Why hiring your brother-in-law to do your Web site is a bad idea

New research shows that for the majority of B2B prospects, when they are considering doing business with a company they will check out that company's Web site as one of the first things they do. Duh! This is hardly news.

According to BtoB Magazine "a site that inadequately communicates the credibility of a vendor and its products can have a seriously detrimental effect on incoming leads, long before you start your official sales efforts."

So consider this sales funnel: a prospect has a need, they Google around and find likely hits, they visit Web sites to start the process of making a short list. Web sites that look like they are not credible vendors won't make it to the short list. They'll lose the sale and they won't even know it.

In a supply-driven sales world (the Old Way) we made the call and fought for the business--we knew when we won or lost and sometimes could learn why. In a demand-driven sales world (the New Way) we often don't even know who's checking us out--they no longer need sales people to make the first steps.

So our first step has to be making sure our Web site is credible--that our company is dressed in business attire, tie on, shoes polished, hair neatly combed--when potential customers come calling.

The Mousetrap Myth

"We had to get out of the simplistic mode of just inventing something and expecting people to show up and buy it." Mark Hurd, new CEO of HP, as quoted in the Seattle Times (from a Wall Street Journal article).

What a concept! Hurd, a former sales exec and CEO of NCR, discovered that customers weren't actually selling to HP's top customers, but were waiting around for customers to seek out the sales rep.

They apparently subscribed to the Mousetrap Myth: if you invent a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door. Right! Just don't hold your breath waiting for it to happen. (NB: this is one of theose gems of "conventional wisdom" that is just nonsense. For more conventional wisdom that isn't, check out Freakonomics by Steven Levitt.)

Get your message out, and get those salespeople working, that's my advice to HP.

Quiet Time

First endurance race I ever drove in was also the first time I'd ever used a radio system--one that connects the driver with the crew. Critical for endurance racing--you have to be able to tell the driver when to come in for tires, gas, etc. In this race I was on an unknown track in an unknown car in truly appalling conditions--all my focus was needed to keep on the track and not hit anybody. But the crew chief felt the need to be a cheerleader, so he kept up a constant stream of talk in my earpiece. "Pass that car! Get after him! Gun it!" stuff like that. It was a horrid performance on my part (I was way too much of a rookie for that race) but his diatribes in my ear certainly didn't help. (Later when I ran a radio in my own car I made dire threats against anyone who dared tell me anything that wasn't on the order of "John, there are flames coming from the back of your car. Suggest you pit soon.")

This all came up in my memory because I'm sitting here in the office all alone and it's amazing how much I can get done without all the interruptions from clients, staff, phone, email, etc. Today is Quiet Time--at least for a little while.

When I was at Microsoft in the 80s and 90s lots of developers didn't come in until late in the day and then worked until late at night. You didn't think twice about it, just worked around it ("Andy doens't get here before 2, so that project review meeting will have to be rescheduled.") It wasn't so much that they weren't morning people, although this stereotype of the nerd is probably true. Rather, it was that they were engaged in work that--like driving a race car--required an enormous amount of focus. Distractions were death to the work they needed to do. They found that working mostly at night eliminated most of the distractions.

Today we have more opportunities for distraction than back then. My IM window just honked at me with a message from someone. The phone is sitting here, ready to ring (I have a new set and haven't figured out where the Do Not Disturb key is yet--who's got time anymore to read manuals?). I have to force myself NOT to check email every three minutes. It takes work to stay focused, but the rewards are worth it. Perhaps that's why I find myself looking forward to weekends--when I'm in the office on Saturday or Sunday (which is frequently) most of those distractions just seem to vanish and I can get Real Work Done.

Even writing this blog was a distraction--now I have to get back in the metaphorical driver's seat, go out on the track, and get focused on good lap times. See you.

Overloaded

I staggered from my car to the front door of my house, clutching my briefcase, overcoat, cellphone, house keys, car keys, go cup, and a bag of groceries. Hmmm, how to free up a hand to unlock the door?

Today I was reviewing a piece of collateral (direct mail postcard) that was just as overloaded. The one postcard tried to sell the whole deal all by itself. Everything you needed to know on one side of a single postcard. It looked (and was about as effective) as I did trying to get into my house.

Hey, the postcard doesn't have to complete the entire journey alone. It just needs to get people to the next step--a vital concept in collateral. Think what you want people to do when they're done with your collateral: go to a website, pick up the phone, know something, feel some way. Then take the next step. In this case, getting people's interest and sending them to a website for the complete details of the offer would have been preferrable to asking the postcard to tell them everything.

As for me, I'm gonna make two trips next time myself.

ABC: Action Based Collateral

Put this test to all your collateral: web pages, data sheets, demos, sales aids. What action do you want the prospect to take when she is finished with the collateral? Here are some possible answers:

• Phone
• Place an order
• Go to a web site
• Click on a link
• Read the next page
• Subscribe to your newsletter
• Give you a name and address

Each page in a web site has a specific purpose; maybe it's only to get the user to read the next page. Ditto for white papers and data sheets. What good is a data sheet if they only read the first paragraph? So the goal of the first paragraph has to be to create enough interest to get your prospect to read the second paragraph. And the goal of the first sentence is to get them to read the second sentence…

You get the idea.

Check your collateral, check your campaigns. Are they moving your prospects forward to the next step?