In today’s digital age, having a website is not just a luxury. It is a necessity for businesses and organizations. We are at the point where just having a website isn’t enough – your website needs to attract and retain visitors.

When establishing a strong online presence, there are key elements that can significantly impact your website’s effectiveness in turning prospects into clients. In this article, we’ll explore must-haves that will make your website user-friendly, engaging, and reflective of your brand.

A Clear & Concise Home Page: Your Digital Welcome Mat

Your homepage serves as the virtual doorstep to your business. It is the first impression that visitors will have of your website and your business, so it’s essential to make it count. It should be visually appealing, with a clean design and easy-to-read font. Most importantly, it must convey your brand’s message and purpose. Use eye-catching images, brief yet powerful text, and a clear call-to-action to encourage visitors to explore further.

Navigation: Guiding the Digital Journey

The first stop on our website must-have tour is navigation. Imagine navigating a city without street signs – confusing, right? Similarly, a clear and intuitive navigation menu is crucial for your website. It’s like a roadmap, helping visitors easily find what they’re looking for. Label each menu item thoughtfully, and ensure the navigation bar is visible on every page.

Responsive Design: Your Website, Anywhere, Anytime

In our world of various devices, your website needs to be optimized for mobile devices. This means that your site should be responsive, adapting to screens big and small. A responsive website ensures that whether someone is on a computer, tablet, or phone, your site is easily accessible, looks good, and works well. This is critical, given that more than half of all web traffic now comes from mobile devices.

Fast Loading TImes: The Need For Speed

In a world where time is precious, a fast-loading website is a game-changer. Most visitors are unlikely to wait more than a few seconds for a page to load, so your website should be optimized for speed. This includes optimizing images, reducing the number of plugins you use, and ensuring that your hosting provider is up to the task of handling your website’s traffic.

Engaging Content: Tell Your Story Efficiently

Your website’s content is the heart and soul of your website, and the backbone of your online presence. From a catchy homepage message to informative blog posts, ensure your content is compelling, clear, and well-written. Break up text with descriptive headings and subheadings, use visuals to illustrate your points, and make sure your content is easy to read and skim without sacrificing SEO value. While it is unlikely that visitors will read every word of your site, search engines like Google will.

Contact Information: Building Trust Through Accessibility

If your website’s purpose is to attract new customers or clients, make sure visitors can easily get in touch with you. Include a prominent contact form on your website, your phone number, email address, and physical address. This builds trust and assures visitors that you are a legitimate and accessible business.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Finally, it’s essential to ensure that your website is optimized for search engines like Google. This means using relevant keywords throughout your content, optimizing your images, and ensuring that your website is easily crawlable by search engine bots. Investing in SEO ensures that your website is visible to potential customers who are actively searching for businesses like yours.

In Conclusion

Incorporating these website must-haves is like laying a solid foundation for a successful online presence. Navigation, responsive design, a clear home page, fast loading times, engaging content, accessible contact information, and effective search engine optimization collectively create a website that not only attracts but retains visitors. So, whether you’re building a website from scratch or giving your current one a makeover, remember these essentials to truly enhance your online presence. If you have any questions, please reach out to the team at Five Towers Media.

The challenge of sales is that sales is… Well, challenging! And when it comes to sales efficiency, four challenges seem particularly common. We often see small to mid-size businesses struggling in the areas of Sales Process Complexity, Sales Technology, Data and Analytics, and Sales Rep Training.

Let’s dive into each category to evaluate the problems – and solutions – associated with each.

SALES PROCESS COMPLEXITY

Common Problems:

• Reduced efficiency and wasted effort due to sales reps spending too much time on administrative tasks.

• Longer sales cycles which can tie up resources and delay deal closings. Sometimes, this results from multiple decision-makers being required to sign off on the deal, but it too often results from inefficiencies in the seller’s organization.

• Higher costs due to the extended sales cycles and the number of steps involved in the process.

• Customer frustration which can impact the seller/buyer relationship in the short- and long-term.

Solutions to Consider:

• Analyze the sales process to determine areas where the process can be streamlined or automated with AI.

• Create a sales playbook to ensure all sales team members truly understand the sales process.

• Hold the team accountable for understanding and following the documented process. If non-compliance is too common, it could indicate the process needs more fine-tuning.

• Use technology to identify and generate leads and use your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to identify recurring issues and bottlenecks.

• Listen to your customers; if they are frustrated with certain aspects of their buying experience, this should provide clues on how to improve your sales process.

SALES TECHNOLOGY

Common Problems:

• Too many tools and lack of coordination between technology platforms – including systems, software, and applications – can cause confusion and inefficiency for sales team members.

• Integration issues and lack of alignment can lead to data silos, repetitive and time-consuming input, overall inefficiencies, and conflicting output.

• Poor training that leaves sales reps underqualified to use sales technology effectively and efficiently.

• Utilizing technology platforms that the sales team does not buy into – they do not understand or see the value it provides, and therefore do not use it.

Solutions to Consider:

• Choose integrated or compatible technology systems to avoid compatibility

problems.

• Provide thorough training to empower sales team members.

• Invest in a comprehensive (but not overly complex) CRM system.

• Implement a sales engagement platform to help automate repetitive tasks such as sending emails and scheduling meetings.

• Use sales analytics tools to help track performance and identify areas for improvement.

• Get feedback from your sales team members; as the frontline technology users, they probably have great ideas for enhancements.

