Introduction
It is the summer of 1999, and the president and chief executive off of InSite Marketing Technology, Stefania Nappi is thinking long and hard about why the company’s powerful product could be so promising and yet be selling so poorly. InSite sells trust-based on-line advisers—a software technology for helping customers select products on the Web and feel more comfortable with on-line buying. InSite’s software is especially useful in buying situations in which customers choose from a complex array of product choices, such as pickup truck and notebook computers.
InSite’s software ameliorates the cold, impersonal nature of search and navigate Web sites by using a virtual salesperson and a dialogue-based user interface. The virtual salesperson is a “personality” that creates rapport with customers rather than a site that merely presents text-only questions. Behind the scenes, powerful software interprets customer interactions in terms of the likely needs, preferences, and expertise level. The software combines leading research form two areas: predictive statistical models and the psychocognitive basis of trust in business transactions.
Now, after nearly two and half years, InSite is running low on cash and is looking to raise a new round of investment. Nappi knows that the value proposition for the product is good and that e-commerce is booming. Although many companies are trying to figure out how to sell products over the Web, actual sales of the on-line adviser have lagged behind expectation. InSite need to understand why sales lag, how to boost sales, and how to prove to potential investors that InSite has both a winning product and winning plan for selling that product.