I gave a client a quote on July 22 (over 3 weeks ago).
The client is still thinking about it. That means they’ll probably say “No” to the quote.
One of the biggest influences when people are buying is the speed with which they buy. The longer they take to decide the less likely they are to say yes.
It’s also been my experience that clients who deliberate for a long, long time (unless they are a large company where the wheels generally turn slower) are often more high maintenance they clients who just take action.
Cheers
Brendon
A few weeks back Anthony, the team’s web programmer and all round computer guru, wandered into the office and asked if PR worked. We’d just had a story on me in the local newspaper and we hadn’t generated any calls.
My answer to Anthony was simple: PR is a cumulative thing. Keep getting your face out there in the community and things will start to happen.
This was my day yesterday.
9.30 am – meeting with a client after we’d finished his web site
11.00 am – 20 minute radio show
12 midday – meet with client to present a pitch
1 p.m – meet with a client to discuss the needs and wants regarding his upcoming web site
3 pm – meet with client to discuss the development of his new site
4 pm – meet with PR company who gave me 2 magazines I am featured in this month. Business Acumen and Life Gold Coast.
5 pm – drive an hour and 20 minutes to outer suburbs of Brisbane (110 kms away) to give a speech to a group of 30 businesspeople (Rotary Club)
I was home by 9.30 pm.
Results So Far
We received 3 calls after the radio show from people who want to meet and chat regarding web sites.
I’ve received 2 leads from the Business Acumen article.
And 2 strong leads from the speech.
That’s 7 excellent leads – all because these people have become aware of me through a constant PR campaign.
PR works and works well. Can it be part of your marketing mix?
Regards
Brendon
…..I’ll send the prospect a letter a little like this:
=================
Hope all is well. Thanks for the opportunity to provide the proposal for the web site.
We would very much like to work with you and your team to develop the premium site that would be of tremendous benefit to the company. With all of the possibilities we’ve reviewed the site would be exceptional.
Thanks again. Will speak with you soon.
=================
Short, simple and to the point. Also note I say something like “develop the premium site that would be of tremendous benefit to the company.”
What I’m trying to push there is that the site should be an asset. because that’s what every site should be.
Always, always, always follow up after you have provided a proposal. After all, this person is giving you a terrific opportunity to make a case for using you – and helping you grow your business, feed your family and keeping a roof over your head.
The least you can do is say “Thanks for the opportunity”.
Brendon
I’ve just seen a competitors quote for a web site we both went for (we won the job).
The competitor was a fair bit below us for the site development (10% less) but, interestingly, their hosting fee was $250 per month. The hosting fee we quoted was $240 per year.
It was an interesting way to propose – less on the site development and then make $2,800 a year for a few years on the hosting.
That’s big bucks in just a few short years. Keep that one in mind when you quote – it could be a strategy that works for you or could be a strategy being used by your competition.
Regards
Brendon
Following on from the post below, I’m about to follow my own advice!
I’ve given a client a web site proposal for $21,000. It’s a client we’ve worked with previously and they accepted out quote and asked us to start work right away.
A couple of days later the client asked me to stop the work we’d done and come in for a meeting. Turns out they are in this new business with a partner and the partner had gotten a quote for the job as well.
$19,700 Less!
The quote their partner got was $1,300!
So I went in and explained the value of our proposal and they were happy with that. They wanted some reassurance the site would work how I said it would if we implemented the strategies suggested.
Because I had worked with one half of this business before I said sure – pay me $6,000 upfront and $15,000 in 10 weeks if the web site is achieving the goals we set.
They came back with a counter-offer.
* $3,000 now
* $3,000 on completion
* $1,250 a month for 12 months
The Red Flags Are Up
The client wants me to take the entire risk for the business succeeding. I don’t think so friend.
I reduced their risk substantially with my initial $6,000 now/balance if the site works offer, but now I get the sense they’re just trying to screw me.
* In the meeting they were trying to screw me down on every little cost.
* They didn’t want us to take product shots, they just wanted to steal the graphics from a competitor’s web site.
* And now they want me to act as a Finance Company (interest free) for their web business
They have no ‘hurt’ money in the project. Which means they don’t care if it succeeds or fails. That is, if it fails they still get to eat. They don’t desperately, desperately need it to succeed.
Nope. Not for me.
Cheers
Brendon
Hello. Thanks for reading.
I really am a very stupid man. You see, I don’t take my own advice.
One of the big, big things I’ve learnt over the years is to not take on clients that raise a few red flags – you know the sort: the one’s that you just know are going to be a complete pain in the butt and will be a big loss.
I see rejecting clients (the wrong sort of clients) as as hugely important strategy for business success. Here are the sort of red flags I’ve come to identify as being a key indicator to keep away from the client:
1. They want a $50,000 web site done for $100
2. They want it finished yesterday
3. They have no understanding of the impact a web site can have on their buisness
4. They’re far too busy to meet with you for more than 1/2 hour
5. They tell you how much work you’ll get from them down the track if you do this cheap
All The Red Flags And I Still Jumped In
I had a client a few weeks ago exhibit all of the classic signs. I even said to the team here “This client will be a pain in the butt but their are some strategic reasons that I think we should take her on. I hope it works out okay.”
Moron
I’m a moron. What was I thinking!
At the moment, assuming we get paid, the loss will be about $2,000. Not much, but enough. The bigger impact has been the energy this person sucks out of our business – you don’t want to answer the phone because it might be them, we don’t want to make changes to the site because they won’t be happy anyway (the site has been approved, and then changed about 6 times as the client wasn’t happy) and on it goes.
Never Take On Clients You Don’t Think Will Be Great
Rejecting bad clients is just as important as getting good ones.
