NOTE: THIS IS PART ONE of a TWO PART PACKAGE. READ BOTH!

What do ‘they’ want? If you are going to build a successful WebSite, one that you can see actually turning a profit in the very near future, you have to start by determining exactly what your potential customer wants from you.

It’s not enough to throw a few pictures of your product or descriptions of your service on the Web and hope the customer will buy, you are going to have to devote considerable time, energy, manpower, and money to answering the simple question, “What does our customer want from us?” Only then will you succeed. Every firm, from the smallest firm to the largest in your field needs to build this analysis structure before spending a dime on hardware or software. Here’s how.

FORM AN E-COMMERCE STUDY TEAM
Mary, down in shipping, may have the greatest e-commerce idea since sliced bread, but if your firm is like most, her idea will be poo-pooed by the ‘internal experts’, and any advantage you have in the electronic market will go to your competitor. Hire an outside consultant to guide your study, don’t do it yourself. Take this step even if you are a very small firm. You don’t have the money to throw at a problem without a structure, and that strategy has never worked anyhow!

The consultant doesn’t have to have e-commerce experience, but should have the knowledge and savvy to guide and direct others in the search of what’s best for your firm. Other team members must include the active participation of the CEO of your firm, key customer-contact managers, your information technology manager, and one or two key customers. As is usual, if the CEO of your firm is not fully committed to the project, you don’t stand a chance of success. Fully committed means understanding that the future of the firm depends on building a competitive advantage NOW, and the willingness to foster, not just permit, critical input into this new venture.

DEFINE CUSTOMER NEEDS
The question returns to, “What do they want?” You’ve got to answer this fully. For example: “How does your customer make product/service (p/s) selections? Who makes these selections? Who contributes to the decision? What criteria are used? What competitors are used in the selection? How are new competitors weighed against traditional suppliers? What p/s factors are used in the final selection? What other factors are used?” Without answers to these and the many other questions that relate to what your customer wants, any e-commerce excursions on your part results in spending big bucks for nothing!

Even if you are a small firm, especially a small firm, you need to go through the rigorous evaluation of customer needs before you spend a dime on e-commerce. Put your money where the customer lives, not where you ‘think’ he or she lives!

STUDY THE COMPETITION
We’ve been told over and over again that we should conduct a competitive analysis before spending money on anything. And over and over again we do a cursory study and plow ahead with the ‘full speed ahead and dam the torpedos’ mentality. This just won’t cut it in the information age.

Don’t bother studying your competitor’s present business, study the new markets they are targeting, and believe me, they are targeting new markets! Answer the exact same questions about your top competitors that you answered for your own firm when defining customer needs. Gather objective data, not rumors.

COMPARE, EVALUATE, & PRICE
Begin by putting your top competitor’s evaluations on the board and comparing your evaluations with theirs. Your objective is to determine the competitive advantage of each point for each rival, then structure a minimum of five options for each of these based on your analysis of customer needs. Of course this will this take time away from ordinary business, but don’t wait too long, your survival depends on answers NOW!

The end objective is to select-out the top competitive advantages of your and your rival’s p/s approaches, then select your optimal strategy to counter that strategy. Next comes the money. Put dollar signs next to each strategy. Begin with the costs and end with the projected returns. Use timeline analysis of the cash flow.

ROLE OF THE CEO
Have you been reading national news lately? Have you noticed the increasing number of CEOs of major firms that ‘resign’? Often these CEOs are the same people who have built the business from scratch, taking profits from nothing to soaring heights! What’s up? Why now? The explanation is simple. Internet commerce requires constant innovation and change, and many old-line CEOs are not enamored by the thought of continual change. Change, yes. That’s how the business got to the position it now occupies. When it comes down to engaging in continual change, the words are: “We’re here, let’s rest for a while, then move on!”

The problem is, continual change is necessary in today’s dot com world. Your competitor is playing the leapfrog game, and if you don’t play, you lose. If you are the CEO of your company and are not 100% on the continual-change bandwagon, do something now! Hire one of the respected consulting firms that evaluate business management to define your firm’s position in the market and make suggestions to maintain or increase that position. Chances are, you will discover that change is the only thing that will work! If you’re tired of never being able to sit back and contemplate on successes, consider passing the baton of leadership to someone who is gung-ho for change.

COMMUNICATE
It is the CEO’s job to continually communicate the values, goals, dreams, and efforts of the firm to each and every employee. Not through a newsletter, a plaque in the lobby, or words on paper, but through direct interaction. Entry meetings hosted by top management start this communication, and periodic meetings where top management re-speaks the dream, re-defines the goal, and points-out the direction of the firm are a requirement for success.

You cannot hire an employee for a ‘job’ and expect him or her to help you build your dream; you must enroll that employee in your dream, and then constantly refresh that dream through company communication where they can see that you and your management staff are all reading from the same page. Again, this is the CEO’s duty and responsibility. Face-to-face meetings with small groups where the CEO and upper management talk about the dream are necessary in this dot com world. Don’t blow it!

CUSTOMER FOCUS
It is also the CEOs job to maintain the customer focus that got the company to where it is today. Customers are fickle. If they are used to paying $X for a product, and they can now obtain the same or comparable product from someone else for the same $X … AND obtain immediate gratification in the form of dot com communication, overnight delivery, simple ordering procedures along with extremely friendly service … you’ve just lost a customer. In addition, if the product can be delivered to the customer for $X-1, you’ve lost a customer forever.

It takes working with customers to discover what customers want. Then it takes implementing the internal procedures that make these ‘wants’ happen. It means rewarding innovation in your firm for problem solving, and that means letting your employees know what you’re all about, and that means communication … again. By rewarding these innovative solutions, you are sending messages that say cooperation across departments, divisions and plants pays off. What a wonderful, complex, innovative way to run a company!

EMPLOYEE FOCUS
Letting your employees know you have selected the absolute best person to manage their area, department, division, etc. tells them you are serious about the efforts to maintain dot com position. New evaluation criteria based on innovation and change and the dot com world need to be designed, tested, and implemented for every position in the firm … from the executive chair to the seat in the delivery truck.

Promotions based on past service, longevity, and similar tests just won’t hold up in a changing world unless the person also accepts the same criteria for change as does the CEO. Again, this points up the necessity of the CEO to be on-board the dot com train.