Putting Experience To Work

As many of the Print Design talent I work with begin to bend under the pressure to “Do It All” (a pervasive request by clients), web design has become the direction many of them are moving. As Adobe creates more products which promote cross pollinization this is becoming easier for the astute designer.

One thing that print designers ask me is: What do I ask the client before I develop the site?

As a Project Manager, and an Account Executive, here is my considered answer:

Whether you are creating a new website from scratch or remodeling an old one, you need to have a clear vision of what your client’s goal for the site. This questionnaire will help you clarify your thoughts so that you, and your client, can create the best website for their business. If a question does not apply, just skip it. It is a lot of work, but the more effort you put into this exercise, the more you will learn about the project and the happier your client will be with the finished product.

1. What type of website will you be building? For example:

• An Informational or Brochure Site (a site that contains brief introduction to your company) 
• An Entertainment Site (a site that draws visitors through entertainment while still providing information about you)
• A Community Site (a site that builds a community) 
• An E-commerce Site (a site that sells items directly or through affiliate links)

2. What is the reason the client wants to have a website?

• To provide customer service. 
• To sell a product. (E-commerce) 
• To provide general and/or product information. 
• To build customer loyalty. 
• To make an announcement. 
• Show my business in a favorable light 
• Develop a list of qualified prospects
• Encourage clients/customers to contact us
• Make money 
• Name branding 
• Stake my place on the web

3. What are the goals for the site? List both short term and long-term goals. Define the criteria that will determine if the website is a success.

4. Ask the client for a short description of their business - a printed brochure will do. What does their company do? What are the features of their products and/or services? Is the company local, regional, national or international? What areas do they want to specifically appeal to?

5. Who is the target market? Be specific. This will help determine which site style will appeal to most of your client’s visitors.

6. Does the client have a marketing plan? If so, how does the site fit into the plan?

7. What is the most important message you wish to convey to your visitors?

8. For an E-commerce site, what type of e-commerce solution is needed?

1. Non-interactive. Visitors must print and fax order or phone order in. 
2. Single page secure order form that sends each order as an e-mail to the client. 
3. Multi-page secure order form with shopping cart, visitors can pick products while continuing to look at the site, change their order, preview order and submit on-line. Order sent as e-mail or downloaded via FTP from the server. 
4. Full e-commerce shopping cart with automated real time credit card processing, integrated with backend database.

9. List all of the methods for payment options (money order, check, internet check, PayPal, various credit cards, etc.) that will be accepted.

10. Do customers have buying seasons? Does the site need to be changed for each season? What will be done to entice shoppers in the off seasons? This should be outlined in the Marketing Plan.

11. Is there a brick and mortar or other off-web location or contact point (like a mail order catalog)? How will the website and off-line business work together?

12. Who are your client’s competitors? List some of their competitors website URLs.

13. What does your client like about their competitors websites? What do you dislike?

14. What makes your client’s company better than your competition? What unique content will your client provide that competitive sites do not?  (free bonuses, lifetime warranty, free shipping and handling, free upgrades, etc.)

15. If you do not already have a domain name, be sure to choose one with your most important keyword in the URL. Your domain name should be easily identifiable and easy to explain over the phone and print on a business card.

16. Have you thought of a slogan or catch phrase for your business?

17. Do you have a Logo? This is important for branding purposes. Do you have company colors? Your company logo and colors as well as the website URL and your slogan should be used on every bit of information relating to your company.

18. A well laid out site has no more than 6 to 8 topic links to interior pages on the main page. The following are typical pages and included information. Cross off anything you feel does not fit your vision of your site.

