IQue - Our Twist on the Web

At a developer conference this week, Microsoft announced it would be releasing a cloud computing service alongside its forthcoming operating system, Windows 7. Cloud computing is a broad term that describes software and services made available on the Internet instead of on local computers and servers.

Examples of current cloud applications are the various Google Apps like Google Docs, where word processor and spreadsheet applications are not installed on a local computer, but rather exist as a service accessed online. One of the benefits of cloud applications is that, because they exist online as opposed to on a single computer or network, they can be accessed from any computer. Also, because the services exist across a number of servers, there is great reliability, as well as the capability to handle spikes in online traffic.

The Windows announcement is a clear response to companies like Google and Amazon.com, an early pioneer in commercial cloud services. While Microsoft certainly has the resources to commit data centers to these services, it remains to be seen how they will fare in this newest stage of computing.

As a sales person we all want to get that big deal, make the killer commission and score points with the boss. Have you ever thought there must be an easier way than the traditional grind of selling, cold calling, lead lists, and the like? Well I think I may have found a solution with five laws to stratospheric success. As a business owner, they have all worked for me and have contributed to the success of Twistique.

About two years ago I began a very extensive program to do business by referral. I learned all of the techniques, took all of the classes, studied hard and applied what I learned to my business. I am now proud to say that 80% of our new business for 2008 was by referral! All of the things that I learned and applied are broken down into five laws in the book The Go-Giver and they are techniques that I use everyday. I bet a lot of you use them as well but just aren’t aware you were doing it! They are:

The Law of Value

Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment. For instance treat all current and future clients the same and provide the same value and experience regardless of the cost of the sale.

The Law of Compensation

Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them. Your compensation is proportional to how many lives you touch.

The Law of Influence

Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interests first. Place others’ interests ahead of your own and you will get what you need.

The Law of Authenticity

The most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself. YOU are the most important commodity. No matter what you are selling, what you are really offering is yourself.

The Law of Receptivity

The key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving. YOU must make yourself willing to receive in equal measure as you give. If you are unwilling to receive you interrupt the process. You must have an appetite to receive.

I urge you to apply these five laws to your sales process for the next month and see if you notice a difference not only in your sales but in yourself. One of the best ways to increase your success and wealth is by investing in yourself. Hey, if it’s not right  for you, you can always go back to cold calling!

Once your point person is in place, initial planning for a website begins with inventorying and mapping out the content that will go into its population. Organize your content into 4 primary sections.

It’s always a good starting point to gather and evaluate all of your companies current marketing material. This gives you many areas to build upon and will usually let you know who was responsible for what. You will also be forced to revisit topics such as vision statements, demographic studies, focus group tests (for products) and any other areas of marketing that may need updating.

Once you’ve taken inventory and established your sites initial focus, you need to think about what your main sections are going to be and branch out from there. Your main sections are your main topics to write about. Even if you start with a paragraph per section, that’s better than nothing and a great foundation to build on. It will undoubtedly spark other ideas and needs. Also, having a grasp on content per section/page, will help make decisions on development technologies needed along with specific pieces of functionality to present it.

Now, let’s start to put our initial flow chart together. Notice I said initial, as it will evolve and always be considered a work  in progress. You can use programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, Excel, Word, Visio or OminGraffle to set your charts up. I usually like to sketch things down on graph paper first and then fill in the details with Photoshop or Illustrator. But, that’s just me.

Always, always, always start with your Home page! After all, this is usually where your domain is initially going to go. Think of it as your reception area that is going to be guiding potential customers wherever they need to be. This must be aesthetically pleasing, easy to evaluate, strategic and straight to the point.

As you’re creating your flow chart, compile lists of topics for each page. These will usually help determine your overall  navigation structure and play an integral role in developing your sites usability. This is also when you would start to tentatively assign individual or group tasks as well. It’s important to know who is going to be responsible in helping you gather the sites’ information and whether or not you need to hire more staff.

At this point, you just need to continue with the process until you have the initial phase of your content map (flow chart) layed out, tons of topic ideas/content blocks written and most of your navigation planned out. And, be sure to always keep your sites’ focus in mind. Meaning, don’t do sections/pages just to do them. Keep things simple and try to get a potential customer to your end result goal as quickly and painlessly as possible.

Keep going through this process over and over again until you feel like an effective content map, with documentation, has been written and ready to be evaluated by a web developer(s).