Granted, Neiman-Marcus is an upper-end retailer and it is inconceivable for you or me to offer anything to compare with what they are doing for their loyal customers.

The point is... what are you doing to bring your customer back?

Your new customer will receive a thank-you confirmation electronically which will probably contain other URLs to your other programs or products. Correct? But what else?

Right now you have perfect opportunity to send a very personal email to that new customer. You may be thinking "I don't have time to send out personal emails after every sale." Well, you can't afford not to. The next merchant will if you don't, and that's merchant who will gain a loyal customer.

Offer your new customer your personal assistance and attention after sale. Give them all of your contact information: email, phone number and address. Also, let them know that you have a "complimentary gift" for them as a "thank-you" for their purchase. Try to avoid word "free." This word seems to have lost it's power due to its being used in almost every ad on Internet.

When you offer to give personal assistance to your customer, make sure you are available during certain business hours. Answer your emails as quickly as possible. An immediate response is impressive and creates trust.

"Once you have your customer's trust, you have won most valuable prize in business."

"Care for your customer and they will return..."

The initial cost is no longer an obstacle, as several Internet- based programs have been introduced recently which allow you to use contact-management software via Internet on a monthly- rental basis.

4. Presentations. The computer-enabled salesperson uses a laptop with presentation or video programs to present a new product or service to customer. Using these tools means that you can prepare a colorful, animated, talking presentation, and view it together with your customer. That allows you to make sure you get all important details into presentation, and present product as positively as possible. Taking time to create a presentation in a stress free environment of your home or office ensures a far higher quality in presentation than if you attempt to adlib as you go in front of customer.

Store your supplemental paper-based literature on computer, and print sell sheets with a portable printer on an as-needed basis. Watch all clutter in back seat of your car disappear.

You can take this concept to a deeper level. Your company's marketing department, for example, can create product presentations and make them available for all salespeople via CD ROMs, downloads over web, or internal networks.

Manufacturers can do same for their distributors. Instead of relying completely on a salesperson visiting and training your distributor salesforce on new products and promotions, why not create those product presentations and make them available to automation-enabled distributor salespeople over Internet?

5. Become customer's search engine. There's no doubt that amount of information available on web in growing exponentially. It takes time to search through it all to find answers to questions you, and your customers, have. Yet all of your customers are suffering today with more to do and less time to do it than ever before. Time is most precious commodity of Information age.

The person who can find information on Internet for someone else, and thereby save him or her time, is of great value. I routinely pay people to search web for information that I want. I don't have time to do it myself, and it's a service that is of value to me. You can serve that function for your customers, becoming trusted source of applied information.

Learn to use Internet to research product applications, competitive products, competition, technical details, and whatever other questions tempt you or intrigue your customer. One way to prevent your customers from using Internet to replace you is to preempt process. Build your Internet skills to point where your customers come to rely on you as a trusted source of important information, and you'll become irreplaceable to them.

6. Share your success. We've only just scratched surface of ways in which an automation-enabled outside salesperson can use computerization to become more effective. There are probably thousands of specific things you can do more effectively via computerization. You may have some powerful and unique applications yourself.

Here's an invitation to share your techniques with other salespeople. If you have a technique you'd like to share, visit Kahles Korner, a bulletin board for salespeople, and submit your idea. Use your browser to open this page: www.davekahle.com, and click on button For "Salespersons Members Board." When prompted for a username, type "slspeople," then use "sales" as a password. Post your idea, or review ideas of others. To entice you, we'll send a free copy of my new book, The Six-Hat Salesperson, to three salespeople every month in year 2000 who submit best ideas that month.

You can no longer afford to be computer or Internet ignorant if you expect to prosper as a salesperson in 21st Century. The time to make proactive moves to become automation-enabled is now. ###

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