write about your services or products. Don't write about CRM. No! Write about how your target market could improve responsiveness to clients' requests. Or about how salespeople could better interact with each other, and as a result of the team effort could sell more.
And of course make sure you distribute them both all over the web and off-line. This approach will accomplish a few things...
- You actually demonstrate that your company knows this stuff inside out and your clients don't take a massive risk by hiring you for help
- By distributing this kind of material, you're making your prospects buying decisions easier. Buyers buy from the companies that made an effort to help them to make the ideal decision
- Over time respect for the level of your knowledge becomes confidence in investing in your expertise
Expertise takes time to build confidence in people. Your visitors are naturally sceptical and suspicious of motives behind websites. Many of them have been ripped of by your competitors. That makes the situation even worse.
To speed up the time to build confidence, many high-tech companies resort to pompous pontification, calling themselves "world-class," "market leaders," "state of the art" and similar lunacies. And the sad thing is that they don't even realise how much they belittle their own expertise by artificially inflating themselves.
Your visitors must perceive you as a company that is good but not only at technical issues. Your company must prove itself to be good both technically and in the other functions that lead to a successful business.
5. Failing to Demonstrate Great Client Service
Sadly, client service is one of the most neglected areas in the high-tech sales process. Most high-tech companies employ minimum-wage kids to do it. Even worse... They do it through outsourcing.
Let's talk about outsourcing. Especially as more and more high-tech companies realise that to outsource client services to China, India or Pakistan is a disaster waiting to happen. The biggest problem is the cultural difference.
Where is the problem here? Most high-tech companies treat client service as a complaint department, and employ low-wage unskilled labour as message takers: "Mr. Jones, I pass on your message to the department managers of the ERP department." They can't solve problems. And here is the problem. When I call client service, I expect my problems to be solved and don't want my message to be passed on to someone who gets back to me some day. I have a problem right now.
Why is this happening? In most high-tech companies non-technical positions are treated as unskilled labour. I've seen IT consulting firms where a newly graduated and newly hired software engineer (one of the 27 engineers) was making significantly more money than the company's marketing strategist after almost four years of employment and lots of lucrative campaigns.
The moronic president's opinion was that marketing and client service were merely auxiliary staff members to support the real professionals. Yet, the company's profitability depended on the auxiliary people's performance. And rest assured that at the end of the month they got beaten up if the company didn't produce it's projected monthly sales volume.
I believe there is a correlation between the quality of clients and the quality of people who serve them. Low cost, low calibre client support people gradually repel high-calibre clients.
The client service department's job is to sustain happy clients, who love the service they're receiving and want more. So, they stay with the company and brag to their friends about the treatment they're getting. And this function is far too important to leave in the hands of minimum wage unskilled people. We know that minimum wage people usually match their effort, dedication, loyalty and quality of work with the wage the company pays them. They also know that they don't get more however well they do their jobs. So, most of them don't even try.
So, treat your client service people the same way you want them to treat your clients.
6. Failing To Answer The Visitors' Questions
Before making significant investment, prospects want to know as much as possible. Some people say that people don't read lots of information. As a former technology buyer, I can tell you that before making 5-6-7 figure investments, people want to know everything they can, and are willing to read bible-thick information packages to make sure they make the right choice. This fact alone refutes people's claim that no one reads long copy. I would say, only the appropriate people read it. People who 1) belong to your target market and 2) are ready to buy. And realistically no one else should waste time on reading it.
Visitors are especially conscious about knowing what happens after they hand you the money and the project starts. So, give it to them. Have an FAQ page on your site and try to answer everything you can. Keep collecting questions and as they are coming in, put them on the website.
This way visitors can see that your company is really ready to render that service your company provides. That's huge credibility thing. We have to remember that when prospects don't know or understand some aspects of the process, they back off with their buying intentions.
And since it's likely that some of your visitors have been ripped off in the past, they are very timid to move forward. So, instead of pushing them into the purchase, gently pull them forward and let them decide when they buy.
7. Failing to Behave Naturally and Authentically
I personally believe that, while it may not be traditionally business-like, but it's definitely respectful, thus professional, to show our real selves without hiding behind corporate facades and work roles. Our first description is "human beings," not Vice Chairman, President or PHP programmer. So, we have to behave in an authentic manner. Visitors must be able to have a sense of what it's like working with us in real life.
I believe we can be friendly without becoming too close. We can have a good heart-to-heart discussion without barging into people's personal space. What we want to accomplish is that your visitors say, "This dudess has nothing to hide. So, when I become her client, she will be honest with me then too."
One sure sign of respect is when I visit a website and the company doesn't assume that I'm struggling in my business or life. The company gives me the benefit of a doubt that I've been managing quite well without this company's stuff. And from that point the web copy can pull me in and help me to see what the next level of accomplishment could be.
