Gold Coast Web Expert

Howdy.
Heard a great example of the effectiveness of keeping in touch today.
Most of us have been late with a bill at some time. What happens is something like this:
1. Letter from creditor
2. Phone call from creditor
3. Another letter from creditors
4. Letter from Debt Collector
5. Phone call from Debt Collector
6. FINAL DEMAND from Debt Collector
By this stage the vast, vast majority of people pay the bill. Because they were asked to. Numerous times. With ever-increasing urgency.
It’s the same as selling a product or service
Keep in contact with your prospect and continue to make an offer. Your process might be something like this:
1. Letter from you – with an offer
2. Phone call from you – with an offer
3. Another letter from you – with an offer
4. Letter from you – with an offer
5. Phone call from you – with an offer
6. FINAL DEMAND from you (i.e. Just 2 days left before the price goes up) – with an offer
Keeping in contact leads to more sales and more referrals. It has to be done as a fundamental part of your marketing strategy.
Regards
Brendon

Howdy.
I went out for dinner on Friday night with client. Saturday was dinner again with other clients.
One of the questions I get asked is “How do I build the relationship with my client?”
Provide solutions
Well, the main way is to provide solutions for their problems. That’s what every business is about.
In a service business like ours, we find we deal with our clients quite a lot one on one and, more often than not, we’ll get on really well with our clients. And I’ll invite the ones we get on well with to golf or dinner or whatever.
Not for the business
It’s not a cynical attempt to get more business. It’s simply because we get on well with the person. I guess a result of that is we strengthen the working relationship because we get to know each other a little better and can communicate more easily.
And that results in a better service for the client.
Lots in common
After all, we generally have a lot in common with our clients. We both are in business which is a huge common bond.
So socialise with your clients not because its good for business, but because it’s good to get out there and enjoy life. Sure, it helps your business, but don’t make that your primary motivation otherwise you’ll come across as just plain boring (and fake).
Cheers
Brendon

I know lots of stuff.
It’s a public holiday here on the Gold Coast. I’ve come on into the office to catch up on some reading and a few other bits and pieces.
Because of the type of business I’m in I’m constantly researching. In the past month I’ve purchased 17 e-books (so my wife told me when she went through the credit card bill).
Right now I’m reading a web page of a guy trying to sell his search engine marketing e-book. Not sure if I’ll buy but I’ve learnt a couple lof things – how to write a better sales letter, a better way to demonstrate an online product and much more.
In the sales letter on the site this guy talks about how he made over $10,000 in sale the first month he was operating. That sounds impressive, right?
And then I thought about a site that we are working with at the moment. And we’ve done well. Real well.
The client has had nothing to do with it!
We’ve done a site for a client where it was a case of “Here Brendon, you design, develop and market the site. We’ll just fill the orders.” (The site sells a product you’ll find in many stores.)
The site was launched at the end of June.
First month sales: $19,280 (US$)
So far this month: $23,495 (US$)
Today’s sales so far: $1,885 (US$)
The reason we’ve been able to achieve those sales is because I know stuff.
* And I know stuff because I keep reading and reading.
* I subscribe to online newsletter by the hundreds.
* I’m a member of online forums.
* I subscribe to something like 12 off-line magazines.
* I’m immersed in the industry.
To be successful…….
Part of being successful is knowing more than the next guy. And that sometimes means coming into work on a public holiday and working alone (actually I have Van Morrison on the CD player keeping me company).
Just read all of the above and I sound like a bit of a “I know everything” tosser. And although I am (!!) the motivation for the post is to try and get that long-winded point across that it’s knowledge that makes the difference.
Keeping reading, keep searching and keep testing.
Brendon

I’m looking at buying a domain name for one of our e-businesses at the moment. I found a suitable domain name and asked the owner “How much?”
“$3,000 US,” said he.
I said, “Thanks, but no thanks. It’s not worth that to us. We can do without it.”
“Okay then, how about $1,500.”
“Nope'” said I.
“If you look you’ll see that many companies use the domain name in product names,” he said.
“Still no. We’ll give it a miss,” I said.
A sophisticated negotiation
That doesn’t seem like a particulary sophisticated negotiation, but it has some good examples.
# 1: I was in a great negotiating position. And the reason for that was that I didn’t really, really want the domain name.
# 2: No reason to buy. The seller didn’t do a couple of things that would motivate me to buy.
a. He didn’t demonstrate the value of the domain name.
b. He didn’t create a sense of urgency for me to buy.
To demonstrate the value of the domain he could have provided proof of related/similar domain names along with their selling prices. He could have provided statistics on how often the domain name is searched for directly. Those 2 things alone would have reassured me that I was getting a great deal
The seller could also have provided me with a good reason why he was selling – after all, if it’s such a great domain name, surely he’d be keeping it?! And that’s a good questions to ask when someone is trying to sell you something – “If it’s so valuable, why are you selling it?”
Create a sense of urgency with a time sensitive offer
To create a sense of urgency he could have made a time sensitive offer, “I can let you have it for $1,250 US but only if you buy by tomorrrow at 5 p.m.” Deadlines get people to act. They provide that fear of loss. That’s a very powerful motivator for many people.
# 3: He who talks first loses. What I mean by that is the person who makes the first offer is in the poorer negotiating position. With the first number tossed up, that person has provided a huge amount of information.
If they are the seller, the price they say is the highest you’ll have to pay (but usually a lot less). That can mean great things for you, if you were going to offer $100 as your opening offer and they come in first and say, “$80.”
If the buyer makes the offer first, the number they offer is the lowest they’ll go to. That’s great information to have and puts you in a position of strength.
BTW, I didn’t buy the domain.
Regards
Brendon