• Home Page - do you want a splash page? 
• Products and/or Services. Links on this page might be: 
  • Product Description/specifications / demos/samples 
  • Order Form 
  • Catalogs 
  • Prices 
  • Testimonials/ Galleries or reviews
  • Shipping Information
• Purchasing/ Shopping Cart/Dealer List 
• Product features & benefits. Tips and Tricks
• Parts list, schematics, assembly instructions 
• Warranty & Return Policy 
• Informational Pages 
• Guest Book 
• About Us/Contact Us 
• Privacy Policy 
• Free stuff - screensavers, wallpaper, contests, polls. referral form (Giving your visitor a reason to return.) 
• FAQ 
• News and Events or other regional information
• Glossary of terms or Interesting Facts 
• Articles/newsletter 
• Links 
• Customer Service 
• Book Store

19. How can your visitor contact you? How to you plan to encourage feedback? Do you want to use a survey form to gather information from your customers or visitors? If so what questions would you like to ask and can you offer something in return for filling out the form (a free report, discount, etc.)?

20. Do you have an existing web site? What do you like about it? What do you dislike?

21. List any related web sites that provide services or information useful to your target audience. Reciprocal links with these sites will be beneficial to both your customers and your ranking in the search engine.

22. Do you need domain registration and/or an ISP to host the site? What level of hosting will be required? What is your budget for the completion of the web site and yearly maintenance?  If you do not already have a domain name, be sure to choose one with your most important keyword in the URL. Check on NetworkSolutions.com to see if the  name has been taken. Your domain name should be easily identifiable and easy to explain over the phone and print on a business card. 

23. Do you have any custom graphic needs or will you be able to supply all of the images required?

24. What types of components other than still photos and text do you want to include (e-commerce, affiliate programs, virtual reality images, java applets, backend database integration, survey forms, feedback forms, opt-in newsletter management, referral forms, etc.)? What type of opt-in mail gathering do you want to use?

25. What type of security is required for the web site? Will there be sensitive files that need to be protected? Do you need a password protected area for dealers, members and/or downloads? Do you need any digital delivery systems to individually password protect each customers download?

26. Please list and gather any existing materials and information that will help design your site. Here are some examples. Feel free to add any special needs or components required that are not listed.

1. Photos (prints, slides, negatives) 
2. Text 
3. Brochures 
4. Business cards 
5. Flyers 
6. Product shots 
7. Product samples 
8. Press releases 
9. Price and part lists 
10. Frequently Asked Questions 
11. Shipping and handling charges and constraints 
12. Warranty policy 
13. Privacy policy
14. Return policy 
15. Guarantees 
16. Testimonials and/or endorsements 
17. Credits 
18. Bios 
19. History 
20. Education/Certifications/Awards 
21. Case studies 
22. Photos of yourself, staff and location 
23. Transcripts of interviews 
24. Industry recognition 
25. Map and directions from major airports, recommended places to stay nearby (if people visit your location)

27. By now, you should have a clear picture of your website and your customers in mind. Please indicate your top 10 keywords and your top 10 keyword phrases. These keywords and phrases are the words search engines may use to locate your site in response to an inquiry. To rank well with search engines, your site should contain quality content using the actual words and phrases your prospects are searching with. These keywords will need to be used in the text of your pages, so it is important to select them carefully. For help with this please give me a call at 847-251-5776, or send an email to ardath@contractcreatives.com

Some say that “Common Sense Ain’t So Common” which may have something to do with Professional Courtesy going by the wayside. Professional Courtesy is common sense. The world is getting smaller as we all grow older, our economy is global and the chances of running into the same business contacts more than once has increased exponentially.

More and more as time is going by, it seems since the late 1990’s, people are not returning calls or emails and it has become common place. It used to be, that people respected other’s time and expertise, now it is more about the knee jerk need, and when the job is cancelled or the need has passed (sometimes because it is taken care of internally at the company), the courtesy of a call to cancel the need or an email saying “we found someone else”, seems to be too hard to do.