8. Failing to Strengthen Your Company's Reliability Muscles
Your website visitors are constantly checking your reliability. Yes, you may be a nice and reliable dude, but your visitors don't know that. Of course, knowing this, most high-tech companies start writing their pompous pontification on their websites about their mission statement and other things that are nice to have but not vital.
So what is vital? Visitors know that the way they are treated before purchase is the way they get treated after purchase. One of the best ways of establishing your reliability is that you offer various free programmes on your websites that require interaction between the visitor and your company. For instance a free email course. Yes, it's automated, nevertheless it creates a notion that your visitors receive it reliably and full of great valuable information.
So, think about ways of demonstrating that your company is reliable.
9. Failing To Be Accessible For Visitors
Access is an interesting thing. Some high-tech firms grant open access/interruption to anyone with no qualification at all, and some other companies fully automate the human touch out of their communications. You call the company and you end up on the company's voice mail labyrinth. A while ago I wanted to get a search engine marketing package. I emailed the company because I had an unanswered question. Nothing. Well, after 11 email contacts I gave up. The sales@ email keeps bouncing back and the info@ seems to vanish in a black hole. No response.
If you do business over multiple time zones or internationally, it even makes sense to provide live response 24/7. For one company I have worked with, we hired night owls to stay in the office overnight and provide support whatever is needed. And since they were allowed to do their own personal stuff and work on their personal projects all night besides responding to enquiries, they were rather happy. For a few thousand bucks a month we had both technical support and live response to enquiries at a pretty high calibre 24/7.
And what does this extra investment mean? The company can charge higher fees due to 24/7 live support. For prospects the conversion rate to paying clients is very high due to the human touch element. And the company emphasises that nothing is outsourced to India or China. All work is done within Canada. That's also a neat differentiating feature.
10. Failing to Create Realistic Client Expectations
Many high-tech companies' websites promote products and services that are quick and easy to implement and don't require any work on the client's part. It's like some kind of manna, mysteriously falling out of the sky, and straight into the client's bank account without lifting one finger. It's a ploy so many high-tech companies use.
After years and years of failing, CRM companies are still promoting their solutions as a quick and easy be-all-and-end-all to all sales problems. Now we know better. Most CRM clients have lost some pretty penny in installing the system and finally returned to the pen and paper method.
It's just human nature that we only feel good about an accomplishment if we've worked for achieving it. The other day I was watching the movie Apollo 13. After the landing dock landed in the ocean both the control people and the astronauts celebrated the return. But somewhat differently. Only the astronauts' lives were on the line. For them it was survival. For the control crew it was another problem successfully solved.
Feel free to stipulate on your website that if you want a great CRM system, then you have to work hard with us to develop the best solution. The client knows her business and you know CRM. It's the synergy that creates the best solution.
You can freely explain the sticking points your other clients have had during implementation. Everyone knows that a change process is not a smooth ride on an easy slope to the grave train. There are some serious humps and bumps. People have to know about them.
For instance look at Jackie Chan's movies. At the end each of his films, there is a nice collection of stunt goofs. And while Jackie does all his stunts, at the end of the movie there is a disclaimer about the inherent dangers of doing these stunts. That's realistic.
So, make sure that your website doesn't communicate a message to the effect of "How To Improve Your High-Tech Stuff Quickly, Cheaply, Simply And Without Lifting A Finger." Also, if your buyers make a comment about the amount of work this initiative takes, then, I suggest, you fire their arses and refuse them as clients. You're preventing lots of aggravation and a possible lawsuit. I'm talking from first-hand experience. The client failed to do his work and, although he admitted this in court, I was still dinged for repaying him $11,000 of my fees.
11. Failing to Create a Proper Proposal Process
Putting a "Request a quote" button or page of your website is just amateurish. If you're selling simple solutions or commodities, it may be enough, but not if you're selling IT consulting or something similar. But if your company is selling complex, high-ticket solution, then you'd better develop a proper proposal process. What that means is that you have a standard diagnostic process and don't rely on the self-diagnosis prospect would give you.
Here is the problem...
When all you have is a quote page, it reinforces the retarded bidding process and the innate stupidity of the typical purchasing procedure. Prospects plug their criteria into your online quote page, get a dollar figure, and they make a decision based on that number. And they keep shopping around in this retarded manner. It's totally unrealistic. And at the end of the day, the client has a very slim chance to get anything valuable. And you have a slim chance to make the kind of margin on the deal you could have with a proper proposal process.
Attribution: "This article was written by Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan who helps privately held information technology companies to develop high leverage client acquisition systems and business development teams in order to sell their products and services to premium clients at premium fees and prices. Visit Tom's website at http://www.varjan.com.
