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Casual Articles - How the Internet Changes the Competitive Battleground
Things have to change. Cross selling is not going to happen simply by installing new CRM technology. A corresponding movement from a transaction mentality to the underlying CRM principle of focusing on the long-term relationship is required. What does this mean for financial services? Stop pushing products and start building relationships.The Consumer's PerspectiveLet's take a look from the consumer's perspective. Financial illiteracy is alive and well, especially with baby boomers. Next, throw in brand confusion—the convergence in financial services has produced new players, company names, and products. Everybody is now playing in everybody else's backyard. Insert the media's frequent coverage on retirement planning and increased advertising dollars being spent targeting "the confused generation." Now, throw in the fact that there is widespread incoherence around what the term "financial planner" even means. At its best, this situation is overwhelming to prospects, current clients, and maybe even your employees. At its worst, people are sticking their heads in the sand and saying, "leave me alone!"Marketing financial products and services has always been an information and relationship sale. You are in the personal finance education business, whether you like it or not. And it's not nearly as sexy as the ad agencies make it seem. No matter how many sailboats, moonlight beaches, or mansions your advertising agency plasters in print and on the airways, selling financial services and products makes prospects and clients deal with issues with which many are uncomfortable. It is no wonder that selling financial services demands a set of tools that moves far beyond the info dump and plethora of brochures that dominate the industry.The Financial Firm's PerspectiveLet's now take a look from the financial firms' perspective. Mergers and acquisitions have been in full throttle. Corporate identities are still being created. Not only is there more competition, but it's possible that the more serious competitors are residing within your own company. CRM is slowly permeating the lexicon of the financial world. Yet, with a few notable exceptions, financial firms lag far behind industries like retailing and airlines in data mining, making it almost impossible today to build a single integrated view of their customers.On either side of the spectrum, change is the dominant theme. So given the current state of affairs, how do you execute a CRM strategy that promotes cross selling and up selling? How can you increase the chances that your CRM strategy will stick? Here are some of the best conditions for selling: When the sales force has complete access to a particular customer's need or near-term future needs.When the s
The Internet is already demonstrating some of this behavior. At this time, we are witnessing deep discounting on the part of large Internet retailers to attract customers. For ongoing businesses, this type of discounting is unlikely to be sustainable.
The pace of change in the past year has been so incredible that a growing population—from executives to retirees—feel they have more than passing famili
For a layman, logo of a company is a trivial thing or maybe nothing; but when we talk about any organization the Logo matters a lot as it represents the essence of the firm. A well designed and meaningful Logo can be the revealing face of the company, if designed well. Each and every person across the globe can very well identify the companies like Nike, Adidas, Reebok and Mc Donald’s by their Logos as logo eventually have become their trademark and quality parameter.A Logo is the sign of trust and better quality, so your company’s Logo should be well designed and meaningful. Whenever anyone sees your organization’s Logo it should leave a deep impact on his or her mind and can give at least a rough idea about the company.Overall quality of a logo is the most important and reflects the company’s image globally. At the time when a designer starts designing a Logo, the proper concept or theme of the organization must be in his or her mind, so that he can design an accurate Logo that is on par with the international standards. Today with the cut-throat competition, there are numerous Logo design companies present in the Web market to deliver quality Logos at competitive prices. A perfect Logo is the blend of a perfect picture, meaningful text and an appropriate colour combination, so that it becomes the milestone for any organization.Getting a perfect Logo designed is not as much easier because perfection comes through creative mind and focused thinking. In all, on the conclusion note, what can be inferred is that your Logo must be well designed and meaningful as it defines your Organization and organization’s image!So design a Logo and enjoy the cherished esteem forever!!!
Natural market forces that lead to consolidation and the law of twos happen even faster on the Internet. The "best" products are anointed, information is rapidly distributed, and customers (who face no geographic limits) seek out these "hot" places. Moreover, as brands become familiar, consumers increasingly seek them out because they have credibility.
