World Pace Business Services

E-commerce is a method used to sell and buy products or services online using electronic systems such as internet, computers, online shopping carts and secure payment gateways. It serves as a link between the vendor and the buyer.

There are two types of e-commerce systems, Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C).

B2B is businesses buying, selling or exchanging products or services from each other as opposed to business and consumers. Supply chain management for a vendor, vertical industry portals and brokering websites are examples of B2B websites. E.g. alibaba.com

B2C takes place between businesses and consumers where consumers are individuals. A typical example of a company engaged in B2C is amazon.com, ebay.com

E-commerce gained popularity amongst businesses and consumers because of maximum convenience.

<b>Advantages of E-commerce: </b>

For businesses, E-commerce is a way to cut operating costs and expand their market reach. Businesses don’t have to market their products or build physical stores to attract buyers from all over the world. Automated order and billing systems cut labor costs. In some cases businesses selling music, movies, software or e-Books can often evade distribution costs since the product can easily be downloaded to the consumer’s computer. E.g. apple.com/itunes/whatson/

Businesses can store preferences of the consumer and suggest other products which help the consumer’s shopping experience and mean more return for the business.

For consumers it means saving time and having more flexibility and freedom to choose products. They don’t have to fight crowds of shoppers, look for parking space and they can easily compare specifications and prices from different vendors and make their choice with more ease; all from the comfort of their home.

<b>Components of E-commerce:</b>

Thinking of setting up an E-commerce website? Following are the chief components of an E-commerce system.

1. Website: You website will be the link between you and your prospective customers. Good packaging often translates into good quality in the eye of the consumer. Therefore to get their business your website must have the right look at feel and must be done by a professional.

2. Merchant account: Merchants accounts are critical to an e-commerce business as they support secure payments through major credit cards brands. To get a merchant account you must contact a Bank that provides them to Internet businesses.

3. Shopping Cart Software: A shopping cart works as a traditional shopping cart. The storefront maintains the products that are in stock and allows the customer to add and remove products to his cart. It automatically calculates the total of the orders making the shopping experience more convenient for the customer.

Using the Administration end of this software you can add/update/delete products or their information from the website. The shopping cart checkout is connected to the payment gateway. 

4. Payment Gateway: Payment gateway serves as a point of sale terminal located at most retail stores. It ensures secure information transfer between customer, merchant and bank. The customer’s browser encrypts the personal and credit card information and sends it to the merchant’s web server. This is done via SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption. The digital signature is then forwarded to the acquiring bank through another secure socket layer.

Examples of payment gateways include authorize.Net, verisign.com, paypal.com

Trusting a company with your business is always a hard decision, Design Box has worked with several companies and created a web presence that has aided in success not only online but offline as well.

Ben McMaster
http://www.articlesbase.com/web-design-articles/ecommerce-solutions-724251.html

GREGOR SALTO B2B SKITZOFRENIX @ LATIN VILLAGE INDOORS
RECORDED THE 29TH OF NOVEMBER 2008
WESTERGASFABRIEK AMSTERDAM, GASHOUDER

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Mobile data and SMS services company Valuefirst has acquired Delhi-based Cellnext Solutions, a subsidiary of the Escorts Group for an unnamed sum. Equirus Capital was the advisor for the deal.

Cellnext was established in 2000 as part of Escorts Group owned telco Escotel Mobile Communications; Escotel was divested and sold to Idea Cellular in 2004 when the group decided to focus on its engineering businesses and disposed of all non-core businesses. Cellnext has clients including Tata Sky, LIC,  Citi Financial, American Express, ICICI Bank,  as well as operators such as BSNL, Airtel, Idea, Vodafone, MTNL, Reliance, Spice, BPL. It offers an m-commerce platform called cellPAY.

Escorts group apparently put Cellnext on the block last year, but no sale took place because of the prevailing market conditions and low valuations. There were rumours over the last two months that Mobile VAS companies were in talks with Cellnext, according to sources.

Separate Brand Identities: Why?

Valuefirst plans to maintain Cellnext as a separate entity and the brands will not be merged. This is usually done when the buyer does not want to alienate valuable clients of the other company, or because the brands are almost equally powerful. However, in this case the enterprise customer base for the two firms overlap, so will this move to retain separate brands really help in the long term?

Cellnext’s focus has been primarily B2B, with products such as cellPUSH, Cellexpress shortcode platform, cellDIAL, MMS platform cellPAPER, cellTRUST and Cellmonitor. It also has a m-payment platform cellPAY and pre-paid voucher system cellMONEY.