The next time you run into that person whose call you didn’t return, or email you ignored, how happy or responsive do you think s/he will be. Come on people, put yourself in the place of the person you are not being responsive to. The U.S. economy is recovering, how will you fare when the company with the best people who give the best responsiveness to your need no longer work with you because of your inability to pick up the phone or write an email. Maybe you think that there is a plethora of talent out there just waiting for your call. The truth is, the talent is getting pickier and pickier the better and more skilled they are. Do yourself a favor, be courteous, it pays.

Well, on some things I am very quick on the uptake, on others; like changing the way I do business, it takes me a bit longer to make a move.

As I work with clients, over time we get to know each other and start to see where we can help one another in more areas than talent or freelance help. We talk, we shmooze, and soon find out that they have a need that I can help fill and/or I know someone who can help them out. With my client Anne Marie Concepcion, www.senecadesign.com, it has become a natural way for us to do business. We get together, talk about the daily grind and things come up where we can help each other. Anne Marie has been a great source for clients for my business, people naturally come to her for help because of her training and fantastic newsletter (designgeek - you may want to sign up for this, it’s great!), and when she can’t do the project, she suggests the client contact me.

Conversely, when I have ideas for Anne Marie on how I can help her grow her business, we talk about planning and new markets. I have turned some potential clients onto her and her training, as well as supplied some trainers for her courses.

Since this has been working well for us for a few years, I decided in the spring of 2007 to start talking to my other clients about a similar type of partnership. Every one of them has asked me to come by their office to discuss this option. In the meeting, I ask a bunch of questions and sometimes I give answers. The upshot is that I know a lot more about them and their focus than I did before. Not only can this potentially bring them new clients, but as they grow, they will need the type of talent I provide. A good match, I think.

I know, I know, everyone else is already doing this. I guess that now it is my turn. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I still think that a phone is the most effective negotiating tool and is the fastest and easiest way to resolve a contract negotiation.

I don’t know why it is, but there are people (sometimes clients, sometimes vendors) who think it is more important to document a negotiation, than it is to complete the negotiation and they insist on solely using email to communicate. I firmly believe that once an agreement has been made, it is imperitive for the terms to be written out and approved by both parties. My contractual preference (after watching too much court tv) is to get a comprehensive written contract signed by both parties with the specifics of the agreement.

I have had more than one experience in recent years with clients who are usually harried, their company is usually experiencing a growth spurt and they claim to not have time to read all their emails. Yet, they need my help or the help of one of my vendors and cannot find a minute to just pick up the phone to quickly negotiate for the services.

It is commonly known that emails are generally read as “negative”, especially when there is a negotiation going on and one or both people involved are emotionally attached to the outcome. See the article by the American Psychological Association. This factor keeps email negotiations very low on my list for favorable contractual outcomes.

My most recent experience with this phenomenon ended yesterday. It must have taken the client a total of an hour to write all of the emails he sent to me over the past two days, yet he insisted he was swamped. I suggested a 5 minute phone conversation which would have put his and my concerns to rest, but he would not return my phone call. We eventually resolved the issues via multiple (an not so pleasant emails from his side) emails and we came to an agreement, at which time I wrote him an email outlining our agreement, he agreed, signed and faxed it over, and the project started today.

The point I am getting to is that during the massive amount of email exchanges, he asserted all kinds of unfounded offensive remarks. In my opinion, barraging the opposing party with accusations never moves a situation forward, it usually stymies or kills the negotiation leaving bad feelings on both sides. Bargaining via email, is never a good idea. My suggestion is to Pick Up The Phone and then seal the deal in email. It makes for better partnerships and relationships.

In my next blog, I will address points regarding diffusing hostile or aggressive situations, either via email, by phone or in-person(which usually doesn’t happen, since most people read body language pretty well).

This month has been quite busy so far. What with a new start-up, new partners in the new start-up(more later) and working with a new client; Burgopak USA, LLC.