Unique to the Web is something which may be called a "hub-and-spoke strategy" . This also facilitates the law of twos: A hub-and-spoke strategy is the increasingly common arrangement where a major retailer establishes relationships with other Web sites, promising them a percentage of any sales (generally 5 to 15 percent) that result from any traffic sent to the retailer by these "affiliates." It's not uncommon for a major affiliate program to have over 10,000 participating members, all of whom refer traffic to the central site. What's even more interesting is the extent to which this type of business model is proliferating: Refer-it is a site that lists credible affiliate programs for prospective members. As we go to press, it is approaching 500 distinct plans.
The Internet is already taking its place as a central tool in everyday business life. Each aspect of commerce is changing in light of the new capabilities available. The coming changes are so powerful that it is both terrifying and exciting. The first phase of Internet business has principally focused on the creation of new types of businesses: The next phase will involve the impact of these developments on brick-and-mortar businesses and on the economy as a whole.
The new capabilities that the Internet makes available for business-to-business commerce and for business-to-consumer sales will transform many industries from top to bottom. Winning companies will understand that in the emerging era success now requires new rules for action and the mastery by the organization of different types of skills.
Questions may arise on what the future will look like: "Will my business be helped or hurt?" "What should I do to survive?" Until recently, the pace of change has been so great that attempts at answering these questions were often unsatisfying.
Elements that will play a central role in how the Internet economy evolves. These elements have the potential to greatly harm our economy or to power us into prosperity for the twenty-first century. The best way to discuss these ideas is to provide two contrasting visions of the future: The Potential Downside of Internet Growth More than any other aspect of the Internet, shopping "bots," software that searches the entire Internet for products and services based on predefined criteria (price being the most popular), have the capacity to offer great benefit to consumers while potentially bringing great harm to businesses. Today the major Internet portals, include Google , Yahoo and MSN , all have shopping initiatives with participating retailers that are, at least in part, powered by bots (also called "intelligent software shopping agents"). A visit to http://www.botspot.com/ will reveal that there are already over many easy-to-use bots that are available for businesses and consumers. Each bot typically has a specialized function, ranging from financial bots that perform stock-related functions to news-gathering bots to auction-related bots.
The more businesses and consumers rely on price as the sole criterion for purchase, the more price pressure every manufacturer and retailer will feel. Bots that search for the best price have the potential to trigger ruinous price wars. At some point, price wars can ruin industries or set back their development by several years through lack of funds for investment in new and better services. To me, this is the frightening downside of a world where customers can buy from anywhere and essentially name their price.
The Internet is already demonstrating some of this behavior. At this time, we are witnessing deep discounting on the part of large Internet retailers to attract customers. For ongoing businesses, this type of discounting is unlikely to be sustainable.
The pace of change in the past year has been so incredible that a growing population—from executives to retirees—feel they have more than passing familia
I have found over the years, in my own businesses, and with my clients businesses… that there is one big thing that come up and any time to thwart our dreams of successfully growing our business.EmotionsYes emotions.It sounds funny to some people… until they are in the situation to experience them.In Fact, many business owners say to me… ‘Gee if I could grow my business to make a million a year – I’d do it’.It sounds easy to do.The reality for most people is - it isn’t.For some reason when you are faced with achieving great success, emotions can come up and disrupt/delay or eliminate your opportunities.You can have emotions that make you scared of failure.You can have emotions that make you scared of success.You can even have emotions that make you both scared of failure and success at the same time.Let me give you an example of how emotions can disrupt your business growth.I have worked with many business owners that want to grow their business… yet their excuse is ‘they’re too busy, and that they ‘don’t have the time’.They often say to me…Case ‘I’d love to grow my business but I’m just too busy. If I had more time, I’d easily grow the business’.So they start working with me.We put into place certain things that free up their time – so that they can then grow their business.You know what happens… Well, all of a sudden, they can’t use the ‘I don’t have the time’ excuse anymore.And for many business owners – it’s terrifying.All of a sudden they have the time, and they know what they HAVE to do to grow their business, but for various reasons they can’t bring themselves to do the things they know will grow their business.So they start creating situations in their business, that will draw them back into the ‘day to day’ activities of the business and away from ‘growing’ their business.They start self-sabotaging their success.Can you relate to that?Let me give you some examples…Instead of going out and selling – you may look for paperwork to do.Instead of training your staff – you keep yourself busy elsewhere.Instead of doing your financials – you work extra on ‘little’ things that keep you away from doing your financials.You may tend to create all different types of diversions…Does this sound familiar?Well guess what, it’s normal – and you can swiftly step through it – with some help.I specialize in helping business owners grow through these ‘emotions’. I’ve seen them all before…You see my clients quickly find out that I can help them through this trap… I keep them accountable for them doing what it takes for them to grow their business – an
The Internet is already taking its place as a central tool in everyday business life. Each aspect of commerce is changing in light of the new capabilities available. The coming changes are so powerful that it is both terrifying and exciting. The first phase of Internet business has principally focused on the creation of new types of businesses: The next phase will involve the impact of these developments on brick-and-mortar businesses and on the economy as a whole.
