Lots Of Stories

When I’m talking with a possible client about their web site I do 2 things.
1. I’m constantly trying to quantify the benefit the person will receive from our work
2. I tell lots of stories
I tend to be a bit harsher these days when I speak with prospects. I don’t sugarcoat it if they have a terrible web site. I basically say “You have a terrible web site and it needs fixing.”
I had a lady in today to whom I said something similar. She’s a no-nonsense, down to earth lady who quite happily accepted the comments about her current site (it’s a bit outdated and a little confusing to navigate through) in the spirit I intended them – to give her the information she needed to make the right decision.
I think that, intuitively, we all tend to speak to clients the way we think they’d prefer. If the person with me today was different I may well have been much gentlier (but wasting her time which I wouldn’t want to do).
Getting your message across takes time and skill. Sure, we all make mistakes by misreading the situation on occasions but it’s well worth being bold in an effort to be better.
Cheers
Brendon