I am proud to announce our latest product, LeadSHIFT. LeadSHIFT was born out of necessity for Connected Web Solutions.  I always thought a CRM would be a good idea but we really didn’t need another place to track communications and contact details.  I tried a few CRM’s but I quickly realized that a CRM was not the right tool.

I wanted to track a handful of things (some of which were in CRMs and some were not).

1. Leads (Open, Won, and Lost)
2. Referral Sources
3. Project Types (web design, app development, hosting, etc)
4. Contact Types (phone, contact form submission, email, etc)

By using these 4 types of information, I could figure out

• Conversion rate of new leads
• Average number of days to convert a lead to a client
• Best referral sources (based on # of leads converted)
• Highest income generating referral source
• Most common projects
• Which types of

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We will be launching our lead conversion tracking app in the coming months and we want your help naming it!  Just answer the poll below to help.

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As an established web design agency, we are the individuals that design and build websites for a living.  We are the ones that are constantly reading up on usability and user experience and how best to increase conversions.  We are the ones with an understanding of solid design principles and color theory.  All too often, I get the feeling that clients forget that they  hired us to help them construct sites to help them succeed and meet their site goals.  It’s our job as the designers to nip this in the butt early.

Educate the client
Be sure from the beginning of the project that the client understands what you can do to help them.  Before showing them anything (even a wireframe) make sure they know that any feedback and criticism should be identified as a problem.  By identifying the problem, you can then provide them solutions that will be …

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After seeing Panic’s status board, I couldn’t help myself.  This was such a fantastic idea that I had to create one for CWS headquarters.  I knew that we probably wouldn’t have enough data to do anything nearly as informative as Panic’s but I still had a handful of things that would make my life a ton easier to see on 1 window.  This resides on a 24″ Acer LCD above my dual monitor setup.

Using the amazing project management platform, 5PM, I was able to pull all sorts of information necessary to create our project management status board pieces.  I love seeing when my people add a new progress note or if the “Other CWS Tasks” list gets cut in half.  I know stuff is being accomplished.

CWS Status Board Items

• Tasks assigned to me (via 5PM)
• Tasks assigned to others (via 5pm)
• Progress bars for tasks

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Some time over the last week Connected Web Solutions officially turned three years old.  In these 3 years we’ve seen

• Countless (re)designs and apps developed
• Our first official product, alumLINK
• Clients have come and gone (I guess you can’t keep them all)
• The business has changed locations twice
• Worked in Costa Rica for a month (see www.mymovableoffice.com)
• A company car
• Annually increasing revenue, profits, and expenses (I guess the last is inevitable)
• A larger team
• And loads more but these are all that come to mind right now…

These 3 years have been a great learning experience not just in terms of web design and development but also in business and life.  I wanted to take the opportunity to thank all the clients and people that have worked with us in these three years.  Let’s hope the next 3 are just as exciting and successful!

“Learning never exhausts the

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