Original Publication
November, 2003

What's Wrong with
Management Consultant Websites?

Wm. R. Stocking CMC

"How do I make my website produce clients?   Or,
"I've had my website for two years and haven't gotten a single piece of business from it, why?"

I'm asked this sort of question a number of times each month, mostly by fellow consultants. The wording is sometimes different, but it all boils down to the problem of getting visibility for the site and keeping the visitor's interest once they arrive. Selling consulting services on the Internet presents a whole new set of challenges and opportunities. The right solution is often counter intuitive.

The Gold Rush

In the Gold Rush era of the Internet, 1995 thru 2001 millions of businesses, institutions and individuals hurried to develop websites. Many of these original website designs are at best: ineffective, unproductive and confusing. The websites of consulting organizations and other professionals are no exception and the same wrong-headed thinking still exists.

What went wrong?

The single biggest problem is that the Internet and websites in particular were perceived as extensions of existing media: print, television and motion picture. The Internet wasn't and still isn't an extension of any other medium. Though it shares a few attributes with other media, it presents the enlightened consultant and developer with new and exciting opportunities. Forget trying to mimic other things; the Internet IS the Internet, period.

Attempts to super-impose existing constructs on new inventions is as old as the industrial revolution, maybe older. It is something we should expect whenever change in our social or working environment happens at an accelerated rate; it acts as an emotional buffer and slows the apparent rate of change. As users become more comfortable and trusting of a new technology, ties to the past weaken and break; the revolution is over.

It's a different medium.
Designers need to recognize that fact, what it means, and get over it!

The term "brochure-ware" or "brochure site" makes me cringe, but that's what many in our profession were told they needed: a copy their brochure, logo, typeface - the whole works - made into a website. Who told them that? Very often it was the same advertising agency or the graphic artist who designed the consultants stationary, business cards and brochures.

The saddest thing about this tunnel vision approach to website development is that it totally ignores opportunities which have NEVER been available in any other medium:

• Hyperlinking. How often have you seen screen after screen of type without a single link to anything else except in menus? Too often. The hyperlink can be a "footnote on the fly" with the total reference text instantly available even though it might reside on the other side of the world. Hyperlinks within text can do much to enrich the user experience. Try that with a book!
  
  
• Ease of keeping information fresh. On a website you have the power to change factual information as often as necessary at very little cost. How many home pages have you seen with copyright dates two or three years old? Too many. Today there is no excuse for outdated pages. There are simple to use solutions that the more forward looking
  
  
• User controlled presentation. Unlike print advertising or TV, the website visitor has the opportunity to personalize their browsing experience. Changing the size of text for easier reading is one such opportunity. Often compulsive designers attempt to limit such choices for the sake of preserving their own visual design concept.
  
  "Who's site is it anyhow? You mean I should allow the visitor to change my work of art?" Yes! Very few computers are exactly alike - There can be great differences in monitors, video electronics, resolution and color pallets, all these things result in a unique experience for each website visitor. So, when a designer is complusively "right" on their computer system it means very little. Better the effort be spent on issues that really matter.
  
  
• Personalization. This is one of the major advantages of online presentations. The Internet is moving the sales process into totally new areas. Are you preparing to become the Amazon of consulting? If you don't someone else will.
  
  
• It's a "pull" technology. What's the advantage? Most of the time visitors to your site are there because they think you have something of value to offer them. The visitor has sought you out. Your only expense is to post some signs that they can follow. Ah, that's the rub: most website designers don't have a clue about how to put up those signs. If it's not done right you might as well be buying billboards in the Bad Lands of South Dakota.
  
  A "push" technology, on the other hand, requires that the receiver on the other end be receptive to whatever service or product message you are sending out. At any given time only a small percentage of the audience will be receptive and the vast majority of your sales impressions will ignored, wasted. Push can be expensive.

What should you do differently to achieve success on the Internet? First, Do NOT do all those things you find objectionable when YOU use the Internet. Second, read the continuation of this article in Internet Branding

Suggested Additional Reading:

• Credibility and visual design
• All about meta tags and why they are important
• Website design and strategy - questions & answers
• Lost on the web - don't let a search engine dump you!

To read other articles and get some good consulting advice from dozens of management consultants visit our website: http://www.firstbiz.com.