Valuefirst offers SMS services for enterprises, a direct-to-consumer push SMS service called Alertrix and the shortcode 56070 (Cellnext owns the shortcode 56677). Will it now shift its product focus entirely to B2C?

ravi

Overview :

ITAH is a robust business-to-business verticle search engine, powered by AsiaEP to which crawls across all industry top & trusted B2B sites and directories. B2B information seekers and searchers will be expecting to find relevant B2B websites, Hot Demand Products, B2B News & B2B Events. On top of that, image ads can be delivered through ITAH search engine result pages(SERPs) and in context throughout all ITAH partners’ websites.

Goal :

The ultimate goal of ITAH is to provide potential B2B companies and business professionals and integrated B2B platform to access business information on industry specific goods, services, news, jobs, empowering them to make the right business decisions.

ITAH Advertising Center :

1. The study also called for setting up “ITAH Advertising Center” that enable ITAH to manage and communicate with potentials customer’s enquiries and answering their querries and search marketing related questions.

2. “ITAH Advertising Center” will be position as the focal point to handle customer’s accounts, assisting them in the signing up programe and supported by ITAH Business Supports personnels on dealing with products issues and problems.

ITAH Advertising Solutions :

1.ITAH Advertising Solutions main objective is to help potential customers to achieve the following objectives :

- Inceased Sales

- Improve Brand Awareness and Visibility

2.The study had indentified the following major solutions that are able to help ITAH Search Engine to create sustainable revenue streams:

B2BITAH
http://www.articlesbase.com/intra-net-articles/another-business-search-engine-borned-133307.html

Cold calling. Most people hate to do it and there is a cottage
industry of people making a profit by selling ideas on how to
generate business without cold calling. They’re making money
because they are using a basic marketing tactic that most of us
have forgotten how to use – give your customer what they want!
Tell a salesperson that they can get appointments without making
cold calls, tell them to buy your book, and you’ll make money
hand over fist. Why? Because it’s a solution that fits what that
market wants.

The fact of the matter is that there are many things you can,
and should, use to help generate leads. However,
business-to-business cold calling will always be an effective
basic tactic that will help you get an appointment with your
prospect.

Get Back to Basics

Here are 4&frac12; steps that are so easy and basic that we have a
tendency to be suspicious of them. But if you just follow along
the steps, you’ll be on your way to doubling your sales
appointments in record time.

&frac12; Step) Put yourself in the place of your prospect. Think about
what it will be like to get a call from you. You know your
product/service inside and out and are hopefully excited about
and believe in it. Your prospect isn’t excited about your
product/service and doesn’t believe in it yet! Also, you have
set aside time in your day to make calls, but your prospect
hasn’t set time aside to take your call. That’s why it is very
important to make the call all about them. Give them what they
want out of a cold call – hint: the solution to what they worry
about at work.

Step 1) Identify your ideal customer and their critical wants
and needs. At the very least you should have some generic
information about the markets that you serve and the obstacles
that they face from industry magazines, trade associations, or
industry analysts to help you target your cold call message.
This is just the starting point, but a great way to determine
how to give them what they want.

Step 2) Ask the “cold sweat” question. “What is it that wakes
your prospects up at 3AM in a cold sweat and in such a troubled
state that they would give anything to solve that problem?” If
you answer this question within the first 7 seconds of your
call, you will be more likely to gain the attention of your
prospect and be that much closer to gaining an appointment with
them.

Step 3) Once you have figured out what wakes your prospects up
at night, create multiple positioning statements that focus on
solving your prospect’s most difficult problem or achieving
their most important goal.

Step 4) Test those positioning statements and determine which
one results in better dialogue with your prospect and gets you
the appointment.

Here’s a very successful sample cold call script that I’m using
for my own business based on the 4&frac12; steps:

Good morning Mr/Ms. VP of Sales, this is David from EMDCO.com
here in Chicago. We are the major B2B lead generation firm in
the area. Because of our expertise in your industry, we’re able
to solve the problems of the call reluctant/time constricted
sales force by delivering quick, reliable, and affordable lead
generation services. The reason I’m calling you today
specifically is to set up an appointment so I can tell you the
way in which we’ve been successful with (name client(s) that
prospect would recognize) companies. How’s (day) at (time)?
That’s it! I mention that I can solve what most owners,
presidents and sales directors worry about. They are always
thinking about the revenue numbers they have to hit, they know
they have sales people that don’t make sales calls for various
reasons and they know they want a reliable source of leads. I
know I’m not wasting my prospects time with a telephone
introduction like that.

By using this simple 4&frac12; step process, it will help you formulate
your own quick introduction, allow you to quickly answer any
questions they have about you or your product/service, and
redirect the call back toward getting the appointment.

