Are you tired of these high gas prices?  So are your customers.  Now is the time to take a serious look at online services that save time and money by helping you accomplish more online.  Your customers will appreciate not having to drive to your office, or store, and you will appreciate the increased online business because of today’s gas crisis.  High gas prices mean more online sales.  Get ready.

Online sales tools are very popular for business-to-business relationships.   Do not overlook business to consumer possibilities, especially on higher priced items.  Helping a customer through pre-sales options online might save them time or money.  Imagine, as a consumer, being able to select color and material options in advance.  It could reduce two or three trips to the store down to just one.

Build an Online Sales Environment

• Free Conference Calls – Free conference call services are quite good and they really are free. Use these for sales demo calls, staff meetings, etc. Search Google.com for “free conference calls” and find www.FreeConferenceCall.com and many others.
• Free Video Conferencing – Check out services such as www.NowLive.com, www.SticKam.com, and other video conferencing services. Some cater towards entertainment but work fine for business and sales presentations. Search for “video conferencing” or “free video conferencing” or “free video chat”. There are plenty of choices.
• Webinars - Webinars allow you to share your computer screen with participants. Have callers join a conference call and then login to the webinar site and you can conduct presentations online. Search Google.com for “webinars”.
• Online Sales – Provide the ability to order any of your products or services online, over the phone, or through the mail. Make sure the whole process is painless. Include FAQs, guarantees, privacy notices, anti-spam notices, etc. Make sure the entire online sales process is secure and comfortable for your customers.

The bottom line is that gas prices force consumers to do more shopping online.  It costs too much money to drive around all weekend.  The upcoming Christmas season will certainly set new records in online sales while retail sales will be dismal.

Now is the time to get your website cleaned up and ready to sell more products and services online.