The website and the sales team aren’t supposed to compete for the same customer.
At an industrial hose and hydraulics distributor I worked for, they did for a while. The website had the lowest pricing tier, and counter, inside, and outside sales were all up against it. Customers were shopping us against ourselves. The full story is in Sales, Customer Service, and the Website: Working From the Same Playbook.
Once we fixed that, the website stopped being competition and started being a tool.
I just started at a construction building supplier, and I’ve already seen it there too. A customer who didn’t speak English didn’t know the part name, so they pulled up a picture of it from the website on their phone and showed it at the front counter. Another customer was describing what they needed, and instead of pulling parts from the warehouse to compare, the counter cleared it up with a picture from the website.
Different industry, same idea. Here’s what it looks like when the website backs up sales.
The Website Is A Sales Tool Too
At the distributor, our reps used the website with customers. Inside sales pulled up product pages while the customer was still on the phone. Outside sales pulled up a capabilities PDF from the website to share on visits. They knew where to find it, even though it was tucked away in the navigation menu.
That’s a win and a warning. If your own reps have to know where to dig, your buyers probably won’t find it.
It only works if the website is something a rep is proud to pull up. Clean product pages, real specs, clear pictures, and pricing that matches what they’re quoting. If a rep has to say “ignore what the website says,” the website is working against them.
Sales Support Looks Different In Every Business
It doesn’t have to be product pages and spec sheets.
For a residential remodeling company, sales support might be a photo gallery of finished jobs. Even simple videos of the work in progress help. A homeowner who has already seen the kitchens you’ve built walks into the estimate halfway sold.
Whatever your sales team ends up explaining over and over, or wishing they could show, that’s what the website should have ready.
Make It Easy To Reach A Person
At the distributor, our phone number was on every page. It sounds small. It isn’t.
A buyer who has a question halfway through a product page shouldn’t have to go hunting for the contact page. Put the number where they already are: the header, the footer, or both.
Some buyers will always want to talk to someone. The website’s job is to make that easy, not to talk them out of it.
Give Sales Room To Work
When we moved website pricing to match counter sales, something else happened. It gave the sales team room to work with.
If a customer needed a better price, a rep could offer a discount right there on the phone and win them back before they hung up. The website set the baseline. Sales had the flexibility.
If your website always has the lowest price, your reps have nothing left to offer.
Hand Off Quotes Cleanly
A quote request is a buyer asking to talk to sales. If that request sits in an inbox nobody checks, the website just made sales look bad.
Know who owns quote requests, how fast they get a reply, and who else sees them. I learned that one the hard way. More in Quote Requests That Go Nowhere: Fixing the Follow-Up Gap.
Tell Sales What The Website Says
Your reps should know what’s on the website, especially anything that makes a promise. Lead times, return policies, what the company is and isn’t.
If the website says something sales can’t stand behind, the customer finds out on the phone. That’s exactly what happened in They Called the Lead Back And It Went About How You’d Expect.
Support, Not Replace
The website can answer a lot before a buyer ever calls. That’s what 10 Things Buyers Need Before They Ever Pick Up the Phone covers.
But some buyers will always call, and some customers expect their outside rep to stop by. The website’s job is to back those relationships up, not get in their way.
☕