David Wells
http://www.articlesbase.com/sales-articles/4-12-steps-for-doubling-your-B2B-appointments-2279.html

dirtybear81http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/dirtybear81Musicbreeze, b2b, unknown, htid, in, the, sun, 08, raver, baby, event, 10breeze B2B unknown htid in the sun 08 raver baby event 10

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You’ve spent a great deal of time, effort and money putting together your business-to-business sales lead generation programs. How you handle B2B sales leads once you get them makes the difference between a happy sales team and new customers or an unhappy sales team and lost sales.

Here’s a checklist of questions to ask yourself to determine if you have the best chance of being successful with your sales lead programs:

Are you prepared to send requested information immediately?

Prospects have their own agenda and timeline, not yours or your firm’s. So, you need to be efficient and strike while you have the opportunity. Timing of your inquiry handling processes are of paramount importance. Your firm needs to respond to all inquiries quicklythe faster, the better.

Here are some questions to keep in mind:

* Do you know what to send in response to different types of inquiries?
* Do you have electronic versions for those who want the information by e-mail or via downloads from your Web site?
* Do you have adequate supplies of printed materials ready for those who prefer them?
* Do you have the people, systems and processes in place to get the requested
information out the door quickly?

Are you prepared to capture all inquiries in a database for ongoing nurturing and qualification efforts?

To avoid having any of the golden sales opportunities represented by your inquiries fall through the cracks, you need to capture all of your inquiries in a database so you can properly manage their fulfillment, nurturing, qualification and distribution. With this in mind:

* Do you have the database ready to go?
* Do you have the data entry people or outside services lined up to get the inquirers into the database?

Do you have a program in place to “qualify” sales leads before sending them to your salespeople, reps, dealers or distributors?

If your business-to-business marketing-for-leads program is to succeed, marketing, sales and corporate management need to share a unified definition of qualified sales leads. If you all agree from the start on what a qualified lead is, then deliver leads that meet that definition, your sales team will be able to effectively and efficiently follow up and close more sales.

* Have you agreed with sales management on which questions to ask in order to determine which leads are qualified?
* Have you agreed what information is required to know which sales contacts to route the qualified leads to?
* Do you have proactive programs in place to contact and qualify your leads?

Do you have a process in place for distributing qualified leads to sales contacts as they are identified?

Sales leads are worthless unless they are quickly handed off to the right sales contact for follow up. Your lead distribution process has to be well defined and ready to goin advanceso as to prevent delays or misdirection when leads are qualified and ready for sales attention. It also has to be easy for your salespeople, reps, resellers and distributors to access the qualified sales leads and manage their lead follow up.

* Is your sales leads program designed to get the leads into salespeople’s hands without delay?
* Have you made it easy for your salespeople, reps, dealers or distributors to use?
* Can they access leads over the Internet?
* Does it integrate with their existing contact management or email systems?

Do you have a program in place to nurture or cultivate your not-yet-qualified leads?

Salespeople generally focus on those one-in-four sales leads who are ready to buy soon. However, research shows that three of four sales come from longer-term prospects who are frequently ignored by sales. As these longer-term leads represent the lion’s share of the potentional sales, your sales lead management program must be designed to help nurture the longer-term leads until they are qualified as being sales-ready opportunities.

* Does your company have a prospect relationship marketing program in place to keep in touch with these longer-term prospects, using email, fax, mail and phone contacts, until they are identified as being qualified and ready for sales attention?
* Do you know what messages to send as part of your prospect relationship management program?
* Do you know how often to contact prospects with these messages?
* Do you know what offers to use to get them to further identify their needs and situation so you can determine if they are ready for sales?

Do you have a program in place to measure and track the results of your various sales-lead generation, cultivation and sales follow-up programs?

A marketer I know recently reported to her management on the results of the company’s lead generation programs: Awareness of their company and its products among targeted prospects more than doubled; the cost per qualified lead delivered to sales by marketing dropped by nearly 40 percent; 58 percent of the opportunities in the sales pipeline were found first by marketing; and 48 percent of the sales closed; and 62 percent of the revenue during the past 12 months came from marketing-generated leads.

The result? She got a bigger B2B marketing budget and senior management no longer doubts marketing’s contribution to the company’s success. Can you answer these questions and show your management how your lead generation programs are contributing to your company’s success?

* Can you determine your cost per lead, cost per qualified lead and cost per sale?
* Do you know which lead programs generate the highest return on investment?
* Do you know which nurturing techniques worked and which didn’t?
* Can you prove to management that your lead generation programs are paying off in increased sales and market share?

