Print Article for : The Complete Idiot's Guide To Creating A Website

Your Online Guide » Guide to Technology » Web Site Development

[T389]The Complete Idiots Guide To Creating A Website

by Steve Lover, Ste

When working with others, clearly defining and monitoring your expectations is the key to strong, healthy and productive relationships.
I remember when I the first year I worked as a commissioned sales rep.? The company said they expected the reps to meet face to face with at least 20 new people a month and to have an opening discussion with the perspective buyer.? At the end of the first month I had only met with 17 new people and was a little down on myself.? I walked into the sales managers office and dejectedly told him that I had only met with 17 and braced myself for a ?shape up or ship out? talk.? Instead to my utter astonishment he congratulated me on a stellar month.? I incredulously asked, ?But I was supposed to meet 20 new people.?? He proceeded to inform me that no one in years had seen 17 people in a month.? I was flabbergasted.
What makes companies do stuff like that?? Do you think I ever hit the 20 mark again in all the years that I was with that Company?? Of course not!? It wasn't a real expectation and the monitoring process didn't insure that it would get done.?
If the expectation is clearly defined and monitored people will respond to the expectation.?
I once worked as a corporate trainer for a Fortune 100 Company.? When speaking to sales people that were floundering I often asked that if there sales manager had told them they have a minimum production the first quarter or they would need to find a different place of work, how would that expectation have affected their performance.? Everyone I asked that to said they would have performed far better.? Most thought they would have been able to meet the production quota to boot.
When you are working with others set clear expectations, monitor those expectations and congratulate them when they are met.? You will be astonished at the results.
So let's investigate the right way to define, communicate and monitor expectations for the best results possible. The idea of creating expectations is really another way of saying you have a standard. As a manager, owner, or supervisor it is you obligation to communicate that standard (expectations) well and make sure that the employee takes ownership of that standard. If the standard is not met there needs to be a feedback method (consequence) that will insure adherence to the standard.
Let's take a simple example. You are a manger and an employee has a tardiness problem. Can you see the earlier this problem is dealt with and clarified the less it will be a problem. If the employee is told that tardiness is not acceptable and comes in every day the next week late and no one says anything again, then even though an expectation was set, it was not monitored and the tardiness will continue. However, if the employee comes again the next day late and the manager makes it clear that the next time it happens they will need to find a new position at a different company. What is the possibility that the employee will come in lat e the next day. And if they do come in the next day late what are they saying about how much they think about the position and company. The employee at this point owns their behavior and the consequences must be followed through. The employee must be terminated. Anything less will cause a total weakening of the company. (By the way this was the employee's decision, not the managers.)
Now I am not talking about the problem of tardiness. This is just an example of the importance of setting and monitoring real expectations. If tardiness is not an issue that is important to your company and people work flex time it should not be an expectation. However there clearly is a need for expectations on all aspects of the company.
This is critical for the Uncommon Leader. Expectations must be set clearly and monitored regularly. A good practice is for manager and employee to meet weekly to review the behaviors that are expected in the next week. It might be volume of work, sales calls, follow up calls, bookkeeping, etc. Clearly define the objective and desired behavior. Monitor the following week and make sure everything was done correctly. If it was congratulate and recognize the work with gratitude and praise. If it wasn't, find out why and reset new expectations for the following week. Make sure the expectations are realistic and achievable. You must also have a buy in from the employee. Clearly define the consequence of meeting the expectation and of not meeting the expectation. If the expectations are realistic and doable and they are still not being met on an ongoing basis, it is not the employees fault. It is management's fault. The expectations and standards are not clear enough and the employee does not trust that management will enforce the standard and consequences. This is where leadership on the part of management is critical.
In general, people respond to expectations pretty well. It is both in business and home life. Expect the best from all your relationships and you will find that you usually experience your expectation. Expect to be let down, cheated on and scorned, chance are that is also what you'll experience. Just communicate and monitor those expectations.
Expectations are the tool of getting great productivity out of valuable employees and are the rules of engagement for great relationships.

The first thing to know when creating a website that is supposed to sell a product or several products, is that first and foremost, the website is supposed to SELL a product or several products. In other words, a person should be able to come to the website, find what they are looking for, and buy it. That is the simplicity of it, and that is what we always do here at Visual Edge Design, Inc. (www.visualedgedesign.com) when building sales sites for our clients. Sounds pretty straightforward, but you may be surprised to know that websites are created every day that do just the opposite. The fact is that omitting certain things on a SALES WEBSITE can kill the sale in an instant.

To create an effective SALES GENERATING web site, there are specific points that MUST be included in the web site that will:

1)Make it easy for a visitor to see what is for sale.
2)Instill confidence that they are in a REAL store that is legitimate.
3)Give them a compelling reason to buy the product(s) at that store.
4)Make it easy for them to actually BUY the product(s) from that store.

If any of the 4 points above are omitted, it is VERY likely that the visitor will leave the web site without buying anything.

Let's take a real life retail store-front for example:
Say you wanted to buy a new pair of shoes today. You would either go to a shoe store you already know of and trust or you would look online for a store near you, or simply open the yellow pages to find the nearest shoe store. In any case, you would find a shoe store nearby. Now, if that shoe store was hard to get to, you might try another store somewhere else. However, if you arrived at the store, but there appeared to be very few shoes, no cash register, no signs indicating that they take any credit cards, and no one to help you, you might turn around and walk out. What if the shoe racks were disorderly, and shoes were NOT sorted by size or style? What if there was a ?store clerk? that had NO register, was dressed slovenly and then asked for your credit card, which he took in back and then came back after a while with a ?thank you? note, but no receipt? What if there was NO sign indicating that anything in the store was guaranteed? What if they had a NO RETURN policy? What if the store had hand-written signs with marker on cardboard throughout? What if they made you give them your credit card and purchase the item BEFORE they told you how much you were spending? Would you feel comfortable shopping at such a store? I know I wouldn't.

Believe it or not, there are many on-line stores that are the equivalent of such a store. In other words, you get to the website and it is difficult to find what you are looking for, there are no indications of how to pay, no guarantees, no phone numbers to get live help, no contact information on the website, no privacy statement or ordering information, and in some cases the store is set up so that you ?add the item? to the cart, then checkout and give all your contact and credit card information BEFORE you can see how much you are spending. All of these points create an unfriendly shopping environment and REDUCE the confidence in the person who is trying to buy something. These seemingly simple points when overlooked can cost a website 75% OR MORE of their sales. I'm not going to go into great detail on perfect design, professional sites, etc. as these are a given.

In the next article we will talk about the Key Points of a Sales Generating Website.

This article series was written by Siouxie Boshoff, author of the book ?How To Get Your Website to The Top of The Search Engines.? Please visit www.visualedgedesign.com/seo_book.htm for more information. Copyright 2006 Siouxie Boshoff and Visual Edge Design Inc. All rights reserved.

Article Source : Pg. 149

About Author

Both Steve Lover & Siouxie are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Steve Lover has sinced written about articles on various topics from Leadership, Affiliate Programs and Web Development. Steve Lover is president of The Uncommon Leader a training and coaching firm working with business owners, executives, managers and top sales professionals. visit their website at www.uncommonleader.com. Steve Lover's top article generates over 3600 views. to your Favourites.

Siouxie has sinced written about articles on various topics from Web Development. Siouxie Boshoff is the owner of Visual Edge Design, Inc. a website design company specializing in creating websites that are fully optimized for the search engines.. Siouxie's top article generates over 480 views. to your Favourites.