The new capabilities that the Internet makes available for business-to-business commerce and for business-to-consumer sales will transform many industries from top to bottom. Winning companies will understand that in the emerging era success now requires new rules for action and the mastery by the organization of different types of skills.
Questions may arise on what the future will look like: "Will my business be helped or hurt?" "What should I do to survive?" Until recently, the pace of change has been so great that attempts at answering these questions were often unsatisfying.
Elements that will play a central role in how the Internet economy evolves. These elements have the potential to greatly harm our economy or to power us into prosperity for the twenty-first century. The best way to discuss these ideas is to provide two contrasting visions of the future: The Potential Downside of Internet Growth More than any other aspect of the Internet, shopping "bots," software that searches the entire Internet for products and services based on predefined criteria (price being the most popular), have the capacity to offer great benefit to consumers while potentially bringing great harm to businesses. Today the major Internet portals, include Google , Yahoo and MSN , all have shopping initiatives with participating retailers that are, at least in part, powered by bots (also called "intelligent software shopping agents"). A visit to http://www.botspot.com/ will reveal that there are already over many easy-to-use bots that are available for businesses and consumers. Each bot typically has a specialized function, ranging from financial bots that perform stock-related functions to news-gathering bots to auction-related bots.
The more businesses and consumers rely on price as the sole criterion for purchase, the more price pressure every manufacturer and retailer will feel. Bots that search for the best price have the potential to trigger ruinous price wars. At some point, price wars can ruin industries or set back their development by several years through lack of funds for investment in new and better services. To me, this is the frightening downside of a world where customers can buy from anywhere and essentially name their price.
The Internet is already demonstrating some of this behavior. At this time, we are witnessing deep discounting on the part of large Internet retailers to attract customers. For ongoing businesses, this type of discounting is unlikely to be sustainable.
The pace of change in the past year has been so incredible that a growing population—from executives to retirees—feel they have more than passing famili
Affiliates who rely solely upon search engines or links to deliver their audience are only considering half the picture. Press releases sent to appropriate media are likely to bring you site visitors you haven’t reached in other ways.But what should your release highlight? An announcement, a new product, additions or changes to management, new partners, site features or products. Maybe an amazing piece of advice that turned up in a blog and how it changed the sites of many of your visitors.Once you’ve decided upon the topic, follow these guidelines: Type in a word processing program, but convert it to PDF for distribution Use your company stationeryCenter the words, “News Release” at the topCenter the Headline in bold type, larger than the body text, which should be 10 or 12 pt.Note the press contact’s name, address, email and telephone numbers Begin the body text with “For Immediate Release” of “For Release on___”Include the dateParagraph one: The big idea or announcement in a couple of sentences. If it sounds like an advertisement, and you can’t make it into bonafide news, stop here and wait until you do have news.Paragraph two: Details related to paragraph one, including the benefit or good newsParagraph three: Additional details if you need them. It’s better to be succinct than too detailed.Paragraph 4: Information about the company and the websiteThe end, signified by ###Most news releases can be sent online to targeted publications, sites and online wire services.
Questions may arise on what the future will look like: "Will my business be helped or hurt?" "What should I do to survive?" Until recently, the pace of change has been so great that attempts at answering these questions were often unsatisfying.
