You may have a variety of "helpers" to whom you delegate key tasks in your consulting business, not only to save time,
but to supplement skills you may lack. Having someone build and maintain your web site is among the most common of these, but writers and administrative help can also be valuable.
And I strongly encourage you to look for ways to delegate tasks that others could perform more efficiently, so you can concentrate on the parts of your business to which you bring, and from which you extract, the most value.
But delegating tasks is not the same as abdicating responsibility for core decisions about your business and how it interacts with your prospects and clients.
The Question: "Why?"
Good helpers do more than just carry out instructions, they suggest approaches to meeting business goals, they anticipate needs you may not even recognize and recommend solutions. But it is up to you to make sure any suggestions you implement reflect your business, rather than theirs.
Web designers/developers are great for illustrating this point (but it applies to anyone who helps you). They might suggest new features for your site they believe will enhance its impact on visitors.
And they might be right. But when it comes to any change or addition to your web site, ask "Why?" and then pay close attention to the answer.
Be Target Market Specific
Often you'll get answers such as "people like ...." or "most web designers ..." or "most sites do this now" or the worst, "everybody knows that ..."
The real question is, do your helpers understand your target market? Do they know what kind of people you interact with as prospects and clients, what those people prefer, what they are used to, what is important to them?
Are they siding with you, in your understanding of your business, or with their peers, in their understanding of their own industry?
It is up to you to know your audience and to make sure you reach that specific audience, not "people" or "visitors." For some of you, your buyers like short, modular information that they can easily navigate, to pick and choose what they see. For some others, your buyers like in-depth explanations, a lot of content, and they don't want to hop around to put it together from small pieces.
Some of you may use a web site largely to attract new prospects who previously knew little about you. Others (many consultants, in fact) get a better return from a web site that is aimed at prospects and current clients who already know you, from a call, a mailing, a referral, or a previous project.
Those differences are important to your web site design (and your written content, etc.). But if your designer does not understand your target market in some detail, they're going to fall back on common practices, "average" work that will get you average results at best.
You need web sites, written content, and administrative support that reflect your unique market, your unique values and standards, your products and services. If your ideal client does not look like the "typical web site visitor," neither should your web site.
When you ask "Why?" you want an answer that talks about your target market. If you are not getting those kinds of answers, take the time to educate your helpers about your business and its unique attributes.
And once you do that, if you continue to get the same kinds of recommendations, with the same kinds of answers to your "Why?" questions, get rid of those helpers and find better ones.
Comments