Excuses

As prevalent as the internet is in every aspect of our lives, it never fails to amaze me that I still run into people who don’t have a website for their business. They always have an excuse as to why, and I think I’ve heard them all. Some of them I’ve heard recently, when I have asked “Why don’t you have a website?”....

  • Everyone already knows who I am.
  • We are on or customer’s speed dial. (just heard this one today)
  • I know everyone in my industry.
  • My customers don’t use the internet.
  • We don’t want business from the internet.
  • We’ve been in business for {insert # of years here} without a website. We don’t need one.
  • My reputation is enough.
  • No one is buying.
  • I’ve never gotten any business from the internet.

Do any of these excuses sound familiar to you? Perhaps you have a new one. Very rarely do I hear “We can’t afford a website.” But I’m willing to bet that this response is in the mind of almost everyone in this group of non-believers. Many people in this group think that a website is no better than a brochure that you print and never get a return on. Or that salesman you hired for way too much money that didn’t produce any sales. One of my favorite excuses from the above list is: “I’ve never gotten any business from the internet.” It may seem obvious, and believe me, I have to be delicate when I react to this one “the reason you have never gotten any business from the internet is because you are not on the internet.” It’s seems very logical, but I still run into people every week who believe that their customers and prospects will find them, NO MATTER WHAT. Google has played a very important role in deciding who gets found and who doesn’t. It’s almost a shame to think that one website/Search Engine has so much power over our destiny. The unfortunate reality is this: If you don’t have a website, and a good one, Google and it’s competitors (MSN, Yahoo, AOL… etc) are actually working against you. You can make the internet work FOR you. But how, I guess is the question. Especially in this down economy, it’s easy to fall back on the excuse “No one is buying.”

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis…

Real gross domestic product - the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States - decreased at an annual rate of 0.5 percent in the third quarter of 2008, (that is, from the second quarter to the third quarter), according to final estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the second quarter, real GDP increased 2.8 percent.

I’m anxious to see the Q4 2008 numbers. I’m willing to concede that the economy will have fallen by more than .5% from the 3rd quarter, but there is still a large percentage of the GDP that remains. Who is getting that business? How is your industry fairing the storm? Have you lost any business? Has any of your competition gone out of business? , What is happening to their customers? What will a company do, when the supplier of their parts, that they have been doing business with for 35 years, goes out of business? How do they start their search for a new supplier? According to The Intelligent Industrial Marketer—White Paper Series, 93.4% of industrial buyers user the internet to research purchase decisions. If you are an industrial supplier, than your excuse that “My customers don’t use the internet,” is true but only 6.6% of the time. 93.4% of industrial buyers are using the internet to research purchase decisions. If you don’t have a website, how is that large percentage of prospects going to find you. Now is when I hear the excuse “My reputation is enough.” In some cases, it’s true that your company could be referred by another to a prospect, and let’s hope this is happening often. Once that prospect identifies you as a potential supplier, he will need more information. Is he in the 93.4% that will turn to the internet, or the 6.6% that will not? Not a high probability gamble. In most cases, the prospect must identify you as a good match, BEFORE they call you. If one of that 6.6% does happen to get your name, an interesting question is “How many of them will use the internet to find your phone number in order to place that “I need more information” call? If you don’t have a website, type your company name into GOOGLE. What do you find? You may find some directory listings, that may, or may not include current or correct information. You may even find an unsolicited review of your company. (Let’s hope it’s a good one.) Whatever you find, you are leaving your “reputation” in the hands of someone other than you. If you don’t have a website, you are relying on a non-expert to disseminate information about you. Can you afford not to have a website? How much business is NOT HAVING A WEBSITE costing you?