Gary Williams, Sales Trainer and Consultant based in Michigan, USA.
After a decade of sales experience, Gary decided to invest his time in further educating himself as a sales consultant and become a trainer.
He decided to start exploring freelancing in late 2023, by practising his writing on the Medium.com platform. That’s where we established a common ground based on our interest in writing and utilising the platform. Not too late after our social media friendship started to take a business turn and we scheduled our first discovery call about his website.
Before the redesign.
We started small. The first thing my client wanted to tackle was a dropdown section functionality issue that required a bit of Velo code adjustment in February 2024. I handled that for him, and later in May my client decided to trust me fully with redesigning his website in ways that fit better his target audience, tone of voice and business goals.
*2025 update
In late 2024, we started with a strategic conversation about my client's change of trajectory and focusing on developing services for businesses and property management companies. The problem statement changed since my client wanted to keep his coaching services for sales professionals but also wanted to expand and focus more on his B2B services.
The main goal was to have a ready one-page website with implemented booking functionally for his sales training and also have a web real estate on which to present his NASP certificate breakdown video.
*2025 update
The goal this time around was to accurately present the user with the new set of services for businesses that are looking to upgrade their sales performance. This included the Assessment Shop service and the Sales Trainings, which are all oriented towards groups of sales consultants.
Target users and audience are sales consultants looking to advance their sales skills. As presented on my client’s website the levels of consulting are suitable for sales consultants who are looking to brush up their sales foundations, looking for a supporting community of sales professionals, sales consultants in need of practice, sales professionals looking for a yearly commitment.
*2025 update
And here the focus and tone of voice changes from being educational and motivational towards sales consultants to directly speaking to property and store managers that want to bring their sales team on another level. Answering their most asked questions, talking about common pain points of low performing regions, introducing the benefits of the assessment shop and sales training, etc.
Gary set the foundations with his website draft vision about the website, and after a detailed review as a solo UX designer and no code web developer, I created a sketch of what the potential layout could look like. This was one of those collaborations where the client trusted me completely to translate their vision into a reality. And having that initial discovery call about the project requirements made all the difference.
*2025 update
This time around as a UX designer I had to break down the different user flows for each service. Those new services were differentiated by target audience, location and format. And from a one-page website I had to create a new information architecture, including the new services and the blog. Gary had the responsibility to provide more testimonials that would fit the new website and write a case study based on his first assessment shop. He also got quite serious with documenting his property walkthroughs via videos, which we would implement within the Blog and his YouTube channel, for more visibility.
Here is what my client shares about his experience working with me.
When it comes to constraints this project wasn’t time sensitive as other projects I have had. There was a slight time difference with me being 6 hours ahead, but that did not affect our feedback loops and progress on the redesign. My tasks included media editing and selection, which included enhancing a couple of visuals and finding good stock images. I had to do desk research that included competitor analysis, booking functionality on Wix, trying the new AI SEO features, and applying the animations and mobile optimisation.
*2025 update
This time the scope grew a little bigger by including 3 more pages, videos, blog posts and most importantly, strategy sessions. For constraints, yet again minimal. For example, a flexible deadline, which prolonged the project a bit, and minor content delays. Nothing we can't work through with good communication and transparency.
For this project, I had the freedom to record my process and later use it for my YouTube channel as a Before and After concept overview but also as behind the scenes of a one-page redesign. I aimed to implement a clean, modern design with a focus on mobile-first principles and streamlined navigation.
As I mentioned in the video first thing I do (if I don’t forget 😅) is to create a clear capture of the before state and analyse current content. The next thing I do when handling a redesign project is checking the hierarchy of the website and the relations between pages, sections and items. “Just to be safe” practice I also did was creating a copy of the homepage and naming the current site version distinctly in the site history so we know when redesign changes took place.
After learning what I am working with I took out the A4 and started sketching different layout options.
Briefly I did also try to experiment and see what kind of suggestions the new AI feature from Wix Studio would recommend. Next was the updating of the style guide (Site Styles) within the editor. From colour pallet to the font pairing. The focus usually with every new website is the homepage and the hero section since is the first the user lands on and depending on their interest they will keep scrolling, browsing or exiting instantly.
Moving further down it was time to present my clients’ sales experince and accomplishments, and later on implementing the booking widget from Wix Studio that directly links my client’s preffered meeting platform and even payment providers.
If you also watch the video you will notice that I write the copy simultaneously as I design the sections as sections and the copy makes more sense when they are real and in their almost-finished form. Changes always come after the first draft.
The testimonials were the easiest section to update since my client had already chose a fitting style for it and imported most of them. I edit some of the design layout and order of the first couple of testimonials so they can speak more to the new visitors of the website.
What was next:
*2025 update
This time around I needed to get the foundations right. For me, that was my client's offer. I needed to understand what those new services provided and what this meant for my client's business. Because let's be honest, if I don't get it, it's most likely that other users won't either. That's why I first got my pen and paper and started to list what we have already on the existing website, what we want to keep and what we need to add. After that, I jumped in Figjam and started generating an outline of the website structure and a scheme of the services and their dependencies. Then I created the Blog and its posts, with simultaneously having periodic meetings about the new direction of the website and mainly the structure. Amidst the redesign project, I also pitched a new service to my client for the maintenance and growth of his Blog and SEO.
The website is live and running. Gary has created a proffesional Instagram in the meantime, recorder his NASP video (which is also available on his website) and even came as a guest on the Curious Business Talks podcast. As usual, I asked what his conversion rate and progress when it comes to his freelance journey and here is what he said:
“I haven’t put any effort into promoting myself yet. I promise to let you know when I achieve my first solo sale!”
And so we wait to celebrate his first freelance closed sale via his website. 😌 And in the meantime we will be working on something new.
*2025
To be continued...
After the redesign.
I will get back to you within 48 hours.
