Just this week, a member of my audience asked me the following:

"Why would a local company, with a large investment in trained, professional sales people need a Web site?"

Great question! And you might be thinking the same. . .

Maybe you already know many or all of your potential customers, maybe you have very defined processes and production cycles that don't change very quickly, maybe you're suspicious of the Internet "hype" - especially now that so many e-companies are falling by the wayside.

But we also know that the Internet isn't going away. 407 million people are now estimated to have access - that includes 167 million in N. America, and 113 million in Europe. Younger people increasingly spend more time online than watching TV. And the April edition of this magazine has an e-commerce focus . . .

The true challenge now