For most people it looks simple and great; you find a good business to business website, advertise your company and products (especially if you have a successful business model offline), and connect with good business prospects.
I have an admission- that’s what I used to think.
A few months ago, one of the salesmen in our company registered with this B-to-B website: www.tradekey.com; whereas it became clear from our readings that Alibaba is known to specialize in products from the Far East, I am still not sure about the positioning of this particular website, and would appreciate some information.
You’ll never believe how I learnrd about tradekey.com. One of employees was doing great: he would have customers, suppliers, and shipping lines contact him direct to do business. At first, he seemed well connected, but then I started to feel something wasn’t right.
And then one night Google came to the rescue: I searched the name of this employee with our company name, and to my astonishment found that in his desperation to strike good sales leads, had listed himself as President and Founder so everyone would contact him direct!!!
Now Thank God he was using contacts for company not personal objectives, but this experience highlighted need to make regulation a critical component of any strategy.
And I am not talking about security and legal complexities of cyberspace that are many times beyond you and me; I am primarily concerned with internal company policy and regulation as a critical first step to make sure individuals operate online within clearly defined parameters that protect company interests.
I can’t claim any experience doing this, but I am going to try and learn from mistakes and share corrective measures and best practices, certain we will learn much from one another. I am now trying to develop internal policy about registering with B-to-B websites, and would be grateful if you have any experiences or insights you wish to share!
Rima Merhi
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