Today I am reviewing the free online barter analysis of your company by One World Barter. You can find the actual test and try it yourself at http://www.oneworldbarter.com/intro_barter_analysis.php. This is the second time I have tried the One World Barter test…the first time I did the test, it rolled out pretty smoothly. This time, it got a little rocky.
First, let me explain the premise. You own a business. You take this test to see if your business is appropriate for bartering. According to the site, “One World Barter uses the exclusive Cash Conservator barter analysis system to determine the suitability of bartering as a solution for businesses who would like to conserve their cash and maximize their profits.”
So the test is going to give you a result according to their calculations which will give you some kind of budget or answer to your barter-suitability questions.
I absolutely love this idea, in theory. Last time I did the test, I used my software company as the guinea pig, this time using the BNW as the test subject.
During the initial sign up, One World Barter gets your business information…second page. That’s a good place for them to generate a lead. Anyone who even gets to the second page and fills it out becomes a great sales lead for One World Barter.
After page two it gets a little more interesting. You have to pick a category and then specifics. It wasn’t readily apparent to me what advertising fit under, so I picked Business Services first. Then on the next page, when I was supposed to pick a specific offering, advertising wasn’t listed, so I pushed my back button…which took me back to page one. I don’t really like starting over, and if this were not a test, but me as a consumer going to try it out, I would have left right there and not come back. Since I am reviewing it, I gave it another try. The second time I picked Printing, Advertising, and Business Promotional Products and Services.
Obviously I’m not very bright…
After choosing the right category, I filled out basics about my business…revenue, employees, margins, etc. The site ends up spitting you out on a thank you page and then taking you to OneWorldBarter.
For me, since the back button doesn’t work right…it takes some polish off. The other feature that is missing is the auto-generated response based on my answers. I know they are working on this function, but it is still something on my wishlist. I would love to finish the survey and have a quick answer instead of waiting for a person to analyze my survey and get back to me.
All in all, this is a great tool, especially for the sales team of One World Barter. The look and feel is great, the graphics are clean, the page loads quickly, and the questions are relevant. The two sticking points are pretty intense so my rating of the Free Barter Test is less than I would like.
Rating: B
