Wednesday Words

To Go Where Your VisionPoints, a few inspiration points for you and your business.

When I go to my studio to work, I start with something that is going to take two minutes just to put some idea down and the next thing I know, ten hours have gone by and my family is screaming at me because they want me to come up to have dinner with them.
—Geddy Lee

How do you know if you’ve found your right work?

It’s magic when it happens. Dear reader, when you’ve been hard at work for 10 hours and it feels like only minutes, you’ve found it—and your customers will know it from that fresh, I-love-this-work look on your face, no matter the hour.

As long as they can’t hear the family screaming in the background. 

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

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10 Ways To Know If Your New Idea Is a Winner

So you’ve got a new concept and you’re itching to take it to market. Maybe you’re extending your product line, or perhaps you’re ready to take your company in a whole new direction. Naturally, you think it’s a dandy idea. You’re sure the whole world can’t wait… well, except when those doubts creep in. What are the best ways to decide whether to invest time and money in your new concept?

A countdown from “maybe good” to “definitely killer”:

10. Ask yourself whether you’re solving a NEED with your new product or service. If you are, is it (a) a need your customers know about, or (b) one you’re “sure” they have but you’ll have to show it to them? If your answer is (b), keep refining until you’ve hit upon a need customers already know about. Education is a tough business to be in unless you’re a teacher.

9. Ask a skeptic. This is tricky, because with no skin in the game and no need to buy from you, many friends and family will say “yeah, that’s a great idea,” to be done with the conversation, but we’ve all got that one friend who’s willing to play devil’s advocate with us on any subject. Get brave now, before you’ve sunk a lot of cash and energy into it, and tell him or her to give it to you straight. Take notes. A great refinement, or the next winner idea, could be hiding in the details of what he or she says to you. (No skeptics around? Get a professional opinion. Money you spend now to refine that concept will be a drop in the bucket compared to getting the business running smoothly—consider it insurance against running with a bad idea.)

8. Keep your ear to the ground. Check blogs, online forums, local business networking groups, newspaper articles… even classified ads… for people with needs your widget will address. Focus on those people. If you’re ready to solve a problem at the moment when buzz about that problem is high, you may have a good idea.

7. Put it aside. An underrated technique for knowing whether your idea’s a winner, is simply to walk away for a week. Ever known someone who’s just got to buy that new website address, have business cards designed, or rent a cute storefront, right now while the idea is hot? Any business that’s going to provide you with income long-term can stand to wait a week while you cool off and come back at it with fresh eyes. (If it can’t wait a week—it’s not a good idea.)

6. Ask current customers what they don’t have. What’s missing in what they currently use/ do/ buy? If you’re planning to supply what customers are itching for, then your itch to take it to market may be justified.

5. Better: Ask customers what’s wrong. If you can supply the “ahh” to something terrible that customers hate or dread, you could have a winner on your hands. “I hate” is a stronger motivator than “I wish,” especially since folks often don’t know exactly what they’re wishing for.

4. Find out whether anyone else is doing it. That’s right, in this wide world it’s pretty unlikely that you’re completely alone even when you’re coming up with a “new” killer idea, so do your research! (I know you feel like the lone, brilliant inventor, but if nobody’s doing it, there’s probably a reason.) If someone else is doing it, AND MAKING MONEY AT IT, then chances are the market’s got enough room for you in it, too. Caution, here: Make sure you’ve got a critical difference from that competition, that you can make crystal clear and exciting to buyers.

3. Write about it. I’m probably swimming against the tides, suggesting that business plans are still a very useful tool, even if banks won’t listen to you with or without one—but they are. Write a business plan. The real-world research that goes into writing a business plan, even a bare-bones one, can help you see the holes in a so-so idea and craft it into a killer.

2. Roll it out on a limited basis. Want a 4-star restaurant with your new-new-nouvelle cuisine? Try catering a few events for friends first. Dying to quit your job and become a full-time leatherworker? Do some projects on the side and see how they go over at craft fairs. Chat with folks who seem interested in buying, and learn from the market. What separates winners from also-rans in your industry? (Hint: Chances are, quality has less to do with it than you think. And you’ve got quality, anyway, haven’t you?)

