First up for all the IT people out there and the cousins please do not send me hate mail.
The purpose of this blog post was to inform vend operators that building an effective website that will generate high quality leads is not an easy task. There are a lot of components that need to come together to make the website work and nine times out of ten relatives and IT guys do not know what it takes to build a lead generation website.
I talk to approximately 10-15 vend operators a week about having a website for their company. Nine times out of ten I hear the same few responses.
1. Yeah we know we need a website and my cousins son is going to build it.
2. Yeah we know we need a website and my IT guy who fixes my computers is going to build one for me.
3. I already have a website but it doesn’t really get me any leads.
Before you build a website you have to understand a few things. If a facility manager of a large manufacturing company with 500 employees and has three shifts operating 7 days a week and wants to replace their current service there is a very good chance that they are going to go online and “search” for a local company. You have one shot at getting this companies attention. First and foremost you need to be found and second your website has to convey a message to that facility manager that “you are the company that they need to do business with”. You get found by having your website optimized for the search engines and you get their attention by a well laid out and graphically designed site.
So even though your cousin and your IT guy have the ability to string a website together do you really want to trust your livelihood to them. Most IT guys and cousins or relatives have no clue about search engine optimization. Plus they are not going to be able to adivse you on what you actually need to build becuase they have no expereince in sales and marketing and probably no vending experience. You are going to have to tell them what you want and you might not really know what you need so between the two of you it is going to be tough.
When you decide to get a website for your company you need to make sure you do it right. If you get a website built and it isn’t done right it is not going to convey the message you need and that 500 person account might jump off your site and go somewhere else.
A well designed website for your vending or office coffee company will be your best sales rep. It will be ready to sell your company 24/7 and will never call in sick, it will never need to take a vacation and definitely not try to sue you. It will also be your cheapest sales rep. Its usually a one off fee and a small monthly hosting charge.
If you want some tips on how to construct a website for your vending company come to www.vendcentral.com and read some of the articles we have on web design and see some of the samples of sites we have built. We have a built a lot of websites for vending companies around the country and they are all pulling in great accounts.