How Customers Buy

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"Demand generation" is the new name for "marketing." It has its roots in every salesman's fantasy. Salespeople are happiest when their product is in demand, when they're writing orders rather than having to make cold calls and trying to convince people to buy. The sweetest phrase a salesman can say to himself is, "I'm in demand!"

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Every day, potential buyers are calling your company for the first time. They are also calling competing companies. This is the "first contact test."

If you are like most companies, your first-time callers will be confronted with a recorded voice that tells them to "select from the following options."

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Your website is one of the most important "employees" in your company. It is your company's most important salesperson and service person.

What kind of employee is it? Is it friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable? Or snarly and surly, thwarting the customer (and sabotaging the sale) at every turn?

I just bought a new laptop and its associated software and accessories. As I purchased and configured the computer, I was reminded again how stark the difference is between companies with a helpful website and companies with an obstructive website.

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Strip away all the blather about image and branding and positioning and market share and guerilla marketing and relationship marketing, and on and on, and you have this basic fact: it's all about someone buying something. Period. It's time we stopped obsessing about how we "sell" and start obsessing about how our customers buy...and how we can help them.

Here's a great example of a buying process. The person doing the buying lives here on our island. Roger Marshall is an entrepreneur, boat designer, author, columnist, editor, and publisher. Anyway, Roger and I got to chatting recently about buying experiences. Shortly afterwards, he sent me an email about his recent attempt to buy a camera.

I'll let Roger tell his story:

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"You want a service that fits you perfectly," the headline says. "We tailor to your size."

What service?

The rest of this ad, which appeared in The Wall Street Journal Online Edition, doesn't help answer this question. There's a picture of a tape measure - one of the most worn-out cliches in the history of advertising, online or off.