1. The very best way to know that your new idea is a winner: Find someone who wants to buy it now, either as a pre-order or in “beta” condition. Better: Find more than one. Think like a venture capitalist: VCs get most excited over ideas/ products where customers have already plunked down cash for something that isn’t even ready to go yet. Early adopters may get a little discount, and of course you’ll give them a Super-Maximum Customer Experience with lots of handholding—in exchange, they’re very likely to be your most loyal customers and devoted referral sources for that long growth cycle to come.

What’s your biggest worry about taking your “killer” idea to market? Try these tips today to get it in shape!

Congratulations, you’ve put it through ten tough tests and made it shine. Your new idea’s a winner—now get it into the hands of your Ideal Customer so they can give you a big shout of thanks for solving their needs!

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

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Wednesday Words

To Go Where Your VisionPoints, a few inspiration points for you and your business. Seems like ten is a popular number for inspirations—here’s a few that work well with an MCE spin:

1. We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction.
—Bill Gates

2. Beware of endeavoring to become a great man in a hurry. One such attempt in ten thousand may succeed. These are fearful odds.
—Benjamin Disraeli

3. When I was young, I observed that nine out of every ten things I did were failures, so I did ten times the work.
—George Bernard Shaw

4. Life is like a ten speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.
—Charles M. Schulz

5. Every ten years a man should give himself a good kick in the pants.
—Edward Steichen

6. The architect must be a prophet… a prophet in the true sense of the term… if he can’t see at least ten years ahead don’t call him an architect.
—Frank Lloyd Wright

7. I usually make up my mind about a man in ten seconds, and I very rarely change it.
—Margaret Thatcher

8. Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.
—Napoleon Bonaparte

9. It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book.
—Friedrich Nietzsche

10. A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years mere study of books.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

11. A person who has not done one half his day’s work by ten o’clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone.
—Emily Bronte

12. I think it’s very important that whatever you’re trying to make or sell, or teach has to be basically good. A bad product and you know what? You won’t be here in ten years.
—Martha Stewart

13. Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.
—Ray Bradbury

14. Pressure is playing for ten dollars when you don’t have a dime in your pocket.
—Lee Trevino

15. The real questions are: Does it solve a problem? Is it serviceable? How is it going to look in ten years?
—Charles Eames

16. Properly practiced creativity can make one ad do the work of ten.
—William Bernbach

17. Ten soldiers wisely led will beat a hundred without a head.
—Euripides

18. If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.
—Calvin Coolidge

19. When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.
—Thomas Jefferson

20. If you develop rules, never have more than ten.
—Donald Rumsfeld

I COULDN’T RESIST: Ten men waiting for me at the door? Send one of them home, I’m tired.
—Mae West

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

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Ten ways, of course*

Ah, summer. It’s got us by the neck here in the greater Philadelphia region, literally—when you step outside in weather this hot you can just about choke on the chewy, steamy air. Seems like folks don’t want to think too hard until the mercury comes down a bit—and even if it’s not quite 100°F where you are, I’ll bet it’s getting to you, too. But ten minutes? Everybody’s got the tail end of a coffee break or those last minutes before powering down the laptop for the day, waiting to be put to better use. Here, a few starters for the next time you can steal 10 minutes:

1. Go through recent emails, or sit and reminisce for a minute (just the right speed for summer “work”!). Write down the last three compliments you got from satisfied customers. Ask your web-person to put ‘em up on your website.

2. Early in the morning or late in the day, take a photo of your building in the gorgeous summer sun. Get that up on the website as well, with a map, so folks can find you more easily—and start to feel like they “know” the place before they even arrive.

3. While you’re taking photos, have a staffer or a friend take yours outside. Better yet, have your friend make it a group shot of you and the whole staff. If you haven’t updated your photo in a while (remember to smile for the birdie regularly), the warm tones of the summer sun will do wonders for any willing helper’s photography skills.

