Internet Time RevisitedWritten by Andrew Eklund, CEO, Ciceron
In Summer of 1995, I was having dinner with some early Internet "pioneers" in San Francisco at Lulu's Bistro just off of Moscone Center. These "pioneers" were snotty little twenty- and thirty-somethings, like me at time (at least snotty part), hell bent on changing world through Web connections, Mountain Dew, iguanas running office corridors, "just say no to senior management," and countless fanny packs full of stock options."The Market be damned!" they'd say. "This is Internet economy!" "The old paradigm is OVER," they'd drool between sips of Sierra Nevada. "Wells Fargo. Wall-Mart. Berkshire Hathaway. O-V-E-R. Like Pearl Jam." (Remember, this is '95.) Drunk on power and visions of world domination I raced home to Minneapolis to start Ciceron. We all know how California version of Internet bubble ended. You probably know an ex-CEO who now mixes martinis for hire south of Market Street. Recently, I revisited one of Old New Paradigms: "Internet Time." You remember that one? The one where everything happens faster on Internet. Is it still true? Does this dusty ol' ditty still play well on e-jukebox of time? I'm going to make argument that, of all paradigm-shifting, new age, margon-jargon (that's modern for "mumbo-jumbo"), geek-speak of '90s, "Internet time" is one that still stands for something. That "something" is speed in which we can gain empirical knowledge about how consumers behave in marketplace, as represented on Internet. Customer research is next Big Boom on Internet. Right now, as you're reading this, perhaps tens if not hundreds or thousands of people (depending upon size of your online marketplace) are online, at your site, creating data. They're "behaving" in some form or fashion, either in a way that you want or in a way that you should know about. Either they're "getting it" or they're not. They've either bought something from you, signed up for that newsletter, filled out that form, downloaded that document, or forwarded that page to their boss, or they haven't.
| | Where's your focus, Money or Customer needs?Written by Andrew henry
I had a 'rep' in yesterday who was telling me he had a website, not realising I'm a man of many talents he was telling me about all new companies he was working with and great products he could offer and reminded me to go to his website. When he'd finished, I asked him:- "what is purpose of your website?" a question which he couldn't answer. "does your website tell me what you want me to do when I go there?" - err no was answer. "Can I sign up somewhere to hear about what your latest products/services are?" No. "Can I buy something directly from website?" No "Is there a list of your products and services, or reviews of any of them or of companies you resell for?" No "Are there any articles about what's happening in that industry and issues I should be concerned about?" No "So what's purpose of your site?" Don't know really. "What do people that normally go there do?" Can I get that information? As you can see, his website was a complete waste of time. He's running his own business and supporting his family (and driving a nice Mercedes) and his online marketing is effectively ZERO. How many people are there online who could help this guy - Thousands? Easily. So why are so many people failing? My Answer = Because they put money before business. For most Internet newbies looking to start making money - that's as far as they define their model. There are thousands of people around who can tell you how to make a website, where to host it, where to get content, how to create a product, how to start a newsletter, how to buy and sell on Ebay, how to setup an affiliate program, how to arrange JVs and how to get traffic (and all other aspects of an online business) - but even with this knowledge they're failing to achieve their goals. They need to take action, that goes without saying and there are lots of people not becoming successful purely because they're not taking any action to move them towards their goal, but I think fundamental issue even before that action is state of mind that they're in. I'm sure that any 1/2 decent marketer can tell you that you're not going to make money by 'selling', matching products with peoples needs is slightly different to 'selling', and that difference is responsible for more failing efforts than you can imagine. My 'rep' yesterday could see so much improvement in his business just by thinking of needs of his customers (and potential customers) and there are lots of small actions he could take to improve things. Why hasn't he? because he's thinking constantly about 'selling', he's forgottent that having a website is one thing but making money from it by offering people something that addresses a need they have is a different thing.
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