Refer to this checklist of questions to guide the development or improvement of your company’s sales lead management programs and processes and you’ll have the best chance of being successful.

Mac Mcintosh
http://www.articlesbase.com/sales-articles/b2b-sales-leads-success-checklist-63920.html

Her name was Cindy, but around the office, she was better known as “Solitaire Cindy.” Whenever I walked by her desk, the Solitaire screen on her PC was running. Frankly, it bugged me. Why should Solitaire Cindy game her day away while I busted my hump in my job, along with my fellow employees? I asked her manager how she felt about that. She sighed, “For what we pay Cindy, she does a decent job, so she’s earned the right to futz around.”

I even talked with Cindy myself, hoping to encourage her. But, she shrugged as she flipped a card with a click of her mouse.

It was like a Mexican standoff.

Cindy wasn’t motivated. But I blame management. They neither confronted her nor gave her any motivation. Like so many managers, they took the path of least resistance. People would prefer to put up with mediocrity than make waves with employees.

You Have Choices on How to Address Mediocrity in Your Sales and Marketing Organization.

For instance, would you:

• Disconnect Cindy’s Solitaire software to force her to step up to the plate?
• Confront her, running the risk of annoying her and losing her (and finding her replacement)?
• Ignore Cindy’s overall mediocre performance because of the things she does do well, risking a ripple effect on the other employees who work hard while Cindy follows her own path of least resistance?
• Initiate a meaningful dialogue with her to find out why she’d rather play computer Solitaire than be a proactive worker in your sales organization?

If you were like some of my large business-to-business sales organization clients, you probably think installing programs to monitor and restrict employees’ Internet access is the answer. But that only treats the symptom, not the disease.

If you were like most misguided managers then you feel it’s not your job to inspire excellence. You would choose to ignore Cindy’s overall mediocre performance. I’m sorry but chances are your sales team will not magically motivate themselves. You must address mediocrity issues ASAP so they don’t snowballs into a major problem.

An effective sales team leader would:

• Initiate a meaningful dialogue with their sales team
• Remember all members of their sale team are individuals with motivations as different as their work styles
• Respect and respond to those differences so their sales team performs above and beyond expectations
• Understand their employees like they understand their customers
• Find out what their sales team truly values

You risk losing your best workers if you don’t discover ways for them to feel successful and accomplished in their positions. And, the only way to understand what people value is to engage. That’s why I strongly suggest that you talk with your sales team. Really listen to what success means to them!

8 Questions You Must Ask Your Sales Team So You Can Take Them to the Next Level

Armed with the answers to these 8 questions, you can implement meaningful reward systems, programs, and promotions that’ll turn mediocre employees into happy and productive sales performers.

1. What do you feel is going well for you at our company?

2. What have you accomplished so far that you’re really proud of?

3. What else besides a bigger paycheck would make you feel more successful at work? In life?

4. What would you have to accomplish in order to feel successful five years from now in your sales career?

5. What do you enjoy most about your sales job?

6. What two things would you most like to achieve in the next six months?

7. In order to make your sales career more interesting, what would you like to do more of? Less of?”

8. How do you define success?

Get Your Sales Team Motivated

If you want your sales team to feel successful and triumphant in their jobs, you must make them feel valued. I can’t even begin to count the number of times clients have called asking to help them motivate their employees. Over and over, they tell me their business would improve if only Joe or Jenny Worker would “step up to the plate” or “put in that extra effort.” But all they have to do is ask their employees what motivates them, and how they want to be motivated!

Remember, motivated employees have the drive to succeed. So start asking questions and motivate your sales team today, so you can grow your business tomorrow!

Paul Cherry
http://www.articlesbase.com/leadership-articles/B2B-sales-leadership-how-to-motivate-your-sales-team-to-achieve-nextlevel-selling-219359.html

So, how do successful businesses keep doing lead generation management well? What’s the best way to keep a system for tracking leads you already have? How does a sales manager keep their agents from being overly aggressive when dealing with prospective clients?

Here you will find some great tips for keeping your lead generation management functioning smoothly:

Have Short and Long Term Goals for Leads – Establish the initial goal of contact and possible short-term income, but also work with them to establish a pattern of business. If they claim they can’t work with you until the next fiscal year, then help them to map out a business plan with you starting next fiscal year. Don’t be put off by a lack of immediacy; if anything, that gives you more time to prepare. Think of the things in the medium and long term, too.

