Informational Billboards vs. Sales Portals

I've been consulting Twyla about her training business for quite some time. One of the first things that we talked about was converting her website from an informational billboard to a sales portal with automated business processing.

An informational billboard only provides general information to the public about your services and products. There is no actual business being transacted, meaning no money has been exchanged. Although all website have information about the services and products being offered by a company, it is a waste of money if that is all it does.

A sales portal with automated business processing, on the other hand, not only brings in eyeballs, it also transacts sales. In Twyla's case, her website needed to display a calendar of upcoming trainings, register people for trainings, take payments from customers, and send out notices of upcoming trainings. The website itself need to be a marketer, an event coordinator, and cash register all in one. In other words, the website itself needed to generate income. Not only did the website need to generate leads, it needed to actually close the sale as well.

If you're website is just sitting there with a bunch of information, it is simply an informational billboard, and is not making it's money back. Even if the website does generate leads, it is you that is closing the sale, not the website.

Getting someone to design your website for you costs a significant amount of money. If you design your site yourself, it will take a considerable amount of time. If you're going to invest that much time and money on a product like your website, it would only make sense that it transact sales, and not just attract eyeballs. Your money and time would be better spent in creating a sales portal rather than just an informational billboard.