"My website is perfect, but I'm still not getting clients. What's wrong?...."

Hey Offliners,

Over the past few days I've been visually mapping out the flow and process of a new website I'm working on, BEFORE actually spending one minute designing it.

Which is how I now advise anyone to start thinking about website design.

So, in thinking more strategically about website design, it's sent me on a mission to find the best resources on homepage and overall website design and optimization.

No, not SEO optimization and graphic design, but design as it effects user experience and conversion optimization.

As I was going through various websites and training products, I came across tutorials and training clinics by MarketingExperiments.com.

I've been a subscriber to their newsletter for years and have watched many of their optimization clinics, so I know that they are the real deal.

They are probably most well known for their landing page optimization trainings.

Plus, they are probably the most scientific-based marketing research firm on the internet for the average guy.

So, as I was watching and rewatching their website design optimization workshops, one of the speakers made a statement that rocked my weekend.

He said, "You don't optimize websites, you optimize thought sequences."

That's a simple sentence, but it has profound implications. Especially when applied to our offline businesses.

Here's what I mean by that.

Most times we never really spend the time to understand the thought process behind how business owners really seek out and ultimately hire consultants like us.

Most offline marketers start and stop at throwing up a brochure website, squeeze page and send some emails and think we've done everything we need to do.

And then we wait.

And wait.

And wait.

Finally we begin to wonder why things aren't working.

Well, you're struggling because you haven't invested the time to really understand how, why and when a prospect would even want to hire you.

Yes, knowing and understanding all three (how, when and why) are important to being successful.

Can you get clients without knowing or doing this?

Yes.

But remember that even a broken clock is right twice a day.

So, yes you can get clients, sell some services and get a few deals doing things the hardest and most ineffecient ways possible.

However, you will breakdown and burnout quicker than a consultant who has taken even a small amount of time each week (a hour or two is a good small first step) to start looking at their systems, processes and business from their prospects perspective.

If you have a few minutes today, go for a walk or simply spend a few minutes outlining and documenting the process you think that your ideal prospect goes through in order to come to the conclusion of hiring you.

Then, after you've done that, post your process map in a place that you will most often see while you are doing your prospecting and lead generation.

It won't be perfect at first, but keep working at it a little bit each week and you'll be light years ahead of any other consultant who isn't doing this.

More importantly, by doing this it will keep you in the right frame of mind (which is looking at your marketing and entire business from your prospects frame of mind) in order to have success in your marketing efforts.

Now, go sell something,

Chris