4. Read a magazine. Some folks might recommend you keep headlines and concepts from articles in your swipe files, and that’s great, but I’d like you to look at the advertisements. Take ten minutes and learn what folks with budgets way bigger than yours are emphasizing right now—fears? hopes? escapism? realism? Write down a few tips you can take from the mood of the moment—and will you go their way or make your own way?

5. Meet a neighbor. I know, I’m forever recommending that you extend your reach, and find out what your customers are thinking, but this idea’s more casual. In ten minutes you’re not going to make a sales pitch or pick anyone’s brain. Say hi to the owner of the business next door, ask a question you’ve always wondered about what they do, and say you were just taking a minute to stand up and look around you. Don’t get anxious about it, it’s not the introduction that’ll launch the next Tesla Motors … or maybe it is. You never know what a little “hello” can start.

6. Pick up the cigarette butts outside your building. Won’t take more than ten minutes, makes a world of difference.

7. Finish something you dropped the ball on. I don’t know what it is, but you do. Whatever that thing you dread is, take ten minutes and get it over with. (I had to take my own advice on this today, and it didn’t hurt a bit. Mostly.)

8. Read this blog. Start to finish, if you have more than ten minutes. Start now, if not. This is a guy I adore for his ability to turn ten minutes… into lemonade. Great reading in summer or anytime.

9. Read this book. So good I read it twice… and I keep coming back to it. Okay, it’ll take you a little longer than ten minutes, but it’s such a zippy read you can go through it in 10-minute chunks over several days, or devote a night to it and say to your neglected spouse, “Wow, tonight went by like it was only a coffee break!”

10. Stay hungry. (Do click through—Mark Stevens said it so well last week.) This is one of my most deeply held beliefs—that hunger is critical to maximizing potential—yet one I’m conflicted on, too. So much of the great creative, scientific, and business genius in history has come from hungry young men and women. There’s a spark to the early work of so many people that isn’t there in later years. Does this mean younger people have some advantage in cranking out the awesomeness?

(This won’t surprise you…) I don’t think so, if we’re willing to dream big, work hard, create big, bold, Maximum experiences, and stay hungry. If Renoir could do it until he was in his late 70s, why not us?

Got a ten-minute tip that’ll put a little summer zing into someone else’s business? Take one minute and share it in the comments!

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

*Yes, folks, I’m on a tens-kick, leading up to the 500th post (coming soon!) here at MCE. Why? Because being on a 500s-kick would be too loooooong!

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Wednesday Words

To Go Where Your VisionPoints, a few inspiration points for you and your business.

Apple’s market share is bigger than BMW’s or Mercedes’s or Porsche’s in the automotive market. What’s wrong with being BMW or Mercedes?
—Steve Jobs

Apple’s share of the personal computing market generally hovers around 10–15%. These numbers are described, depending on whose opinion you like, as woefully small, perennially on the verge of extinction, or fierce, heroic market penetration, perennially on the verge of breaking through. I think Mr. Jobs gets it right here when he suggests It Is What It Is—and what it is, ain’t bad. It’s a big market, and Apple’s doing fine holding steady where they are.

You may be hovering at a market share that’s a bit smaller than Apple’s, however—so today, some ideas on how you can grab your own fierce, heroic numbers.

1. Be first.

“Kelly,” you say to me, “I can’t go back and do that over. Someone was here before me.” Ah, that may be true, but think laterally. Can you be the first with a specialization, the first in a region that wasn’t covered before, the first to stand on your head while doing it? Find the way that you are first, and make sure the customers who benefit most from that, know it.

2. Be intimate.

You know all about handholding. You know about writing your own story. You know about showing off your passion for what you do. But are you getting intimate with your customers? Nearly every market has a 10% segment that’s looking for a truly personalized experience. Not only owning the shop with all the wildly expensive doggie toys they can’t resist, but calling them on Monday afternoon if a shipment comes in with the one treat you know their Pomeranian can’t resist. Asking their opinion on a new class you think they might like. Holding special, hush-hush trunk shows with the hottest doggie designers, and inviting only ten truly fanatic customers to attend. Wow the crowd that wants that intimacy and they won’t even think of going anywhere else.

