"If you want
to succeed, you need to get on the Internet"
What they are really saying, is that there is an excellent medium for
reaching people, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and through this
medium you can enhance your opportunities to be more successful.
Let me give you an wonderful example of what a local butcher managed
to do with the Internet:
Butchers Challenge
I was doing a favour for a local butcher, he needed
some posters and leaflets made up to give to the local printer and I
asked him why he didn't get a web site and place the information
there, his reply went something like this;
"What use is the Internet to me, my customers come from the local
area, most of them will not have the blasted internet, so it's a waste
of money. It's a big toy for a big boy!"
"Garbage!" I retorted, we struck a deal and gave him a site up and
included a domain name and an email address as well, we would update
the information on the site monthly, so it'll not take up his time.
So we dutifully displayed a web site for him - there was a bit about
the shop the staff and the products.
Customers were getting Involved
3 weeks to the date we put the site up, a customer
said she had seen him on the internet and suggested that he put some
of his recipes on the site - we updated the site with recipes and the
visits to the site increased. 1 week later there was an enquiry from
America looking for recipes for Haggis, being the canny person he was,
he sold it for £5 (the cheque came through 2 weeks later).
Within 4 weeks his customers had commented on the site and he had a
sale through it! But the story doesn't end there...
After three months customers were supplying "unique recipes" for
inclusion on the web site, amazingly two more enquiries for Haggis (to
feed 50+ people) and he made £30 from those!
The Money Bit
The next mile stone was when he started looking for
suppliers of meat using the web, not only did he manage to buy
cheaper, from a quality supplier, but he also managed to supply "Free
Range" meat to his customers, ordered on from his web site and
supplied directly to the customer with his name on it, which meant,
little effort for a good profit!
When we parted company he told me that the web site accounts for an
additional £20,000 of revenue.
He has customers from all around the world, his (increased) local
customers have a special relationship with the business by offering
and exchanging recipes, and I answered his question:
"What use is the Internet to me, my customers come from the local
area, most of them will not have the blasted internet, so it's a waste
of money. It's a big toy for a big boy!"
So in answer to "What use is the Internet to me" the answer was:
£20,000 pa and increased customer base and loyalty!