Be Sure Staff Properly Maintains Contact with Clients – If necessary, put a limit on how many active clients they can call in a day. Make this limit high, as they will undoubtedly have issues with some of them, and encourage contact with existing leads first thing, so as not t let business go stale. A periodic call to check and see if they need anything or have any issues to report is a great way to grease the wheels and get them buying again.

Have a Known and Appreciated Staff Process – Make sure they know what each step of the process is supposed to do, and why it is important. If they have questions, answer them clearly. A salesperson who knows why they are doing something is more likely to put effort behind their actions. Also, a process helps to track progress as well as problems. If there is a breakdown when dealing with a lead, you can go directly to the established process and find out what went wrong. This can help to salvage the lead as well as play damage control.

Make Good Use of Database Software – If you have a list of clients, make sure it is available on a shared drive, and back that drive up often. Also, keep a printed record if possible. You never know when a company is going to lose its services for a day. If you are relying on a remote database like SalesForce and they happen to go down for the day, you may be stuck not knowing which clients to call and who was working what. Keeping written records along with the digital can help curve this for the short term.

Use Visuals – Programs like Project and Visio exist for a reason, and many sales people are visual learners. Having an actual chart for your lead generation process can help them understand what they should be doing. One thing that helps is to create a universally recognized chart that details out the entire process for everyone involved to see. Post it up in every cubicle and have it available wherever they go. Exposure will help with driving home the overall importance.

Mac H McIntosh
http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/some-great-B2B-lead-generation-management-techniques-728511.html

For the past few years, you’ve heard so much about blogging that you’re reluctantly concluding that now might be the time to join the parade. Yes, blogs do have a place in the IT marketers’ arsenal, but only under the right circumstances.

Blog Basics

A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world. Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules.

In simple terms, a blog is a web page made up of short, frequently updated articles, or “posts,” arranged chronologically like a journal. New stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what’s new. Then they comment on it or link to it or email you. Or not.

Since blogs were launched, almost five years ago, they reshaped the web, impacted politics, shook up journalism, and enabled millions of people to connect with others and have a voice on the Web.

Should You Blog or Shouldn’t You

The reason you probably know the definition of “blog” is that blog readership is high among IT professionals like you. In August 2006, IT information-search company KnowledgeStorm surveyed 4,500 of its registered users, who are typically IT professionals. Of those surveyed, 80 percent said they read blogs, including 18 percent who read them daily and 33 percent who read them weekly. Keep in mind the percent of IT professionals that read blogs is dramatically higher the overall percentage.

While there are millions of blogs online, including my own B2B Marketing Blog, consider that Pew Internet & American Life Project reports that only 39 percent of Internet users read them. Before you decide to enhance your brand image and awareness with a blog, make sure your target audience is among the 39 percent of Internet users who read them.

I recommend considering blogging if and only if your audience is reading them and if you need a venue to demonstrate your expertise (branding) or are looking for additional ways to move up in the SERPs (awareness).

If you’re more concerned with driving leads and sales, pass on blogging for now. There are plenty of marketing tactics that will have a more direct impact on your bottom line.

If you decide you need to establish your expertise by blogging and sharing what you know about subjects related to your products and services, then keep these six blogging tips in mind:

• Often, techies write blogs for technical decision makers. However, some of the most effective business blogs are written by management personnel for business decision makers.

• Regardless of your editorial focus, the best-read blogs avoid hype and self-congratulatory content. Instead, they focus on content useful to their intended readers.

• To create awareness about your company, products and services, keep in mind that blogs tend to be favored in the Web’s Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), especially if it’s optimized to your industry’s keywords. Optimizing your blog can go a long way toward helping your company be found by prospects actively searching for what you sell.

• To gain and maintain readers, you need to keep your blog fresh. You’ll need someone who has the expertise, writing skills and time to frequently post new blog content. How frequently? According to a research study by public relations firm Porter Novelli and market analytics company Cymfony Inc., only 24 percent of bloggers post once a week or less (I belong to this camp). Some 39 percent of bloggers post several times a week and 37 percent post daily or multiple times a day. I recommend that you plan to post new content to your blog weekly to start. You can always turn up the frequency later, once you’re sure you have the ability to keep up the pace.

• If you’re looking for links from the blog to your Web site to boost your Web site’s search engine results, host it on a different server than where your Web site is hosted. Search using a phrase like “blog hosting” on Google or your favorite search engine to find a number of inexpensive blog hosting options.

• To move potential customers through the awareness, inquiry, consideration, and purchasing cycle using your blog you must relate all of your blog topics back to your services or products, to articles within your site, and other sales lead generation tools.

Mac Mcintosh
http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/it-marketing-should-blogging-be-on-your-b2b-marketing-todo-list-109380.html