How Can I Find the Right Web Designer for MyBusiness?

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By Don Purdum

April 13, 2015

Over the last decade I discovered that finding the right web designer was one of the hardest things to dofor a business owner. It can be a high ticket priced item and knowing if someone is competent and capableand can follow through is important to every business owner or entrepreneur who is assuming the risk ofmaking this all important item.

There is lot at stake for a business when it comes to a website… money, time, potential prospects, sales,ecommerce, automated efficiencies, messaging, branding and more. Ultimately, it comes down to risk asyou choose to give money to someone you don’t know.

How do you hire someone to help you when you don’t know the hiring criteria or what questions to ask?

After all, you’re not a coder, programmer, layout expert… you just know what you like and what you don’tlike when you see it. But creating, that’s another story!

When I was in web design, I met a lot of business owners who were deeply frustrated by the experiencesthey had over-and-over again with web designers. In fact, it almost felt sometimes that we were right upthere with attorneys, used car dealers, etc.

It wasn’t uncommon to meet with a business owner who said that they had hired two, three or even fourweb designers who they paid several thousand dollars to and still had nothing to show for it.

They knew they need a website and couldn’t do it right themselves, but they also didn’t know who to buy itfrom.

Another common confusion was when interviewing web designers and developers the business ownerwould get a different set of confusing opinions on how to get what they wanted. Complicating it was the factthat there isn’t a standard price for this kind of thing.

I’ve seen swings from $1,000 - $7,000 for the same exact website.

If you’re about to build a website for your business there are several interviewing questions you can ask todetermine the risk level your business may face when working with a web designer.

Of course there is no full proof method to get rid of risk, but these diagnostics will certainly help you gainsome clarity around the process of hiring a web designer.

So let’s get started and talk about the process of finding the right web designer for your business.

#1 – Know Your Business

One of the biggest challenges I faced with a prospect or client as a web designer was helping a businessgain clarity around their own business.

For over a decade web designers have marketed themselves as being able to help you meet all the peopleyou would ever want to meet through your website and that your website is the main conduit through whichyour business will grow.

This is a half truth. There are now way too many variables to make that claim.

What industry are you in?

What is your business model?

What is your level of knowledge about networking?

What is your level of knowledge around how the internet works for business? (check out the videoon this subject)

Where does your audience hang out or look for information?

How is search engine optimization, social media and online engagement changing the game or isit?

The internet is not a catch all. It’s not a mass marketing tool to help you gain as many customers as youcan handle. That’s why I wrote my eBook titled “The Shift – Making the Fast Paced Transition from Mass

Marketing to Context Marketing.”

The truth is that the internet is turning into a relationship building tool that allows you to attract an audiencewhen you know your business so well that you can match it up to someone who has an issue, problem orneed and is looking for someone to help them with it.

When you know “what business you’re “really” in” you position yourself to build a case for how good youare at what you do because you know how to talk to one person with one problem.

That’s how the internet works in the big picture. But if you don’t have that down, and the overwhelmingmajority of businesses do not, then all you can do is talk about you, your product or service, and why yourprices are better than you competition.

But you also have to be really clear about why you do what you do and why you do it. If you’re confused atany level; so are your prospects. I have seen very established businesses muddy the water and leave theiraudience feeling confused.

In my article last week I used this article by M&T Bank as an example. In it, they will introduce their clientwho is a manufacturer. They will tell us they have discovered they are in the “people business.” So what?Aren’t we all? When you watch the video and think about what is being said you will realize how easy it isto get off message.

You MUST know your business.

A web designer is not a business or marketing coach!

A web designer will not be able to communicate your business for you nor will they be able to break yourbusiness down for you. They will only be able to tell you how the technology can help your business or offersome ideas to make an online experience for your prospects and customers a great one.

But you must be able to tell them not just what you want; but who you are so that they can build your sitewith that in mind.

#2 – You Must Understand Who Web Designers Are

Many come to web designers assuming they are experts at helping businesses achieve their online goals.This is not who the majority of web designers are if they are good at what they do.

It’s now to specialized and there is too much to know.

Most web designers learned their skill by tinkering with code and studying layouts. Some have degrees orformal training and most are freelancers or have small companies.