Over a month ago, this very nice man, Jeremy Billy contacted me from my posting on The Creative Hotlist. Jeremy is the President of Burgopak USA, a company that is based in England. They have the coolest packaging concept derived from kids pop-up books. I received a sample of their packaging yesterday and it is truly quality workmanship and a novel concept.

I digress… Jeremy called me because they have expanded their company from the East Coast to the Northern Suburbs of Illinois. Jeremy engaged my services to help him find a Senior Packaging Engineer for their new office. While this is outside of my usual realm of placement, after speaking with Jeremy for a while, I decided to take on the challenge. I really enjoy working with nice people who like to partner in working relationships (I know I have said this before). Jeremy was very clear that he has long term working relationships with his vendors and after I received his credit references, I found that it was true.

As luck would have it, I was able to procure a candidate with the type of background they are looking for. I never knew that these packaging engineering folks were A: so hard to find and B: so specialized.

Contract negotiations have ensued and I look forward to a long a fruitful relationship with Burgopak.

I’ve been working with Orbitz’s creative group since Q4 of 2006. I must say that this company is on time, on target and very good to work with.

I was called in last year to work with their creative team to staff up as they brought an aspect of their creative back in-house. I found their design team leader for them and what a great experience. She loves the work, the projects are exactly what the description said they would be. Upper level management communicates well, (albeit mostly by email) and the attribute I like most in good clients, they pay when they say they will. Gold stars for Orbitz.

The Past
In 1999 after doing the “build a business” thing for 15 years with my former company - Freelance Hotline in Chicago, I left the corporate structure norm behind. Because of my natural tendencies toward care taking, and the fact I did not have children, my business became family and the workers, my “familial” responsibility. I am not saying that this was a necessarily healthy way to grow a business, but heck, I didn’t know any better and when I started the company at 24 years of age, I knew nothing of what it would become.

In 1999, middle age was upon me, and I knew I had to break the mold of caretaking, because, well, it was breaking me. I sold the company to one of my employees. (I also sold my car, my house, and moved. I know what mid life crisis is… a new start to the second half of life).

Fast forward to 2005.

I decided to get back into the game doing small business consulting; it was great but not enough of a money maker, so I took on creative placement and project management too. The difference? I work from home, all of my people work virtually from their offices or home. And thanks to Basecamp, all projects are worked on virtually.

Seasoned Professionals
Because I am working with seasoned pros that I have known for years, or I know through someone I have known for years, working virtually is mostly a breeze. Once the team members get used to the online software, everything pretty much flows. The clients love it too, they can see each stage of the project and where everyone fits and responsibility is not in question. Love it, love it, love it!!! No employee hassles, only the fruits of our combined labor.

What Do Clients Get?
Control over their project(s), lower project rates, and a team that shows up in person for presentations as necessary. Happy clients, happy team, happy me.

More On Virtual Teaming:
Making Work-at-Home Work for Everyone, on Harvard Business School Working Knowledge 
Team Building for Virtual Workplace, by Mike Dempster, in Business Edge

While working with hundreds of clients over the past 24 years, I have found that the relationships which are most comfortable for my team and especially for our clients, are based on partnership. You may be thinking either: well duh! or you’re asking yourself if you truly have this partnership experience with your clients.

“Partnerships” as opposed to “working relationships” come out of a deeper desire on both sides of the equation - the supplier and client - to create a true understanding of what the requirements are for the client company and how the client wants the product or service delivered. Each and every client has individual needs and requirements, some are dependent on corporate directives, but I have found that most are personal to the individual client contact. So, therein lies the need to create and maintain a deeper and connected relationship.

For those of you reading this who think that a deeper understanding of your client is not of interest to you, I suspect that you are in a “one-time sale only” business and therefor this does not apply to you. If however, you are in a business maintained and grown through your clients, there may be some pointers for you here.

Many of us subscribe to the idea that it is far less expensive to keep clients you have and grow with them than it is to keep finding new clients. Assuming this is true, let’s look at how it is possible to create longer lasting relationships with clients you already have.

