The main benefits are that you are seen in a totally different light and in a position to charge more for your services.

Prospects don’t necessarily want a website, they want more customers. Help them achieve this and the sky is the limit your you.

I think that’s why I’m running circles around my local competition, even though they are much better “deaigners” than we are. They all have designers on staff with graphic arts degrees, but they don’t know one thing about promotion or marketing.

One client I landed actually had a great looking site for 5 years and was a “pioneer” (their words) for going online before all of their competition. However, after 5 years they still didn’t get any inquiries from their website. You couldn’t even find it by searching for it.

Just by talking with my clients about their goals for the websites, what they want them to accomplish, they know I am more than just another “designer.”

I design quality sites and place the customer’s banner ads on sites that I own which, in turn, draws traffic. My customers love this and it keeps me working.

With regards to the sub-questions Andrew, would you mind elaborating a little on question 8.

What is that problem costing your customers?

How can I further break this down for a client whose problem is having no website in the first place (eg startups)?

Your observation and consequent advice may be helpful to some designers and applicable to certain situations, but it misses the mark in my humble opinion.

You admittedly are not a designer or programmer. So you did not make a career “shift” yourself, and have not walked the same path your are suggesting others take. Your blog identifies you as a Marketer/Salesperson with just enough “web” knowledge to sell a web solution.

Many web designers and programmers actually enjoy learning the new technologies and gain much satisfaction from their work despite whether or not they make more money than the next guy. Money can bring a sense of pride, but many times that pride is defined as over-inflated ego. Quality work brings a real sense of pride. And learning and developing one’s skillset also brings a real pride and confidence; a different kind of confidence than is obtained by just making money. A career based on making money alone can leave a man empty when the green the fades, but knowledge doesn’t fade as easily.

But marketing and Sales is a skillset too. If you have and are developing those skills then you may have found a good career path. Many designers and programmers I know are not sales/marketing people, and they may not be interested, but absolutely enjoy and receive great satisfaction from the accomplishments of their work. But S/M is essential to the growth of a business. So what should those designers do that are not interested in posing your questions to their clients? I see three valid choices. 1) Work for a company that has a good S/M already in place that will allow you to do what you truly enjoy - though you may end up doing a lot of work that you don’t actually enjoy :). 2) If you have the budget, hire a good S/M front man to do what you don’t want to do, and bring you business that allows you to do what you want to do. 3) Become the “Jack of All Trades” and give up some of your creative training and development and splitting the time with S/M. If you choose this route you are probably an Entreprenuer or Free-Lancer, so be prepared to also split your time commitments with many more responsiblities required when running your own business. 4) Use your knowledge to become the S/M guy suggested in this blog and outsource the work would have been yours.

Its often that designers and programmers won’t be able to do what they enjoy for long unless they connect with sales and marketing in some way. Some get lucky and are so good and word of mouth spreads to wide that the doorbell never stops ringing.

This blog ignored too many variables and I thought I would bring some of those to the surface.

Good article though. Thanks.

I’m not sure if I agree with this premise. I agree that websites should be made to sell. But from how I read the blog, I interpreted your blog that web designers should know about internet marketing as well? Such as PR, SEO, ecommerce, email marketing. I mean that’s alot for a web designer to understand and teach.

However, if you are coming from the standpoint that web designers should design a site that serves both form and function, then I would agree with that. But even, after asking some of those questions, I just don’t see how a web designer can design a site that will sell. Internet marketing consultants are responsbible for that. Right? Wrong?

my 2 cents.

j