Here Are 19 Reasons Not
To Have An Internet Website.
Many prospective customers ask these questions. So we have provided answers for you. As you can see, these questions result from a lack of Internet knowledge.
1. Since I don't own a computer, I can't have an Internet website, isn't that right?
Answer: wrong. We can develop a site for you, and it would be hosted by an Internet Service Provider (ISP). Almost all companies, big or small, use Internet Service Providers, since they're cheaper and more efficient. So you do not need to own a computer to have a website.
2. I want to wait and see what happens with the Internet. Please call me back in two years, OK?
Answer: That's not OK. But we will call you back in two years--if you are in business then. But why let competitors get on to the Internet and steal your customers for two more years?
Remember, when Ancient Rome was burning down, the Emperor Nero did nothing, except to sit and play his violin, refusing to fight the invading barbarians. Today's barbarians are your competitors.
With their websites and marketing savvy about cyberspace, they are armed and dangerous--and after your customers. So don't react to them like an Information Age Nero.
3. I bet this Internet stuff is too expensive for me, right?
Answer: no, it's not too expensive. You can well afford it. We can create a strong, professional four page website for you for about $1,600, and you would pay an ISP as little as $35 to $50 per month to host your site. Most businesses do not have to spend extra marketing dollars for this. Instead, they can reinvest some currently unproductive marketing and advertising dollars into a new website--spending their dollars more efficiently.
5. I cannot handle any more business, since I do not have enough people working for me now?
Why limit yourself? Learn how to handle more. If you need more people, call a good temporary placement agency. Or learn how Internet-using companies enjoy 65% HIGHER sales per employee and save, as a group, over $ 89 billion in operating expenses annually.
If you need to need to handle more business without adding people, contact Alquist Enterprises, a small business consulting firm, to learn how. E-mail them at john@tell-it-well.com
6. We are not losing any sales by not being on the Internet. So why should we be on the Internet?
Answer: you need a course in formal logic. There is no rational way to know if you are losing Internet sales, as consumers will look on the Internet, find some other source, and bypass you--since they do not know you exist. Since they don't know about you, they cannot tell you that they bought elsewhere.
7. We do not do business outside of the local area. So why be on the Internet, which is global?
Answer: sorry, you're wrong again for two reasons. First, local people use the Internet to shop locally--just like using the Yellow Pages. Second, when you get orders on the Internet from distant places, it's easy to fill these orders and ship them--at customer expense--anywhere in the world today. Therefore, enjoy some extra Internet sales from far away places without adding any fixed overhead. Such incremental sales will add to your profits.
8. Hey, I have an e-mail address. Isn't that enough?
Answer: you are only half hip without your own business website. E-mail allows powerful outbound marketing communication from your business. But a website allows dynamic, interactive and strong inbound communication from your customers. Together, e-mail and a website are a great combination. You really can't have one without the other.
9. I need to talk with the customer face to face. So how can I use the Internet, and why would I need it?
Here's why. Media advertising and sales promotion activities should generate leads. Your website will generate leads, too. Now these leads can be directed by you to your website-- and people can learn about your business, even make an appointment, at your website.
So, at 3:00 AM while you're sleeping, a customer can be at your website, learning from your information and making an appointment. The Internet is always open, even when your business is closed. So, when you do see the customer face-to-face, he or she will be partially educated, and the sales process should be easier and quicker for you.
10. I belong to a larger organization, and they have a website. Since they put me on the Internet, why would I need my own website?
Answer: YOU are not really "on the Internet." Websites of larger organizations (malls, directories, trade associations, franchisors, huge real estate firms, etc.) exist to promote the organization strongly, not you in particular. You are given token, footnote exposure on such sites--often just a listing.
They provide little or no information to convince a prospect to do business with you, and they rarely provide e-mail to reach you personally. If you can be listed on such a site, fine. Do it. But you still need your own site, perhaps linked to the organization's site, to promote you and your business competently.
11. I am not sure the Internet will produce more business for me? Should I wait?
Answer: no, of course not. You will never know until you have one just how much more business you will enjoy. And you will never know, if you don't have one, how much potential business you are losing.
You should know that businesses using the Internet seriously enjoy 65% more revenue per employee than other firms. This is true even in a one person firm.
Why deprive yourself of a 65% sales increase or drive up your payroll expenses to do business the old fashioned, expensive, tedious way?
12. I am not sure a website can save me money. Then do I need one?
You sure do. If you can't think of ways to save money, we will. That's a John J. Alquist guarantee. You cannot use a website wisely without reducing operating expenses.
13. Only big companies use the Internet. So I don't belong there, right?
Not true, either. Nearly 400 million companies of all sizes use the Internet. In fact, the Internet is a great equalizer among different size companies, since everybody's page is the same size--the size of the viewer's screen. Everybody gets a full size; there are no one-eighth pages on the Internet. Even if you are a one person, home-based business, you can look as formidable and professional as any Fortune 500 company on the Internet.
14. The Internet is an unproven fad. Should I wait to use it until it is proven?
Answer: it's already proven. There are well over 100 million regular users now. They do billions of dollars of business by buying products on-line. What more proof do you possibly need?
15. My competitors don't use the websites. Why should I?
Be a leader and not a follower. If your competitors are that stupid and backward, rejoice. Get a website and reduce them to former competitors.
16. Since I have no computer, how could I keep a website up to date?
We provide a continuous updating service at modest hourly fees. Just ask for details. We will keep your website up to date.
17. Most of my customers are senior citizens. Certainly, these people hate computers and things like the Internet, just as I do. We lived through the Depression, you know, long before computers. Rural areas didn't have electricity back then. So seniors would never use the Internet, right?
Answer: think again. Senior citizens use the Internet to monitor their investments as well as e-mailing friends and relatives. If you don't believe us, go to any Internet Users Group meeting. You will meet plenty of senior citizens there--excited about cyberspace, the Internet, and new things.
So please, put your stereotypes away. If you are technophobic, set in your stodgy ways, and resistant to change, don't assume that your senior citizen customers are encumbered by the same negative, backward-looking view the future. If you are alive, your best days are still ahead.
18. I hear that there are many types of virus on the Internet. My computer, if linked to the Internet, could get sick and die. Isn't there too much risk from this?
Answer: do you fear getting AIDS from a toilet seat? Do you rush to the doctor for flu shots? Get real. There's no significant risk that your computer will get sick and die from a cyber-virus. But you could become financially sickly from your fear of doing business on-line. Hypochondria is never helpful--on-line or off-line.
19. Since I advertise in the "real Yellow Pages," why would I ever need to advertise on the Internet?
Bear in mind that the "real" Yellow Pages provide very little real advertising space for you, given their "unreal" rates. Your own website, by comparison, can contain many times more information for your business, and your website will be interactive and alive--not dead, unchangable phone book.
The Yellow Pages are printed only once a year. If you have a mistake in your ad, or if your ad is left out, or if you want to change some of the copy in three months--forget it. Wait till next year.
Email:
jacinthe@tell-it-well.com
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