Any businessperson can tell you that the better you know what your customers like, the easier it is to make a sale. But that's harder to do when you run a Web site. Web analytic software can help; it lets you monitor site traffic for things like general trends, number of visitors per page, the page they were on when they left site or the percentage of customers that came to shopping cart and checked out.

But a brand new company — Genius Inc. — says that its inaugural product — SalesGenius — goes even further and lets you track individual visits on your site so that you can then offer customized service and sales pitches.

The SalesGenius results screen shows the status of your e-mail invitations. (Click for larger image).

According to David Thompson, Genius' CEO (and former vice-president of product marketing at Web-conferencing giant, WebEx), the company designed SalesGenius to help sales and marketing folks focus their time and energy on the most qualified customers.

"Web analytics tells you volumes of traffic, page views and geographic info whereas SalesGenius tells you, for example, when a buyer from Macy's is on your site and what she's looking at," said Thompson. "Once you know that, you can present her with personalized service in much the same way that Amazon.com does."

Typically, sales people have no idea what customers look at or where they go on the Web site. Thompson says SalesGenius lets you get to know your customers better and target their interests so that these pre-qualified customers receive better service when the come to your Web site.

Theory Behind the Software
Genius also designed the software to be easy to use. "We're targeting this at small businesses, so it needs to be accessible," said Thompson. "There's no configuring, no IT involvement, no lines of code and no Java."

The SalesTracker is similar to an instant message buddy list. It shows you who is on the Web site in real time. (Click for larger image).

The company's aiming SalesGenius primarily at B2B businesses, and it's designed to work with both e-commerce and non-e-commerce sites. It also works with eBay and Yahoo stores.

Here's the basic premise:

• Create an e-mail invitation using SalesGenius or Outlook
• Include links to your Web site in the invitation and send the e-mail
• GeniusTracker, a presence indicator modeled on an instant message Buddy List, tracks who opens the e-mail, which links they click on and which Web pages they go to

The GeniusTracker box also includes a replay button that Thompson says lets you replay and review each customer's journey on your Web site. He said that SalesGenius helps sales professionals "immediately understand who's hot and who's not so they can better serve their customers and sell more, faster."

Pricing
Genius offers a 30-day free trial. After that, SalesGenius costs $49 per month, per person.

Lauren Simonds is the managing editor of SmallBusinessComputing.com. This article originally appeared on SmallBusinessComputing.com.

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