3. Dust off your high-school Spanish.

Okay, if your high-school Spanish is too dusty, you may have to hire staff with more fluency (and if there’s another language that’s fast-rising in your region, please substitute with “dust off your high-school Esperanto” or whatever the case may be). Far too few companies are willing to embrace populations that are not in the majority in their area—big mistake, in my opinion, because this is a great way to go from one of a million to one in a million almost overnight. I know a therapist in my area with Spanish skills that would even make my not-at-all-fluent 11-year-old cringe, who never has a single timeslot free—because she’s the therapist in my area who has Spanish skills. Nothing makes a customer more comfortable than not having to fish for words in their second language—so use your second language if you can.

4. Go handmade.

In an era when everyone else is automating and mass producing, becoming known as the only one left doing things the old-fashioned way may have the 10% appeal you’ve been looking for. Letterpress printers, for instance, are finding that there are plenty of customers who crave the imperfections of their centuries-old craft, even in an era of nearly-free quickprinting.

5. Know more.

Maybe you’ve always been the expert in the history of garage-door-openers, Nintendo gaming systems, or furniture upholstery. Everybody loves to gab with you while use your expertise to install or repair or refurbish. How about selling the knowledge instead of the labor? Could you teach about what you know? Lecture on it? Write an e-book and sell it? One of my favorite examples of this is Pat Flynn, who might be a one of a million great architects right now except that he became the expert in passing the LEED exam and became one *in* a million, to folks who want to know what he knows about acing those exams, and don’t want to wait another minute to know it.

6. Flavor it.

Why does everyone in an industry sell only mint-flavored dental floss, or only grey computers, or only beeswax candles? Because no one thought to sell cinnamon floss, or blueberry i-books (thanks Steve, I loved mine), or pomegrante-lemon candles. People put up with Fords in “any color, as long as it’s black” for a long time, too. Maybe the time has come in your industry for a flavor, a scent, or a color revolution. Lead the way and find your 10%.

7. Go mushy.

Got a great story to tell? Have you conquered the impossible in your life? Better still, have you helped a client conquer the impossible? Can you tell it in a way that gets us slightly teary—but not too teary to dial your number? If you can get your prospects feeling for you, feeling with you, or feeling themselves wanting to be part of the story, you may have the fresh angle you need. Going mushy won’t appeal to everyone, of course, but you’re looking to dominate your own 10%. And if mushy isn’t right for you…

8. Go tacky.

Exactly how starched-shirt is your industry? Are you a lawyer, a financial advisor, an insurance agent, a rabbi? There’s a customer who can’t stand the formality and the rituals of it, and wants to work with someone who knows how to cut loose and relate to them in all their wackiness. This is why people go to Las Vegas to get married by ministers in Elvis costumes. If you’re going to go tacky, go all the way—and as with every truly unique point of distinction, be sure to let people know about it. Being a children’s dentist isn’t that unique any more, but being the first and only dentist in the state who wears a clown suit to work every day to distract and delight his patients is something that gets buzzed up.

9. Deliver.

Works for groceries, dry cleaning, and rental cars, these days. Why not for what you do? The less work the customer’s got to do, the fewer barriers to making the purchase. Bonus: Pick up.

10. Do it wrong.

Sometimes you do it wrong, and it works out right.

Spell a word wrong in your headline—to catch the attention of the sticklers. Use a color that will turn heads—pink for a bank promotion? black for Valentine’s Day? steely blue in the middle of summer?—to defy expectations. Wrinkled skirts and badly tie-dyed shirts have sold like crazy for the last five years, and how long have ripped and faded jeans been going strong? (Too long…) Could your website be so bad it’s good? Could your staff be so horrible it’s funny? (I won’t be coming to your place if you go that way, but think of the diners that trade on just such an “experience.”) If it can be well done badly… or would that be badly done, well? Well, if you can, and you can make it your own, it might be the sneakiest tactic of all.

I hope you’ve found an idea here today to put you on the path to becoming the BMW or Mercedes of your market. If this post has helped you out, please pass it along to others—and if it’s made you think of a couple of other sneaky ideas for capturing market share, let’s hear from you in the comments!

