Would you like to offer leads from yoru website?

[wecando.biz]

Hello all

We have just extended our Biz Needs feature at WeCanDo.BIZ so that owners/webmasters of other sites providing sales and marketing resources can now offer their visitors a list of leads/needs on their own website.

There's no lead without a business need first -- and now you can provide your site visitors a stream of them!

You can view our Biz Needs RSS feed at http://www.wecando.biz/rss/bizneeds.php .

We welcome you publishing these needs on your site in order to provide value to your own customers/visitors, who may be able to satisfy the needs described. They don't have to be WeCanDo.BIZ members to answer the needs, although registered members (free!) of our site have the option of selecting to get ONLY needs relevant to them forwarded to their profiles.

Of course, the above feed can also be passed to desktop, mobile or PDA readers so you can always keep up to date with what our members want.

I should add that this week has seen the introduction and enforcement of a "no sales messages" rule that will see the quality of needs increase as the rolling list gets purged of older items. We are getting about 5 new Biz Needs posted daily, although we expect this to increase.

Your feedback welcome! If anyone integrates this into their site, let us all know so we can take a look. Two examples (demos) already done are below:

http://www.entelegen.com/s_38.asp
http://www.facebook.com/pages/WeCanDoBIZ/7962983377

Let's have your thoughts! We always get great feedback from this forum.

Regards

IH

[fisicx]

I went to the entegen website and followed one of the leads. I landed on the profile page of the member and came to a grinding halt.

What am I supposed to do now? Where is the link that says 'reply to this business need'?

I also found the business need very sparse. There isn't enough room in the box to describe my particular need. It might be better to have a summary box for the feed and an expansion on the profile page.

For example:

Feed:

I am looking for a replacement laptop.

Profile:

I need a widescreen laptop with DVD RW and at least 1GB of RAM and 128Mb Graphics card. Ideally I would like Windows XP and Photoshop. A second hand machine will be OK. Click here to respond to Graham's business need.

[wecando.biz]

Thanks for your post Graham.

Can I ask, if your receptionist handed you a telephone note saying "Richard Morris needs a laptop, his number is 0800 177 7047", what would do you?

I am not being facetious, merely illustrating how our members use the site, which is much how they do business offline too.

Not everyone likes picking up the phone to new leads of course, so you join/log in and message them, or wait or them to approach you when they have seen you visit their profile. Our members also get the ability to set which Biz Needs come direct to your account, matched on keywords.

I hope this helps.

IH

[fisicx]

I agree, but if I follow the lead to the members profile there is no link to respond to the need.

That's all. Just add a link to the need that goes to the message screen with the subject already filled in. And make it even more useful by providing an SMS service if they relpy.

[wecando.biz]

There is a Send Message button just above the Biz Needs box if you wish to contact them directly, or a Share button just below that if you want to forward this on to someone else.

Regards

IH

[wecando.biz]

Originally Posted by fisicx

I agree, but if I follow the lead to the members profile there is no link to respond to the need.

That's all. Just add a link to the need that goes to the message screen with the subject already filled in. And make it even more useful by providing an SMS service if they relpy.

By the way Graham, isn't it about time you collected some endorsements on our site? Is there anything I can do to help you get some glowing customer recommendations to help enhance your own profile.

Regards

IH

[fisicx]

We are talking about usability here not how to do business.

Adding a link that says: 'respond to the business need' or 'pass on the need to a partner' just improves the usability of the site.

If I use the send message box I have to type in the subject (the business need) but by having an autofill from the need itself makes like easier for the member.

Small things like this can have a huge impact on the viability of the site.

[wecando.biz]

To be fair Graham, I don't believe you are describing a major obstacle to someone making a connection to someone to do business.

Our key aim for the site is pioneering in connecting business people and I think we'll ultimately be judged by our users on the leads they get and business problems they solve, rather than what you are describing.

A member of ours has had two leads in two days and wrote to thank me. Another has been on the site for less than a week and got two people sign up to their product, found two co-operation partners and did a favour for a customer.

Read here a review from a user of the site on their blog: http://www.6consulting.co.uk/blog/20...ebsite-review/

Clearly, there are things on the site that have left a bigger impression on them than the incovenience of having to think up their own subject heading! ;-)

IH