I have always believed that voice communication coming after reading some information about a seller (B2B or B2C) aids in the "conversation interaction" that brings buyers and sellers together. So, when I first heard of "Pay Per (phone) Call", I liked the basic premise, and I still do. But, for many B2B seller-advertisers like Tower Tech who makes Cooling Towers for industrial purposes, I believe, that most buyers and specifiers (engineers) want more written information upfront than what can be put in Pay Per Call ads.
This August, 2005 BtoBonline.com article caught my attention as it mentions Tower Tech as being invited to test the launch of Verizon Superpages's new version of this. Tower Tech seemed happy with the growing results in early August, but it looks like they only have their listing and a nice Sponsored Link ad, as of today? My opinion is that most of their buyers want to see their web site first before they call Tower Tech. Most industrial buyers want to be sure that the supplier has exactly what they want, or has the potential to make it, before they get on the phone with a salesperson.
I just installed Skype on my laptop. It works fine, but I did it mostly out of curiosity for now. But, I can't help think of all that I have read on the possibilities for increased online buyer and seller timely interaction and good communication.
Two days ago on their Share Blog, Niclas and Janus (Skype's founders) said "We believed that voice is the most natural way for people to communicate and that making it widely and easily available would be a major step forward in Internet communications. We also thought that as the Internet grew, there was no reason why everyone in world shouldn’t be able to talk for free." It should be interesting to see if the basic service does remain free as there is speculation about how eBay buyers and sellers could be charged on a "Pay Per Call" basis using Skype technology.
I've always said that everybody is in sales at sometime or another in their life. If you have a girlfriend or boyfriend or your married, you sold yourself. If you ever had a job, you sold yourself. If you got passing grades in school, you sold yourself. So too, if you post on a blog or even just talk with others, you're selling your thoughts and opinions, as well as yourself, whether you realize it or not. Keep in mind my definition of sales: Educating people to an opportunity, and then making it easy for them to buy.
Therefore, education requires communication of some kind even if it is non-verbal or non-written (body language). The seller's main focus should be to gain understanding or reading comprehension in the case of a blogger or article writer. Content length is not as important as compelling and comprehended content. This post on short vs. long blog posts discusses both.
If only all the parents of all the school age American kids could realize the importance of the Internet Revolution that has been going on, but is taking off at a faster rate right now, in my opinion. They would get out of their comfort zones, and do whatever it takes to learn more about computers, the internet, and search engine usage. Then they could encourage and share in the learning experience with their children.
Yesterday, a five year old Chinese search engine had its IPO, and this article from the San Francisco Business times said "Baidu launched its shares at $27 and saw them rise more than fourfold, closing its first day of Nasdaq trading at $122.54. That 354 percent increase represented the biggest first-day increase of a new stock since the heyday of the dot-com boom more than five years ago." The two founders attended SUNY Buffalo and Texas A&M respectively. This article in Wired News on 7/31/05 says "China's communist government promotes internet use for business and education." Baidu.com is now the sixth most widely used search engine in the world, mainly due to 100 million Chinese users, out of a possible, future 1 billion, are using it.