LACK OF DATA AND ANALYTICS

Common Problems:

•Siloed data systems.

•Poor data collection practices, which can include not capturing key data in a CRM with each customer or prospect interaction.

• Poor data quality due to unreliable data sources, inaccurate data entry, duplicate data, or incomplete data.

• Lack of data analytics tools, often due to a lack of budget or a poor understanding of the importance of the tools and how to confidently use them.

Solutions to Consider:

• Improve data collection, whether it be from a purchased list or gathered during the course of business operations; strive for meaningful comprehensiveness that will support future reporting and forecasting.

• Centralize data in a well-aligned CRM system.

• Use meaningful data in the CRM to perform general sales analytics, forecasting, and process improvements.

• Use a consultant skilled in sales analysis to identify trends, patterns, and opportunities for process improvement.

SALES REP TRAINING

Common Problems:

• Poor sales rep performance due to non-existent, poor, or improper sales training on processes, tools, and resources.

• High sales team turnover, which results from poor performance or dissatisfaction with up-front management support and professional development.

• Customer dissatisfaction due to poorly trained sales representatives.

• Poor sales training content that may be irrelevant, ineffective, or outdated.

• Lack of practice opportunities during and after sales training.

Solutions to Consider:

• Commit to frequent sales training and prioritize its importance even if it impacts available selling time in the short term.

• Implement sales training programs aligned to big-picture and specific sales performance needs.

• Listen to sales rep feedback to improve training methods and focus.

• Provide opportunities to practice what has been learned; use simulated and real-world opportunities, including roleplay.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Identifying sales efficiency challenges is the first step toward implementing meaningful solutions. One easy way to identify your company’s unique problem areas is to take my free Sales Agility Assessment. It’s a quick and easy way to zero in on the challenges facing your sales organization. Once you have a better understanding of your specific sales challenges, I will work with you on focused solutions to help you overcome your most troubling sales efficiency challenges.

On Thursday, January 25th, 2024, the Adirondack Regional Chamber of Commerce hosted a panel discussion featuring four speakers, sharing their expertise on alternative hiring options.

Communities across our region have been experiencing hiring shortages, and challenges retaining employees. This panel shared stories and experiences on the hiring of individuals with criminal records, veterans, immigrants, and individuals with disabilities.

“We are so grateful to have professionals available to speak to our business community on the hiring of these populations,” said ARCC President & CEO Tricia Rogers. “This is just the beginning of the conversation, and we are thrilled that many businesses in this region came to the event to learn about their hiring options.”

The panelists dispelled many misconceptions that have been presented about hiring these populations, as well as shared some resources and programs; one of which, called the Department of Defense SkillBridge Program, has been successfully implemented by one of the panelists – Sergeant Major Christopher Thomas (U.S. Marine Corps, Retired), founder of Elite 9 Veteran Talent Acquisition Services, who has been working with a few local businesses on opportunities for service members to gain valuable civilian work experience through specific industry training, apprenticeships, or internships. Service members receive real-world job experiences, while still maintaining their military compensation and benefits. The employer, in-turn, gains a valuable employee that may turn into full-time employment.

“How do we move from a handshake and ‘thank you for your service’, to providing mutually beneficial opportunities for the success of our communities, and the hundreds of thousands of transitioning service members from the military every year? I truly believe the answer lies within the Skillbridge Program, but we must first build awareness to gain the desired traction,” said Thomas.

The panel also featured Tim McNutt, Esq., the Director of the Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative Center for Applied Research on Work, at the IRL School Cornell University. Mr. McNutt spoke of common misconceptions on hiring someone with a criminal background: “Workers with criminal records often perform better on the job, stay longer, and have fewer incidents at the workplace, but misconceptions can keep employers from hiring this largely untapped talent pool. Individualized assessments with a focus on skills for the job can help overcome hiring hurdles and create a triple win: organizations hire the workers they need, people with criminal records get jobs, and society benefits through reduced recidivism,” said McNutt.

In addition, Dr. Richard Leach, a retired physician and co-founder of the Adirondack Welcome Circle, spoke on his experience welcoming refugees into our community, and helping them secure employment. His personal stories shined a light on families looking to make a better life for themselves in our country, and how the Adirondack Welcome Circle has helped.

To round out the panel, the ARCC invited Michelle Treffi, Director of Employment Programs, Community Work & Independence (CWI) who provided some excellent information on programs that CWI can offer employers: “I think far too often, people hear the word disability and automatically think of what limitations/barriers an individual may have, rather than the skills that they have worked hard to develop. Hiring disabled individuals can help a business round out their talent needs while creating a culture of diversity and inclusion, and further strengthening community ties,” said Treffi.

Some of these programs offer all the support that the employee and employer may need to ensure success: “There are programs in place, such as Community, Work and Independence, Inc.’s Competitive Edge, which is a full-service employment program that matches individuals with jobs that are compatible with their skills, abilities, and preferences. Staff assists individuals with career exploration, job exploration, and the application and interviewing process. Following a job placement, Competitive Edge offers job coaching, employment counseling, soft-skills training and support, a safe forum for workplace concerns, and guidance to manage employment benefits. Competitive Edge works to ensure satisfaction for both the individual and the employer with each job placement. Group employment options are also available through contracted work opportunities.”

The ARCC is committed to continuing these conversations and finding a way to bridge the gap between employers and job seeking populations. Stay tuned to the ARCC website for any updates or announcement of future discussions.