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

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How to zoom from “I’ll think about it” to “I’ll take it!”

Is customer apathy at epidemic proportions in your business?

Are customers waiting longer than ever before to decide about working with you? You’re not alone.

Maybe it’s the weather, maybe it’s “the economy”—or maybe it’s closer to home. You know your customers shouldn’t wait a minute longer, but they don’t seem to care. I’ve put together some real steps you can take right now for real results in great Customer Experience, and better leads and sales.

In order, from easiest to hardest… from best payoff to least… from DO It Now to maybe someday. Here’s how to take control of the situation and drive the buyer blahs away:

1. Make it pay off. Tell your customer—convincingly—that your product or service will pay for itself, or better yet, put money in their pocket, and the most uninterested customers suddenly want to know more. It’s no secret, but it is terribly underused. Take some time to think about this—lots of folks think they can’t possibly show how their product provides a return on investment (ROI), but with some creative brainstorming, you may find that you can.

2. Make it prettier. Ugly sells if folks need it bad enough, but pretty rides on Easy Street. Why put barriers in front of your sales? (And speaking of easy…)

3. Make it easier. Easier to understand, easier to buy, easier to install, easier to use, easier to tell their friends about? Easier than your company’s widget used to be, easier than living without it, or easier than the competition’s? There’s bound to be a way that your company can make what you offer easier. Almost everyone thinks their days are crazy enough without adding more hard stuff to them. Easy is one of today’s most powerful selling concepts.

4. Scare your customer. If I didn’t put it near the top of the list of ways to fight apathy, I’d be lying to you. Nothing gets a sale moving like fear of what happens if we do NOT buy. If there’s something urgently scary about not working with you, talk it up! (We also mentioned this and #1 last week as great tiny bars to step over.)

5. Get it to the right customer. If your customer takes forever to decide on the chocolate or the strawberry sundae and then always goes for the vanilla single-scoop (are you following my 95-degree-day metaphor?), maybe they’re apathetic because you’re talking to the wrong people. Find the people who are in the market for a sundae, and you won’t have to work nearly so hard. To get so little.

6. Find other people to talk about you. Crowing about yourself is fine, but third-person endorsements will always work better than the most convincing arguments of your own. Besides, other people have reasons to buy from you that you’d never think of on your own, and those reasons often speak right to the heart of your next customer. Try written (or video!) testimonials, mentions of your product or service in the press—even writing articles for magazines or newspapers yourself gives you their stamp of approval as an expert on your subject. Takes time to get this right, but today’s looking like a great day for you to start…

7. Make it cool. Get someone photographed with it; get Ashton Kutcher to Tweet about it; wear a black turtleneck when you talk about it. (One of my favorite interior designers in New York used to insist that everyone in his office wear only black suits with white dress shirts. “Easy on the budget is why I started it, but signature chic for my whole office is why I kept it up and made it a policy.”) Cool is hard to pin down, but if you can demonstrate your rockin’ awesomeness to the world, go for it.

8. Demonstrate long-term benefits. This is especially helpful if you’ve got lots of competition. If you can’t show #1, that your product or service pays for itself, then show how in the long run, your widget comes out cheaper, safer, or otherwise better than the competition’s. Does it last longer? Require less maintenance? Allow more flexibility?

9. Add extras. Yes, this also adds to your costs, but sometimes it’s the cool extras that move a “maybe” customer into the “yes please!” category. (Ever buy a Happy Meal for a whining nephew?)

10. Put it on sale. (With a caution, the reason why this is last on  the list from a Maximum Customer Experience point of view—It’s fine to make your products or services affordable to a wider group for a short while, but be careful with it. Don’t set yourself up as the place to get a bargain unless you’ve carefully thought out the real costs and the long-term effects of competing on price.)

If your customers are experiencing the blahs, kicking your tires for far too long, or *gasp* wandering off undecided, to drop their dollars elsewhere, give these techniques a try—and get them excited about buying from you right now.

What would you add to this list? What techniques have you used to cut through the “maybes” with your customers—or what’s always worked on you?

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

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Wednesday Words

To Go Where Your VisionPoints, a few inspiration points for you and your business.

