That question opened the door to a healthy discussion which re-examined and challenged all of our assumptions. It turned out to be a very productive learning experience for both of us. We went back to square one and asked ourselves some more clarifying questions: What are the core services Andrea offers? Who uses those services? Why should they trust Andrea to provide them? Why choose Andrea over another provider? What makes her different? What are the benefits? The advantages?

Not surprisingly, being the top professional she is, Andrea had a concise answer for everyone of those questions. She knows her business. She was able to give me all the insight and direction I required to build a solid framework for her website—based on hard facts. What we also discovered in the process was Andrea's voice—the tone, the peronality, the "how" of saying what she wanted to say that was as as smart and genuine as she is face-to-face.

Looking back, Andrea and I both wondered why we hadn't had this wide-ranging discussion in the initial planning stages of the project. The truth is, we thought we had. It was a sobering wake-up call to see how easily we'd become distracted by our own, untested suppositions.  For my own part, I had been badly served by my overconfidence. I assumed I already knew all the important things about Andrea and her business. Inadvertently, I had skipped right over basic Marketing 101: Don't assume anything. Ask the right questions. Take an inventory. Ask more questions. Know your customer.

For Andrea's Integrative Business Solutions, too, it was a lesson well learned. If you don't ask the right questions, how will you find the most compelling answers. And, without them, how can you really say what you mean?      (previous page)