Your Website as Salesperson

I was talking with a local businesswoman yesterday, a woman whose business caters to brides. It’s hard to get help, she said.

We hear a lot about how hard it is to find jobs nowadays, so I was a little surprised.

“It’s hard to find someone you can really rely on,” she amplified. And, as we talked more, it turned out that she meant it was hard to find a good salesperson. She had good reasons for thinking so. But you know, this woman is a friend of mine. Finally, I just had to mention the one salesperson in her business that I knew about.

Her website.

I was hesitant, because of course I’m biased. Haden Interactive builds, optimizes, and manages websites. It’s easy to get an exaggerated idea of the importance of your own field, since you’re in it all the time. There was that minute during which I thought, well, maybe people planning their weddings don’t go online.

Sure.

The internet is now the main source of information for Americans, I had to point out to my friend, especially people as young as the average bride. Not to mention the fact that the modern working woman planning her wedding does at least some of that planning in the evenings, when human salespeople aren’t working and that online presence is all that’s available. And some on her lunch break at work, coffee breaks ditto, and some on her phone at restaurants and possibly in the bathroom, too.

“I have a website,” she objected.

“True,” I agreed,”but people looking at your website can’t tell how wonderful you are.”

We both thought about her website: the tiny, muddy pictures, the old-fashioned design, the poorly-crafted text, the “Map” page with no map…

Having this website as the major source of information about her business is like having a dim, disheveled, inarticulate salesperson going out to represent her.

It may be hard to get good help, but it’s certainly not hard to get a good website.

She looked uncertain. The cost was on her mind.

A new website costs less than the income she can expect from one bride. The significant number here is not the cost of a new website. It’s the cost of all the brides who pass her up for someone who looks better online. A good website is the cheapest good salesperson she’ll ever have.