I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.
—Warren Buffett

If you’re a person with no time for nonsense like Mr. Buffet, then perhaps you’re wondering why he sees the short, easy hops and you don’t. Try these ten to get some forward traction for your future-multimillion-dollar business:

1. Think dollars. Mr. Buffet would approve: Almost any business can find a way to do this—you may be making clients money, saving them money, saving them time or increasing efficiency (figure out how much and how that translates to money), giving them a cheap pleasure (“we’re as relaxing as Disneyland but only four miles from home”… how does that affect their wallet), bringing them more customers, making customers stay longer at their place of business, making a product that lasts longer… you get the idea. Customers appreciate you most when they know how you affect their wallet.

2. Think fears. What are your customers afraid of? Are they afraid of something that might happen if they do work with you? Are they afraid of something that might happen if they don’t work with you? Brainstorm ways to discuss those fears head-on.

3. Ask a kid. For their honesty, for their perspective, and for their lack of adherence to rules. Spend two minutes asking a kid who wanders in with Mom or Dad their opinion of your place of business once every couple of weeks and you will get a mass of fresh ideas, both intentional and unintentional.

4. Rearrange the furniture. Two easy and opposite fixes: Are customers running in and out of your place too quickly? Create (subtle) barriers that help them meander a bit. (This is why the pharmacy is at the back of your local drugstore—it’s not hard to get to, but you have to wander by other things you might need before you get there.) Are customers confused, looking around, walking out without anything? Make the buying sequence logical, by arranging your place of business to answer their questions. Make it easy to find the answers. (Psst… you can do this at your website, as well.)

5. Eat lunch with an advisor or a colleague whose clients intersect with yours in some way—your accountant, your lawyer, your carpet installer, your favorite restaurateur? (Think creatively about your own situation.) Ask about their business, their problems, and even how they’re weathering “the economy.” Don’t talk about you. They’ll ask. Easiest bar of all to walk over (you have to eat!), and when repeated frequently, it gives great results.

6. Look at your business card. Does it have all the ways of getting in touch with you on it? Is it inviting enough that some folks might do just that? Send *two* out in all your future (business) correspondence. Of course those folks already have your card—the idea is to encourage them to give these two away. It’s been observed that people may not get the hint if you send one, but when you send two, the point of the cards is obvious without your having to say a word. Note to all you card hoarders: They’re cheap advertising. Get them out of your hands and into other people’s.

7. Clean the bathroom. Yep. Even if you have a service that normally does it, take the 1/2 hour and do it yourself. You just aren’t noticing things your customer is noticing, I guarantee it. After today, you will.

8. Set a goal. Maybe you’ve got a zillion, maybe you don’t believe in ‘em. Today, set just one. A one-week goal, a thing you will do every day for a week that will increase your business in X way (traffic, incoming calls, sales, reservations…) and by Y amount. Do it every day, and check those results. The big goals are sometimes too big and your daily lists are usually not measurable. Everybody can stick with a goal for a week. If you like how it works, do it again next week.

9. Be contrary. If your business is primarily web-based, make a few local calls today, or walk in to a few offices, just to introduce yourself. If you’re mainly local, write a few emails to folks you know through the web who might be candidates for your product or service. Keep focusing on your Ideal Customer profile, and expand your idea of where the best fish are biting.

10. Make the ask. Chris Brogan said it wonderfully this week. Click over to Make the Ask and get inspired to step over the last, one-foot bar.

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

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Whatever You Do, DON’T Do These Ten Things—

And DON’T miss the special announcement at the end of the post!

Aw, you know all the things you’re supposed to do. There are a hundred posts on the things you should do when you decide to take that old website of yours and revamp it for the new era of much more web-savvy customers.

That’s no fun! But just how many Experience Designers will let you in on every ugly bit of what *not* to do, gleaned from client work, from clients’ deepest fears and most troublesome phobias, and—shining brightly in our very recent memory—from the occasional lesson learned the hard way in our own tip-to-toe company website overhaul?

