How do you do business now? What has changed for you and how you purchase things? In his new speech, “Short Circuits,” keynote speaker Terry Jones sparks his attendees’ creativity about the future and motivates them to come up with the next new idea.
The 1990s promised that the internet would change the landscape of how products were bought and sold is finally coming true. In all industries buyers are ‘short circuiting’ the traditional buying process to save themselves time and money.
Consumers today are internet empowered, time starved yet information rich. And as Terry Jones has observed to audiences here and abroad, to achieve the speed and convenience today’s busy world requires they are using the internet to bend traditional processes.
In industries as diverse as financial services, heating and air conditioning and heavy equipment, web enabled buyers are changing the role of the middleman and causing manufacturers to reinvent marketing, distribution and sales.
Eight of ten high end car buyers search the web before visiting a dealer. The sales floor is once again becoming a ‘show room’ to consumers who already know everything about the car, including exactly what they want to pay.
In a similar fashion patients arrive at the doctor armed with in depth knowledge of their malady and the drug they want prescribed to fix it. For the Doctor, the travel agent, the stock broker, their stranglehold on information has been broken, and their value proposition has changed. Tomorrow’s doctor may be more of a knowledge navigator than knowledge provider – surviving Travel Agents are back to giving advice not just information.
And it’s not just the consumer world that is changing quickly. The industrial world is being reshaped as well. The traditional long purchasing cycle, with plant tours, long lunches, and voluminous brochures, has been scrapped. The buyer now calls the company directly, awash with information and demands your best product, shipped in half the time at a quarter of your price or he will go to your competitor (in China) today! The salespersons role must now be consultative and solution oriented, as the old price and availability questions are all on line.
Terry has been deeply involved in these changes through his work in venture capital and in his management role in internet companies like Travelocity, Kayak, Rearden, Overture and EarthLink.
He has recently spoken to groups in Health Care, Insurance, Personal Sales (Avon), Financial Planning, Real Estate and Heavy Industry about how ‘short circuiting’ is revolutionizing their marketing, distribution and sales processes. He can help your client’s audiences understand what is coming and prepare for the next wave of change.
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Terry Jones, founder of Travelocity.com, former CIO of Sabre, Inc and now Chairman of Kayak.com is a serial(relentless) innovator and leader who can stimulate your audience with his unique insights of the future of business.
Michelle Miller of Aviva USA says, “Terry was FABULOUS and the program was great! Our audience really enjoyed his program and he did an excellent job of tailoring the message to our business. I am still receiving comments (ie, raves).”
To learn more about how Terry can contribute to your next meeting or conference, visit his keynote speaker profile page on The Speakers Group web site.
