Part 1: Selling a website - make it personal

What are 5 things every e-commerce site must do to be successful?
1. It has to be fast. Not everybody as a T-1 all to themselves.

2. It has to be a tool to connect people, not keep them at bay.

3. It has to allow people to accomplish things, rather than just learning.

4. It has to reach deep into the company, rather than just be a glossy front-end.

5. It has to be of interest to each individual visitor, not just to the CEO.

Why should every user feel as though their visit to an online site is a personal experience?
Every visit is a personal experience. You're sitting at your computer, taking your time to go to a site. If that site caters to your needs better than a competitor's site, they win the day.

Why does customer experience equal "brand"?
Every time an individual comes in contact with a company: advertising, direct mail, telephone, walking in the front door, meeting a sales person, or going to their Website, that experience adds to that individual's perspective of the company. If your Website sucks, it's going to make people feel that you don't care about the details. If your advertising is too edgy, you're going to make certain sectors of the marketplace uncomfortable.

You've consulted with companies such as HP, Ericsson, Sprint and IBM in regard to website strategies - what is the toughest idea to "sell" to them in regard to their websites?
The hardest idea to sell large companies is that in terms of dollars, the first round of Web development has no return on investment. It's all about trying new things and learning. Later, after your foundation is in place, then the tape measures, and the scales, and the stop watches come out. But not at first.

The second most difficult idea to get across is that there really needs to be a central, corporate organization that is there to help all the other business units with technology and best practices - without having total control over everything everybody does. It's a corporate culture thing.

Continued...