Without further ado, what NOT to do:

1. Jump in at the construction stage. Why do you think architects make plans before they build buildings? So they can make sure they know how traffic will flow. How you’ll get in and out. Whether there’s enough space for the intended purpose, and whether they’ve left room for growing. Where they’ll put the bathrooms.

You probably don’t need the bathrooms, but you need a plan for your site’s todays and tomorrows that takes all the rest of that into consideration. Just as with architecture: if you’re picking out the pretty curtains and deciding what kind of theatre system you want before you know how many rooms there’ll be, you’re doing it wrong. Know your goals. Plan the structure that suits the goals. Build long-term flexibility into the plan.

2. Hand over too much control. Yes, pestering your design and writing teams too much will make you look bad, but you need to make sure you’re in the loop. If they’re not keeping you informed on their progress, make that your job.

3. Go for all the gadgets. If it’s been a long time since you did any major renovations at your website, you may have amassed quite a list of features that you’ve seen on all the hottest sites. Don’t be tempted to trick the site out with all of them. Follow the guidance of your designers and show some restraint—most sites will be as fancy as your customers need and as fresh as they want, with the addition of just a couple of bells and whistles.

4. Forget about the Ideal Customer in your enthusiasm—their Internet speed, their screen size, their top questions before they buy, their interest in or annoyance with those wonderful bells and whistles. Who is your Ideal Customer? Do fancy tweaks get in your customer’s way? Or does your customer need you to signal your hipness to them to tempt them to buy? (In other words, do they care if you’re hip, or is it only what you want?)

5. Get distracted from the object of a revamp.

Which is?

To get you to Yes quicker.

Only you know whether it’s the Yes of a new reader or subscriber, the Yes of a call or request for information, or the Yes of a direct sale that you’re looking for. If you’re putting time, heart, and money into a site overhaul, getting that Yes quicker has got to be the object. Any part of the plan that doesn’t help you achieve that, might be discouraging it, and *is* distracting you. Be very careful with distractions on such a crucial journey.

6. Think like the owner.

What? I can’t think like the big boss that I am?

Nope. Because when you’re thinking like the boss, you’re thinking of whether your logo shows enough on the home page and whether they mentioned your stint at Boeing in glowing terms or whether you’re protecting your reputation enough or…

You get the point. Instead, think like the customer. What did I come for? What was the problem that led me here? What would I want to do or see next? What would move me to action? What action would I like to take?

Not what action would the owner like me to take. What action would I, the customer, like to take.

More time is wasted in website redesigns, trying to be gentle with owners’ egos or get customers to take the actions the owners would like them to take, than in any other timewasters. Find out what they’d like to do and help them do it.

7. Skip taking notes. Oh, maybe you don’t need the three-inch file we accumulated on our latest project, but you need notes detailing the steps you’re taking. That way, if you forget Why? you go back and read the thought process; if you discover a problem, you can back up to the day when it was caused; and Heaven forbid, if you have to repeat steps, the more detailed your notes, the quicker your recovery. Which brings me to…

8. Dump your nearly finished database.

Twice.

(Otherwise known as… If your host asks you, “Do you really want to do this,” there’s probably a reason for that warning message. In my defense, they’d changed the look of the interface and I misunderstood what I was looking at… but now, I think I maybe should have handed over a little more control. *sheepish grin*)

And if you do dump all your almost-finished work, please please please, I hope you’ve been backing up your project daily. Then you won’t add weeks to your project needlessly. Egg on my face was a little easier to take when it was a 5-minute process to restore everything.

9. Avoid user testing. No matter how much testing you do, glitches will still be discovered, even after your newly renovated site goes live (thanks, friends who took the time to email about a few). But the more testing you can do before the site is up, the fewer hairs you’ll be pulling out while the world watches. The idea of letting users test their site seems to scare some folks, but once the site’s up and running, users are testing it every day at your expense! The great thing about “formal” testing, is you get to hear what they’re saying. So banish that fear.

When should you start the testing? Way back in the planning stage.

What are you testing? Different structures for the site, how your copy reads, what selling points or offers work best, different computers, browsers, users of different ages and interests and different Internet abilities… and of course, you’re looking for those glitches. Believe me, they’re hiding in the strangest places.

