I think understanding how buyer's habits have changed & the amount of research they do online before agreeing to a meeting with prospective vendors is important, because the way dealers market to companies in their target market needs to change. Traditionally, dealers (regardless of size) have relied solely on salespeople canvassing or cold calling on the telephone to target prospective customers with little focus on company-supported marketing. Dealers typically do little to no email marketing (via their CRM, Constant Contact or the like), tend to have stale web content that lacks valuable & current information and rely on poorly-educated content providers to market their message through social channels. As an example, if your dealership is a Ricoh dealer in San Antonio, what benefit is it to the dealership if Structure Web (or another provider) posts information regarding Ricoh's new Customer Innovation Center in Colorado? It is nothing the dealer or their potential clients have access to, so it is worthless content. I would argue that it is somewhat harmful to the dealer since it is highly-possible that you are competing with Ricoh Direct in many new business opportunities. In addition, regardless of how many salespeople a dealer employs, it is virtually impossible for them to reach every potential customer in the market without some sort of company-supported marketing efforts to create awareness of that dealer's brand. Without informative & valuable web content, potential customers may not even know that dealer exists, much less considers them a potential business partner. Sorry for the rant. The outdated/old school/non-existent marketing practices present in the BTA channel is an area of immense frustration for me & an opportunity for improvement that very few dealers seem to seize. When was the last time you purchased any type of consumer technology (maxing out at a few thousand dollar one-time purchase) without doing in-depth research online? The fact that dealers ignore the reality that their customers & potential customers research products & services in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars range prior to making a 3-5 year commitment is mind-boggling. *Steps off soap box; twists ankle & goes to the ER.*