Web designers understand their business; but they have no clue about your business. They don’t know orunderstand your industry, industry trends, audience, psychology or sales processes or product delivery.

The truth is most don’t care about you or your business.

In fact you should expect in a first meeting for them to ask you want you want, do you have a budget andhow soon would you like to begin.

That is NOT want you want!!!! I’ll explain more about a process you should consider following that will helpyou significantly in a few paragraphs.

Okay, now that you have an idea of who they are not, I can get into who they are. They are incrediblytalented and gifted people at making you shine when you can help them to do that. By themselves, theycan create you a site; just don’t expect them to create one for you that will be you.

Many web designers are not extraverts. They love to study web layouts, plugins and flashy items that areneat and can be helpful to a website.

They love to build things and create something from nothing.

And the really good ones have a process and workflow that make the process easy for you as well asprovides with you expectations for your project.

#3 - Be Prepared to Meet with the Web Designer

The biggest problem many business face is that they are not really prepared to meet with a web designer.

Remember, you’re interviewing a prospective vendor who will be creating an extremely important productfor your business. They may be helping you create a marketing tool or they may be helping you buildautomation or efficiencies in your business through the use of online technologies.

You want to know if they understand business and can think outside of your box to help you.

Researching your competition and coming up with an example of a website you like is not preparation.Preparation is when:

1. You can walk them through your business model to include the “specific” problems you solve, whoyou solve them for and how your business offers “a” solution or meets a need (check out the BeginHere page for more details). You can also provide them with resources on your business (flyers,brochures, other marketing materials, etc).

2. Be prepared to talk with them about your challenges. It could be marketing, efficiencies, processesor systems.

3. Be able to tell them very specifically what you need or want so that you can see how they interactwith you.

The consequences of not being prepared can be numerous:

You hire the wrong company.

You lose a ton of money.

You have to start the process over again.

You don’t have the right website for the right need.

#4 – What Questions Should I Be Asking a Prospective Web Designer

Now to the fun part of what you really wanted to know when you started reading this article. Whatquestions should you ask a prospective web designer?

The key here is that you are in control. It’s not about what you do or do not know at this point about theinternet. You want to assess they prospective web designer to determine if you’re a good fit before youever get into discussing your needs.

At a minimum, you will want to interview or engage with a web designer at least three times before hiringthem.

You want to learn how they think, what their processes and systems are and you will want to learn theirtemperament to determine if you will have a good working relationship with him or her.

Here is a short list you can ask in the initial interview:

What industry sites and blogs do you read regularly?

In your opinion what are the top 5 or 10 characteristics of a good design.

What is your level of understanding regarding design constraints on the web?

How do you handle suggestions/criticisms of your work?

Tell me about a success in one of your recent projects, and knowing what you know now what wouldyou have done different?

Given the opportunity whose website would you want to design or redesign and why?

Have you ever built a website for a business in my field and if not how would you approach myproject?

What is your assessment of my website?

What are your specific processes for building a website?

Do you have any literature that you can leave me that explains the process and what I can expect?

Before leaving the meeting, if you feel comfortable moving forward you will want them to email you a list ofwhat you can expect mover forward including their written list of processes.

Conclusion

You want to be as certain as possible that you are hiring the right web designer who has the skills, talents,capabilities, training and temperament to help you.

If they are merely interested in getting started as fast as possible that might be a warning sign. You haveto go at your speed. Now, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t ask you to get started either. If the person you

are talking with is a good business person they understand that securing the deal in a timely fashion isimportant.

But, they should also want to know as much about you as possible so they know what they are walking intoas well. That should be an important consideration for you.

Do you want more information?

Awesome!

I have a few PDF Web Design Questionnaire Kit thatcan help you immediately. You can even print them outand use them in your meetings.

1. The first is a list of some survey questions thatyou can ask to help gather information about howpeople view your site and interact with it.

2. The second is a web design interview processdocument.

3. The third is a complete list of questions that youcan use in the interview.

To access them, simply fill out the form below and joinmy email where I will give you weekly tips and ideason how to use online technologies practically for yourbusiness as well as business principles and ideas thatwill help your business flourish online whether you’re abrick-and-mortor, offline business, online business orcombination of any of these.