The e-business buzz goes on. There’s no end to the grandiose predictions, many of which, if correct, would obliterate entire professions almost overnight.
Consider the fate of the salesman, in light of speculation about business-to-business marketplaces, those on-line procurement initiatives.
The thinking is that companies will be able to go on-line, order what they need and save big bundles of cash — causing the extinction of that expensive anachronism of the Old Economy, the salesman. Why? B2B markets will see massive sections of the global economy migrate to the Internet.
Of course, it’s not just the world of B2B where we are seeing such predictions; many believe that consumer-oriented transactions will follow suit.
Here’s how the story goes: Most people find buying a car to be an ugly experience. They don’t like the pushy attitude of the car salesman and don’t believe they are getting a good deal.
According to this scenario, when car companies finally are prepared to sell on-line, people will flock to their Web sites. They’ll doom the denizens of the auto lot to the dustbin of history.
The idea is that sales forces cost lots of money. Insurance companies salivated over the idea that with a Web site, they could bypass the 20-per-cent commission structure of agents and brokers.
As with all things related to e-business, the reality in many industries will turn out to be far different. Indeed, as companies get deeper into their e-commerce strategy, they’ve come to realize that distribution won’t change — they still need the salesman.
Today, insurance companies are singing a different tune. Their Internet experience has shown that few people seem to be prepared to buy insurance on-line. Why? Because it is a complex product that is sold, not bought. It is the insurance broker or agent, an expert at turning fear of the unknown into a sale, who is so effective in bringing revenue in the door.
Other companies are realizing that support is a huge issue, and that their salesman is someone who is there when needed.
So what are smart firms doing? They are building their e-commerce strategies around a model that keeps distribution channels intact. They are enabling the sales force with the tools of e-commerce so that representatives are better prepared to sell the product, support customers and, perhaps, help them do the deal on-line.
Sure, customers will buy commodity products on-line — indeed, we’ll probably see lots of car sales occur through the Internet. And “transactional reps” — those that simply write up orders — will disappear altogether.
But if people are buying something complex, they’ll turn to the trusted salesman.
There exist numerous significant reasons why a buyer want to buy a international phone cards and the most important reason is that it saves capital.
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