The Online World resources handbook

Getting an edge over your competitors http://home.eunet.no/~presno/bok/11.html
To sell products and services, you need sources for identifying potential buyers. With a
little ingenuity, you can probably create your own list of targeted sales leads, simply
using your modem.
How would cosmetics sell in Japan? What about sneakers in Mexico? In the age of
the global business community, questions about expanding product services beyond
national borders abound.
It is safe to claim that the best business opportunities are outside your company, in
the external world.
Companies need to watch customers and markets, find technologies to help develop
and build products, research new business actions, find new subcontractors and
suppliers, people to hire, and persons to influence to boost sales.
In this marketing age, where sales calls cost hundreds of dollars and business
to business marketers use the telephone or the mails to reach prospects, maintaining
complete and accurate market lists is important.
There are many other questions: What are our most important customers and their
key people doing? What new products are they promoting? Who are their partners?
What else may influence their willingness to buy from us?
What prices are our major suppliers offering other buyers? Should we get other
sources for supplies? What major contracts have they received recently? Will these
influence their ability to serve our needs?
What new technologies are available now, and how are they being used by others?
Threats are the reverse side of opportunities. What are our competitors doing? What
products and services have they launched recently? Are they successful? What are our
competitors' weaknesses and strengths? What relationships do they maintain with our
most important customers? How is their customer support functioning, and what
methods are they using in their quality assurance?
Are new trade regulations being introduced in important foreign markets?
Each company has its own priorities when it comes to watching the external
environment. The information needs differ depending on what products and services are
being offered, the technological level of the company, the markets that it addresses, and
more.
Needs and priorities also differ by department and person, for example depending
on whether a user is the president, a marketing manager, product manager, sales person,
or has a position in finance or production.
Remember your priorities when online. You cannot possibly capture and digest all
information that is out there. Your basic problem is to find the right information in the
right form at the right time.
Consider appointing an online manager. Select and empower a central manager to
oversee the process of exploiting the online resource. A "make things happen" person,
who can also be a contact point for upper management.
Monitoring your own business
What kind of news about your company is being published? What do others say about
your products and services? What kind of exposure do your new product
announcements get in the media?
Maybe you will find useful sources to monitor at NewsCenter?
Monitoring other people's Web pages
Monitor changes in your competitors' "What's New" or "Product Description" pages by
subscribing to the MyMindit service. For a small annual fee, you'll get a notification by
email each time an identified Web page changes. Alternatively, have the Web page sent
you as html mail or mail attachment, or the notification sent to your pager or cell phone.
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tracked. There is a more comprehensive service for webmasters.
Web2mail also delivers web pages as attachment to email whenever they change.
You can also request files of the following formats: PDF (Adobeô Acrobatô files),
GIF, and JPG image files. Subscriptions may be done from the web page or by email.
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