Elements that will play a central role in how the Internet economy evolves. These elements have the potential to greatly harm our economy or to power us into prosperity for the twenty-first century. The best way to discuss these ideas is to provide two contrasting visions of the future: The Potential Downside of Internet Growth More than any other aspect of the Internet, shopping "bots," software that searches the entire Internet for products and services based on predefined criteria (price being the most popular), have the capacity to offer great benefit to consumers while potentially bringing great harm to businesses. Today the major Internet portals, include Google , Yahoo and MSN , all have shopping initiatives with participating retailers that are, at least in part, powered by bots (also called "intelligent software shopping agents"). A visit to http://www.botspot.com/ will reveal that there are already over many easy-to-use bots that are available for businesses and consumers. Each bot typically has a specialized function, ranging from financial bots that perform stock-related functions to news-gathering bots to auction-related bots.
The more businesses and consumers rely on price as the sole criterion for purchase, the more price pressure every manufacturer and retailer will feel. Bots that search for the best price have the potential to trigger ruinous price wars. At some point, price wars can ruin industries or set back their development by several years through lack of funds for investment in new and better services. To me, this is the frightening downside of a world where customers can buy from anywhere and essentially name their price.
The Internet is already demonstrating some of this behavior. At this time, we are witnessing deep discounting on the part of large Internet retailers to attract customers. For ongoing businesses, this type of discounting is unlikely to be sustainable.
The pace of change in the past year has been so incredible that a growing population—from executives to retirees—feel they have more than passing famili
From the early times of history, any success story is accompanied by a story of empowering. Empowering is used from very early days of kings to the recent Information technology. Initially organizations were more focused on controlling that empowering. Controlling defines the process that enables the employees to have focus on their work by defining rigid process on their actions. It prevents the workforce to divert to other activities or misuse the resources in the organization. Controlling also provides more control to the executives in organizational aspects and decision making.What is empowering? Empowering is the successful delegation of power. It gives the authority to take decisions. Empowering is the methodology of providing wisdom to take new roles and responsibilities. It classifies employees based on responsibilities and not on designations. It creates a workforce which works for a defined vision of the organization.This article provides a new perspective to leadership by emphasizing the need for empowering and the different methods used for empowering in successful organizations.Need for empoweringDuring 70s and 80s, organizational Leaders were focused on controlling by implementing a mechanical way of execution. They defined highly streamlined job profile for each and every individual in the organization. This type of approach holds less risk and earns more accountability. In turn the employees’ turnout to be bottle necks in their fields and the leaders faced challenges of sustaining internal synergy with in their groups. Since everything is controlled by strong regulation, everyone is scared to take decisions also.This reminds me of an incident in my team. I had to hire a part time tester for completing a pending testing work in my project. I had to convince my supervisor and he has to convince his. It went up to the level of CEO who is responsible for running the company and the final decision had to come from him. There are around 200 projects executed under the CEO and it is outrageous for him to take such decisions for all projects.Modern business is highly flexible and focus started shifting towards workforce to sustain in the industry. Leaders discovered that success could be achieved by group of efficient people working in harmony. Effective empowering is the key for achieving the harmony among the workforce. Success achieved by that not only change the life of executives but also change the life of every one included in the venture. A collective synergy can be achieved by this kind of execution.How can we empower? Identify individuals to be empowered. Before we start any venture, identifying the right workforce is very important. It is challenging tas
The more businesses and consumers rely on price as the sole criterion for purchase, the more price pressure every manufacturer and retailer will feel. Bots that search for the best price have the potential to trigger ruinous price wars. At some point, price wars can ruin industries or set back their development by several years through lack of funds for investment in new and better services. To me, this is the frightening downside of a world where customers can buy from anywhere and essentially name their price.
The Internet is already demonstrating some of this behavior. At this time, we are witnessing deep discounting on the part of large Internet retailers to attract customers. For ongoing businesses, this type of discounting is unlikely to be sustainable.