Example
I recently won a new client through an introduction from one of my longtime clients: Rob Engelman. We’ll talk about Rob more in later posts. The client is a very large home improvement product manufacturer and they have a newly formed marketing department - about 2 years old. The whole staff met with me and it was clear from their questions that they were not happy with their current design group and were looking for a better solution. Here are some of the questions I asked them during our first meeting.

1. Who have you been using for your creative development for your products?
2. What have they done that you really like. Is their creative amazing? Is their customer service to your liking?
3. How long have you worked with them?
4. What don’t you like about your relationship with them? (Listen carefully to this answer as it is very important - you will learn not only what the supplier is not delivering - you also find out what the client’s real needs are). Ask for more information about this so that you get a very clear idea of expectations.
5. What are you looking for now that you were not getting?

Once I have a clear picture in my mind of where they are coming from, what the expectations and frustrations are, I then ask for information on upcoming projects that my team and I can look forward to bidding on.

Engage
So, the partnership begins, there is information, clarification and a request from me regarding potential work. The part of this that tends to deepen the relationship into a partnership is not only my laying out my capabilities, and the client laying out their needs, the true connection - I believe - comes from a true concern on my part for the client’s success and even more important, that the we both understand that we must co-create the project/relationship in order for the project to become successful.

Story: This morning I went to get coffee at the local Starbuck’s and the guy in line in front of me had a familiar face. After getting my traditional latte, I walked up to him and said “you work at the restaurant down the street don’t you?” A nice conversation ensued, and it turns out that he will be leaving his job managing that restaurant this spring to open his own restaurant in Evanston.

So, I took the opportunity to let him know that my company does graphic design and websites, and we could help him not only design his menus, but help with his website. I also mentioned that I do small business consulting, and would you believe that he needs a business plan for his investors. He and I were both happy that we “bumped” into each other. I have a meeting set up with him to go over particulars next week. Selling IS having fun! All I did was say hello to him, with no ulterior motive and something nice came about.

Over the past few years while consulting for various small businesses and when talking with freelancers, the abhorence of the “7 letter word” - SELLING has come up time and again.

What Selling is NOT
When most people talk to me about selling their product or service, what they always describe are salespeople who are “pushing” things on them. Kind of like SPAM which shows up in your email uninvited, or that person calling you from a call center offering you something you neither want nor need. This is a classic old fashioned form of selling - but in today’s market, I am not certain that it is a truly successful option for individuals with a focused market for their product or service. I don’t consider the above to be “selling” I consider it “pushing”.

What Selling IS
The type of selling that I have found to be most effective for my creative and consulting services is: relationship based interaction. When you tell someone about what you do, and then you ask them what they do, then talk a little, you find out very quickly if there is a common ground and perhaps one of you needs the service or product the other provides. This is FUN! You get to talk to someone new, find out something you may not have known before and open the door to a new relationship - hopefully gainfully for you both. Then you need to Close the sale. More about that soon.

I have been spending the past few days upgrading my knowledge base. My personal knowledge base that is. I learned yesterday how to install WordPress and Drupal on my site. Now I am learning how to make them work. OS(open source) is not very hard if you follow the directions and very easy and nice once it’s up and running. Drupal has a great video for installation, you can see it at: lullabot

My web host, Fatcow.com is very nice to their clientele and has loaded some OS software on their server for their client base. You can use a few of them free and some of them for a whopping $6.95 a year. Also, Fatcow recently lowered their hosting fees to $8.95 a month down from $9.95 a month. Sweet. The other thing I love about Fatcow is that an actual human being answers the phone for tech support each and every time I call.

Over the past week, I have become enamored with the “grunge” artwork of a Russian artist named Bulent Ince, I have included one of my faves from his work here. One of the freelance designers I work with told me about www.istockphoto.com where you can purchase amazing photos and artwork for next to nothing. Have a look when you have a chance.