Our top competitor had never offered their product brochures on their website. Their website was still sporting a 1999 look, so I assumed this same indifference applied to posting PDFs.
But since they brought their website into the 21st century earlier this year, their general catalog is the only worthwhile PDF (still sporting a 1998 look). They don’t even let the site’s visitors know that product-specific brochures exist.
Are they trying to keep them a secret? Are they afraid I might get them?
Well, of course I have them! I found some of them posted online elsewhere. A few have been leaked by prospects who had to give them to us so we could ‘match’ their products.
I gave up trying to keep our product info a secret a long time ago. I don’t understand their rationale. They’ve got to assume we’ve got this info anyway, so why are they keeping it a secret?
At one time salespeople felt threatened by website content diluting their power of information, but today salespeople are frustrated if they aren’t supported by a robust website. And we all can guess how the prospects are feel about this.
Time was we would get thousands of brochures printed, and try to get into as many hands as possible. Why should it be any different today?