William’s post yesterday reminded me of the same story I’ve heard from several different web hosting CEOs and sales managers. In fact, you’ve probably done the same thing. You call a bunch of competitors’ sales departments (and maybe your own, for comparison) to see who does a better job. You realize after a while that the web hosting world doesn’t have very many good closers. Some sales reps are more proficient than others in answering technical questions, but too few of them have that used-car-salesman-like ability to sign you up.
The difference between web hosts and used car salesmen is, they know what buttons to push. And they’re keenly aware that the answer is different for every prospect. Even voodoo witch doctors do a better job: whether you’re looking to win the lottery or lose weight, they’ve got a different spell kit for you. (Too bad there aren’t spells for network security, or warding off fraudulent orders.)
On the other hand, as William puts it, web hosting packages aren’t perceived as *the* solution for each customer’s different goals. And that’s our fault, because from the looks of our websites, we don’t even seem to know who our customers are. Intermedia.NET is among rare exceptions in its effort to segment customers by size and industry:
According to IDC, Intermedia and the voodoo doctors are doing what’s profitable and efficient. Lee Levitt from IDC’s Sales Leadership Board says sales success is all about identifying customer groups and their unique demands: some need lots of hand-holding, others expect specific industry knowledge from their reps. He promises substantial payoff for “investment in thoughtful, thorough, data-based sales segmentation policies and practices”, because this will allow you to tailor marketing/sales/support based on customer requirements – and track ROI across different groups.
I’ll end with two more segmentation examples. ShareFile is in the very crowded online storage business, but they manage to charge as much as $99.95 for 10GB of monthly bandwidth by positioning their service relative to specific industries. For instance, graphic designers are advised to “stop wrestling with quirky compression routines and burning CDs”. Architects are promised faster approvals from customers. Lawyers and accountants are assured that “128-bit SSL security encryption means sensitive data is secure”.
Better yet, Delaware.net CEO John McKown not only knows what his customers need, he goes out and builds the right solution for them. (The right solution, you’ll notice, doesn’t include 3000 GB of bandwidth for under $10/month.)
John was telling me yesterday that we’ve got a lot more than Google and Microsoft and Amazon to worry about. What about Quicken? What about banks? Sooner rather than later, everyone will put all kinds of data online with as little thought as we plug our latest gadgets into electrical outlets. In the end, customers will buy web space from whomever is best able to address their personal and/or business needs. And don’t tell me traditional web hosting providers will win with “better customer service“. Good is relative. You have to know how each customer segment defines it before you can deliver it.