The pace of change in the past year has been so incredible that a growing population—from executives to retirees—feel they have more than passing famili
When I first meet them, many of the business owners and Entrepreneurs that I work with would prefer to avoid the whole issue of marketing altogether. They want to leave marketing up to the "creative" people on their team and focus on the more tangible aspects of business. Or they don't see the need for marketing and prefer to rely solely on a strong sales team. The exact opposite approach is needed for businesses that want to dominate their market and achieve stellar results.If you own a business, you must accept the fact that you won't be able to create sustainable, profitable growth without continually expanding your marketing knowledge. Knowledge equals power, and, when it comes to marketing, clear and understandable knowledge is a bit hard to come by.As an entrepreneur, it is your job to know what is possible, what strategies make sense for your business, and what results you should demand from your marketing system. This requires a fundamental understanding of the role of marketing. Marketing is one of the only activities in business that can help you make money. And marketing done right can have astounding results.Marketing DefinitionThe first step toward understanding marketing's role in your business it to get a handle on exactly what marketing is. When most small business owners think of marketing, they are generally thinking about promotion-either advertising or sales. These are two elements of marketing, but there is more to it than just promotion.The simplest definition of marketing for the small business is "everything you do in your business that puts money in your pocket."That's a pretty broad definition. But true, nonetheless. Yet this definition, while it makes a good point, doesn't help us really understand what marketing is.I prefer to define marketing this way: Marketing is the business activity of creating value, communicating value, and exchanging value to satisfy the needs of businesses and individuals. This definition covers the entire scope of the marketing function. In your business you create value through products or services, and then you tell people about the value you have created, and then you deliver that value in exchange for something you value: that green energy that fuels your dreams.Let's take it apart to make sure we understand the definition...Satisfy the needs of businesses and individualsAny effective definition of marketing must be built around satisfying the needs of businesses and individuals. Without the need, there can be no value created or exchanged.You will notice that the definition includes "businesses AND individuals." To be truly successful, y
The Internet is already demonstrating some of this behavior. At this time, we are witnessing deep discounting on the part of large Internet retailers to attract customers. For ongoing businesses, this type of discounting is unlikely to be sustainable.
The pace of change in the past year has been so incredible that a growing population—from executives to retirees—feel they have more than passing familiarity with the Internet. However, this newly claimed "knowledge" of Web sites and portals and e-mail techniques belies the fact that the Internet is still so new that there are no rules for "play."
Internet services, including comparison services, software agents such as bots, and new digital middlemen, enable easier access to information and, as a result, fundamentally change the competitive battleground.
Stores that pitted themselves against each other generally rose to the occasion and even employed "comparison shoppers," who cruised the aisles of competitors, reporting on pricing so that the store owner could price competitively. And signs touting "We'll Beat Anyone's Prices" covered any store that wanted to preserve business no matter what.
The Internet radically changes this dynamic. Not only can consumers move easily from one Web site to another, checking out the products and services at each, but many Internet services are specifically designed to promote comparisons among products or services within a category, and another growing class of businesses—digital age middlemen—are actively working to create bidding situations among several suppliers that lead to lower prices for consumers and businesses. These new classes of Web sites raise the stakes throughout an industry. Competition takes two forms: between manufacturers or service providers —for the product or service to be purchased—and between "stores" as the place to purchase.
Companies now operate in a world where comparison shop- ping is almost effortless, geographic boundaries are eliminated, and the pace of activity is far faster.
WHAT HAPPENS IN THE MARKETPLACE
In the online environment, anyone offering a particular product competes with everyone else offering that product or something similar. On any given day, a customer may be able to locate several — or several hundred—online stores selling what he or she wants, and the customer can then determine from which vendor to purchase the item. A recent search using a comparison service such as Froogle identified that a specific HP All-In-One Multifunction printer was available from 57 different stores from $ 57 to $ 170 .
Bots, the comparison services, and the new digital age middlemen can all work in a variety of ways. Some comparison services are operated by retailers; the site generally posts information on how specific products sold by the store compare in price and quality with the competition. Other services are stand-alone Web-based businesses offering comparisons among a variety of manufacturers.
Bots (Intelligent Software Shopping Agents)
Today Product Finder, along with hundreds of other "bot" services that are now on the Web, is still in its infancy. However, it has already stimulated the creation of sites that feature comparison shopping facts, and I guarantee that these bots will play a role in changing the future of commerce.
Sites Offering Price Comparison
On the Web, competition for customers is fierce. Because bots can shop the Web for a customer, companies have been forced to design their Web sites with comparison shopping in mind. The Net has facilitated explosive growth of comparison services that stretch across the full spectrum of products and services. It's impossible to even estimate how many exist today and new services—for unserved categories or with better features in categories that already have such services—are constantly
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