Category Archives: FAQ

Business Development, Business Strategy, FAQ, Internet, MyOrbit Blogs, New Media, Online Marketing, Outsourcing, Start-ups

Top 5 Questions: How to Increase Online Sales?

2007 was the first year of MyOrbit – and full of great experiences. We consolidated our ground in E-Business and learned new things from our clients worldwide. Though we have completed 3 quarters, this New Year 2008 gives an opportunity to share the top 5 questions from our customers in 2007. If you are in any form of business – these will help you.

Q1. How can I increase my sales through online channels?

Answer: This really is a big question with no one answer – otherwise everyone would have done it! What we have found from our experience of running multiple businesses is that there is a need for a structured approach to attract targeted visitors (prospects) and ensure that the entire chain of events is planned – till the time an order is placed.

Many services companies will say “oh, this may work for product companies, but not for us”. This is just a lame excuse by someone who fears change. We have seen successful examples of services companies generating almost 80% revenues from their website + other online channels. The need is to create an online platform (say, a part of your website/blog) which shares valuable information with prospects, and a system which can do all of what a physical sales person can do. With Audio and Video possible on web-pages, a good website can generate more sales than a team of salespeople, at a fraction of the cost. The only expenses you have to make are for online marketing, for which you can see other posts on this site.

Q2. We have built a great website…now how do we promote it?

Answer: Do you know which places your clients and prospects visit often? That’s the place you need to advertise in some way. Consider buying text links, we have found them best on performance/price. Some sites also offer paid articles referring your site – those are good too. For example, our clients often visit sites like: www.cio.com, www.cfo.com, www.ft.com, and many smaller sites – all of them are good options to advertise. Small sites and blogs can give a great return on online ad spend. So invest some effort in that. Over the last 6 months, we have developed a way to identify such small sites relevant to each business, and you can contact us for more info.

Q3. What are the options to increase my online sales?

Answer: There are numerous options, and each product/service should plan a suitable mix of them: Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising, Text Link or Banner Advertising on High Traffic Sites, Sponsored Articles on Sites or Blogs, Email Marketing, Mobile SMS Marketing (this is a very exciting area, and will evolve rapidly in 2-3 years – if you are a consumer products/services company – you just can’t afford to ignore this).

Q4. How much should I spend on online marketing?

Answer: Just like in a physical, brick & mortar business – your online marketing budget would have two components: (1) Brand Building (2) Product/Service Marketing. Now, if you already have a known brand, then skip (1), and spend effort and money only on (2), which is more focused towards earning dollars by selling your Product and Services. Plan to spend up to 10% of the sales volume, and spend in phases to ensure results are coming. So if you have a product/service of $500 value, and you want to sell to 200 customers, then your desired sales volume = $100,000. So you should plan to spend up to $10,000 in online marketing. This does not include your fixed costs, like staff salary and business operating expenses.

Now, it’s important to note that the amount you spend will depend on the gross margin you have on the product/service. So you can choose to spend just 4-5% as well. But 10% is on the upper side, and will perform very competitively to physical sales people. If you are spending more, you are probably not executing well and there is room for improvement.

Q5. What kind of team and skills do I need to increase my sales online?

Answer: The team can be very lean, but must understand your business and products/services well, and also understand how information is shared in the Internet space. Many Small and Medium businesses are able to do it (with some initial guidance) with just 1-2 full-time staff because they can easily coordinate with the sales and production teams. But its a different problem in large companies: the marketing departments often don’t have the skills and support to generate online sales, and the sales teams don’t have access to any part of the website – so it’s a difficult situation.

Our recommendation is to give the responsibility of online sales also to the Sales/Product Teams, and give them the tools and training to make it happen. Regardless of your company size, new media tools can be (and should be!) used successfully. If you are not sure about your team’s understanding/skill of operate your blog (write and discuss with audience), you can contact us for inputs as we have done it for a few companies in 2007. At its core, your website is an extension of your key business people and presentations – and is best suited to generate business leads.

We hope you found these answers useful. You are welcome to ask your questions on how to increase online sales.

Wishing you a great 2008!
Shankar AVSB
CEO, MyOrbit

Advertising, Business Development, Contracts & Legal, FAQ, Finance, Industrial, IT Services, MyOrbit Blogs, Outsourcing, People, Project Management, Sales & Marketing, Training

Sales Proposal Template and Checklist

If you are involved in any form of sales, client engagement, pre-sales, or business management, this is a must watch video. It’s one of the best videos on the Internet on how to prepare a good sales proposal. Thanks very much to Bill Dotson for sharing his experience along with numerous real-life examples. This is a very practical video that you can use right after watching it.




Often, there is so much rework at the last stages of proposal development just because some team members involved in the proposal were not aware of the full picture and customer business needs. If you are the manager, you have probably been giving your tips to the team every time you have a proposal.


In fact most companies, and that includes some very large companies, don’t have a clear business proposal checklist. It’s very much left for the sales manager to train his team — again and again. If you have been there, you will know exactly how it is like.

So make a note of this page and use it the next time you are submitting any business proposal. And more importantly — share it with all your team members who are involved in making your business proposal.

FAQ, Healthcare

The Pros And Cons Of Using Herbal Alternatives

Overview

Alternative herbal remedies are nutritional foundation nutrients, which help the body’s deepest and most basic elements. Most of the herbal products that are sold in stores or online are generally said to be safe and effective to use.

 

The good thing about herbal products is that it can offer the body nutrients that it does not usually receive from an unhealthy diet or from the deficiencies that we can get from environmental factors such as the water, soil, or air pollution.

Continue reading →

FAQ, Healthcare

Mental Health Therapy – Symptoms And Treatment Of Disorders

Know why mental health is important for every individual. Also know why mental health disorders are caused, what are their consequences and how can they be treated.

Continue reading →

Contracts & Legal, FAQ, Finance, Innovation, MyOrbit Blogs, People, Project Management, Training

Getting Started With Google Docs

Collaborative team effort – is a must to achieve something big — but as anyone who has worked in a team to prepare a proposal or a business plan or any document will know — it’s a big challenge to ensure that people are working on the right versions and tracking who’s changing what. So often, one person in a team is made responsible just for this work – the anchor! But if you want to do it better — Google Docs offers a good system.

The adoption is still very small because most of us in business feel uneasy about putting our “next quarter projections on the Internet”. But if you asked the opinion of a neutral 3rd party software specialist, you will realize Google has built a fair amount of security around the docs. And like is most cases, those of us with the biggest need and smallest budget will get onto this before others who have more disposable capital and effort. But give it a try- we found it good!