Many times the purpose of a website is to serve as additional information for a prospective client to look at after some sort of direct personal contact with them. They come to your site to check you out further. I like to think of them as an extension of the limited information on your business card, brochure, or a brief interaction with a prospective client at networking event, sales call, and or an introductory email.
While these types of websites may not generate any revenue directly they are crucial for any business to seem legitimate. I think it is important to think this way when budgeting for website construction. I've dealt with too many clients that expected their website to be magic beans in producing new business. Yes, in some cases, like a locksmith for example, their business does rely directly on web searches and internet traffic to bring them a large portion of their business, but more times than not, it is not going to be the genesis for large scale generation of new business, yet it is essential to have one. If you are building a business to business site, make sure you invest in the essentials before spending large sums of money on bells & whistles that may not generate any return on investment.