And I promise I will never make that mistake again.
Cheers
Brendon
We’ve just developed a very successful web site for a client and he asked me “Is this your best web site ever?”
“Well yes it is………until our next one,” I replied.
You see, on every single web project we’ve ever been involved in we learn just that little bit more. And after hundreds and hundreds of “little bit mores” we have become pretty effective at what we do.
Our Next Web Site
And so that means that our next web site will be the best one we’ve ever done. And the one after that will be the best one we’ve ever done. And the one after that will be…….and on it goes.
Web Sites Must Actually Work
Web sites must actually work otherwise they’re just expensive bits of art. Probably my best piece of advice to those considering a web site is to not select the developer on price, but to select on value.
Brendon
Hello.
I’ve mentioned Experience, Credentials & Guarantee already as the aspects that set us apart. But I think the biggie is this next one:
Value
By that I very simply mean this: We aren’t the cheapest but we do provide fantastic value for money.
I always think examples are a little dull, but here goes anyway:
* We had an old client with whom we’d worked with for years.
* He sold his business and started up again with a business partner.
* The business partner had been working in the business for 2 years and in that time had made 1 $400 sale from the web site.
* My old client had us come in and redevelop the web site.
* $5,000 & one month later we were finished.
* The next month the web site had $68,000 in sales.
* The month after that it was $80,000.
* The month after that is was $100,000.
That’s value.
Engaging the services of the cheapest web developers can be a false economy. Make sure you don’t skimp on the important things. And a web site can be an “important thing” for your business.
Remember, always look at the value not the cost.
Not Expensive
Having said that we’re not expensive at all.
We’ve worked hard to keep our overheads down – what that means for you is a web development firm that is often 25% less expensive than a firm working out of a fancy address (our office is located above a Pizza place and a Cafe – that’s not too fancy!).
We prefer to spend our hard-earned on better equipment so we can make ourselves better and more efficient.
Global Market
And of course our market in global. It’s just the same for us to work with a client in New York (as we do) as it is to work with a client next door (he’s in the next street across actually). So we have that flexibity through investing in our processes and our equipment and that’s a good thing.
Regards
Brendon
This next thing we have always seems to create some controversy when I suggest all web developers should have one. They often just don’t see the need.
Guarantee
We guarantee our work 100%.
If you, as our client, don’t think we’ve provided you with great value and done exactly what we said we’d do then their is no charge. Simple as that.
As our client you need to know that we do what we say. That we’ll do the job and that their is absolutely no risk to you.
I figure that if we don’t guarantee our work then what we’re really saying is “Well, we may or may not do what we say.” And that’s not good enough.
Other Web Developers
When I suggest the use of a guarantee to other web developers the general thinking is “What if the client doesn’t like the design, etc?”
That’s not relevant.
The development of a web site needs to be a consultative approach in that the web developer should liaise with their client to ensure the web site meets their needs and wants (of course most clients understand that the web developer has more expertise at web development and is someone worth listening to).
What generally happens with our clients is we talk at length about what the web site and provide our recommendations and adjustment suggestion to what our clients specify.
For example if a client wants to have a huge photograph on the home page we might advise against that on the grounds that the load time (how long the web site takes to load onto someone’s screen) might be too long. And we’d back our recommendation up with relevant research.
Stay tuned for the next Point of Difference: Diversity.
Brendon
That’s a great question. And a question I get fairly often – though it’s not always put that way…..but that’s what the person in front of me is trying to get at.
The Truth
The truth is there are a good number of decent web developers about. Finding them is the tricky bit of course because we’ll all say we’re the best. So we need to be able to differentiate ourselves from the rest.
Here’s my effort at answering that question and differentiating what we do (Part 1 anyway):
1. Experience
You see we’re not just web designers or developers. We’re also web owners. Pretty unique in the world of web designers.
And I’d guess that very few people have had the experience we’ve had over the past few years.
One site exploded with sales after a major current affairs show featured it. We went from 1 sale a day to 5,000 a day.
Dealing with the logistics of that gives you very valuable experience.
Another site we have went from $0 to $10,000 a day in sales in just 12 weeks.
What that means for our clients is this:
* We know what works (saving you possibly years and $000’s in waste)
* We test everything (and we know what to test)
* We’re very results driven (we know it’s about business. It’s always been about business. The prettiest site doesn’t win. The site working to its full potential does.)
2. Credentials
This is the risky bit. I don’t want to sound like a complete clown, but I probably do need to express some details about myself and the Tailored team.
We’ve been in the web game for close on seven- (7) years now. After working with one of Australia’s leading designers for a couple of years I was frustrated with the focus on design at, it seemed to me anyway, the expense of the web site being functional, useful and effective.
Since then my business has developed hundreds of web sites. Most of them successful. Some hugely successful. Some not so good.
Some small sites, some huge sites. Some simple sites, some hugely sophisticated sites.
We research and immerse ourselves in the technology. A good portion of our time here is spent investigating the latest standards or innovations on the web.
As the writer of one of the world’s biggest web master e-newsletters (130,000+ subscribers) I have access to a huge amount of data relevant to the next design we’ll complete. Data we spend hours poring over each day.
I’m the author of ‘The Web Design Business Kit’ – a book for web developers that has had sales in excess of $1 million in just over 12 months.
The background – my background isn’t in web development. I’m more of a marketing guy. And that, I firmly believe, is one of the main reasons why our web sites work – because we focus on how the site needs to be developed to get results.
What Do Our Credentials Mean For Our Clients?
It’s means we know what we’re doing when it comes to developing successful web sites. We know what to focus on. And we know how to get results. Real results.
Brendon