Before the age of the internet, sales relied very much so on trusting salesmen. The salesman used to be the only one with easily accessible information on the product he was selling, and therefore a buyer must take him at his word. In this case the buyer was not only investigating a product but also the person selling to them. This being said, after the invention of the Global web, buyers have easy access to information on products they are buying. Now on the internet, there are blogs with people telling you their opinion or different consumer ratings on almost every product. John Ellett a marketing writer for Forbes Magazine writes,
“A recent study published by Bazaarvoice demonstrated that in-store shopping behavior is significantly influenced by online research. The report, The ROBO Economy (Research Online Buy Offline), showed that 82% of smartphone users consult their phones on purchases they are about to make in-store and 45% read reviews before making a purchase.”
The end result of the studies Ellett has written about, is a level playing field. This new field allows the buyer to potentially be just as educated on the topic of their purchase as the salesman. There is now no longer an Asymmetrical Information Dynamic, where salesman are able to exaggerate or even just openly lie about their product like they could in the past, and buyers are no longer asked to blindly trust salesmen. Now that lies are a thing of the past, the best way to sell is through truth and transparency. Consumers are looking for a company they can trust.
BoweryJE22