10. Wait too long. I did, and we all do, so pardon my whistling in the wind for a moment. Back to those architects—the time to do the reno is before the roof is sagging and the three teens just can’t fit in your one bathroom anymore. When you wait until the need for the overhaul is too great, you end up with a task list that’s too long (yep), a timetable that’s too short (yep), and a lot of late nights if you want to make your tight deadline (*yawn*).

Which we didn’t… make the self-imposed deadline, that is. Um, twice. (Client deadlines are always going to take priority!) But that’s no reason not to crow…

I promised an announcement:

The hotly anticipated revamp is here—Please take a cruise through the new VisionPoints. As always, VisionPoints is here to make great (Maximum!) Customer Experience part of your plan to grow your business. In this redesign we’ve aimed to make Experience Design a little sexier, a lot less of a mystery, and a critical tool for you to deliver delight to your customers and drive real, measurable results.

Your raves, your comments, and your suggestions are most welcome—just send an email to kellye (at) visionpoints (dot) net and let me know what you think.

Need one more “don’t”? Don’t miss the Welcome and Welcome Back post on the new site, which has a great overview of the site and also makes special mention of a Grand Opening discount… just in case you don’t want to wait to get your project started!

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

P.S. If you enjoyed this post, I hope you’ll subscribe by email or by RSS (it’s free), and please tell a friend! Give it a Tweet, a link, a Stumble, or otherwise bookmark using the “Share” button below. (And of course, get on over to VisionPoints’ newly relaunched site to see how we did in following our own advice on what NOT to do.)

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Would there still be rock’n’roll?

Of course there would. There were dozens… a few dozen… probably a hundred dozen bands trying to achieve what they were trying to at that time. Some might even have had more talent. If The Beatles hadn’t been there to catch the public’s imagination first, someone else would have. It would have been different, but we wouldn’t still be swaying to Bing Crosby and Tommy Dorsey. We’d be rockin’ in some way.

If Kennedy hadn’t gotten behind the space program, would man have walked on the moon?

Of course. Maybe not “our” men. (Maybe “your” men, wherever you are.) But somebody would have gotten there. They probably still would have said something corny, too.

If Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem weren’t such vocal and persuasive leaders of the women’s movement, would women have still have moved? Of course!

If Phil Knight’s wife didn’t own a waffle iron would we still have high-performance sneakers? You bet. Might not look the same, though…

If Steve Jobs didn’t think beautiful and usable went together, would you be sitting at a micro-computer right now? Yep. But it might be a little less beautiful.

Atari 520ST and TRS-80. If you remember these like I do… sorry for the flashback!

If Darren Rowse didn’t get out in front, would professional blogging still have existed (for those who really do make money at it)? Sure. Someone else would have led the charge.

I could go on…

Why are you sitting around, bemoaning the leaders you can’t be, the trends you should have been at the front of? Did Phil Knight wonder why he couldn’t invent rock’n’roll? No way.

Find the place where you can be the first champion. Don’t look behind you. You don’t have to be the best. Stand up, create a movement, and lead the charge.

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

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Wednesday Words

To Go Where Your VisionPoints, a few inspiration points for you and your business.

Have enough sense to know, ahead of time, when your skills will not extend to wallpapering.
—Marilyn vos Savant

A friend of mine took out his well-honed sense of humor the other day and said to the tech guy on the phone, “I’m a nerd about what I know but on this I’m clueless. Mind if I ask you to explain things twice now and then?” (I do it myself all the time but maybe not with his flair.)

It’s not just good sense. It establishes such rapport, being willing to let the other guy be the expert.

You learn more, too.

Sometimes more than you needed… but that deep level, that the speaker wouldn’t have gone to without your “admission,” is where the gems hide. And those gems, you did need, but didn’t know it.

(Ever have a friend/ family member say, “Why didn’t you ask me?” and the too-obvious answer is, “Because I didn’t know there was something I didn’t know?” Same idea.)

Know what you don’t know. You’ll get further. Faster. (And if you’ve been blessed with flair like my friend’s, funnier.)

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

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