This one is going to sound like a self-congratulatory/promotion post, but I’m sure you can live with it because it has a message.
I had a call yesterday from Cath. Cath is the manager of one of our resorts that we have done a web site for. Cath is an old client (Cath, if you’re reading this I mean you have been with us for a while. You actually look younger every day.) who sold the management rights of her last resort about a year ago.
5 months ago Cath (and her husband) purchased the management rights to the resort they are now in. After settling in, Cath gave us a call to come and have a look at the web site.
The web site had not generated a booking in the first 3 months of Cath taking over the business (the web site had been going for a year or 2).
We did our magic (!) and launched the new site just under 4 weeks ago.
Cath rang me today to complain about the performance of the web site!
“Brendon, I’m ringing to complain about what the web site is doing.”
I knew she was leading into a joke, because I knew what the web site was doing.
“The web site is giving us so much business that I’ve overbooked the resort for the first time!”
The web site has done particulars well – just as an example, Cath had 3 web site bookings on Tuesday and 4 yesterday. Remember, that’s after 0 bookings in 3 1/3 months. (I keep telling you I’m good!)
Now that’s all good, of course. Cath is a happy customer and she’ll help us grow our business for the future.
As a businessperson I need to look at how I can exploit (quite the wrong word) Cath’s satisfaction with us to ensure the continuing success of our business.
* We’ll be getting a framed photo of the resort for our ‘Brag Wall’
* We’ll be adding Cath’s testimonial to our brochure, our ads and our ‘Testimonials’ page we give new clients/prospects
* We’ll ask Cath for referrals
* We’ll send out a media release announcing the success of the site
* We write some of the process up as a case study and provide it to an industry magazine
Cath’s a happy client and that’s great. Now we need to leverage that to help us continue to grow the business.
Regards
Brendon

Howdy.
I’ve just mentioned on the Tailored blog (entry for 1 June 2005) a client whose web site has had great success since we launched.
It’s a holiday resort web site that can take bookings online (we do quite a few of these).
Now, the next time we pitch for a holiday resort web site we’ll have a huge advantage. And here’s why:
Here’s some numbers:
The client whose site we redid has 10 apartments with a particular wholesalers all year round. They basically sell the apartments to these people for 75% of retail and the wholesale can sell the apartment on for an much as they can get.
The average rental for the apartment is $150 per night (so my client, the Manager of the resort, only gets $112.50 per apartment).
Quantifying the Benefit Of The Web Site
Because of the huge success of the web site already, my client is looking at terminating the wholesaler contract because he now knows he can fill the apartments himself at the full retail rate.
Let’s say he does. That’s an extra $37.50 per night. Multiple that by 10 rooms. And then multiple that by 365 days.
$136,875
My client stands to make an extra $136,875 profit in one year because the web site is working well. That’s not taking into account the fact that the web site is doing more business for him than that already.
Quantify the benefits of the web site you are proposing if at all possible (and prove it with facts and figures and testimonials). You’ll increase your chances of making the sale 10-fold.
Cheers
Brendon

Howdy. Hope you day has gone well.
I had a lovely lunch in Brisbane this afternoon. The food was a bit ordinary, but the beer was cold. And that’s all you really want in a lunch!
I was having a chat this afternoon with a client who had been reading the blog. He asked me if I gave away too much information on the web site – after all, with the info provided, couldn’t people just go off and do it themselves without paying us?
I guess the answer is yes. But I don’t think that happens too often. As much information as we provide to our clients and on this web site, we don’t provide it all. We’d be crazy to.
I’ll give you an example
As you might know we have a number of holiday resort clients. In examining the statistics of the resorts side by side yesterday, Jo and I identified a very important aspect related to the web site visitors.
This is something that we’ve just started testing today and if we’re right, and I’m 90% sure we are, the knowledge we have about marketing resort web sites is hugely valuable. In a conversation with a client today we established that knowing what we now know would result, after about 10 minutes work on his site, in a benefit of about $50,000 per year.
That’s big, big money.
So the question I have to ask myself is this:
1. Should I tell prospective clients this very valuable information in an effort to demonstrate my expertise?
2. Or should I keep this information to myself until such time as the person engages our expertise?
The answer: Not too sure. At this stage I’ll be holidng onto the information. And thinking. (I can’t say to a prospective client – “Employ us because I know a secret!” Sounds like I’m back in Primary School).
Don’t be afraid to demonstrate your expertise with clients. But you don’t need to spell out the nuts and bolts of how you will achieve the results for your client.
Regards
Brendon

Hello again.
A guy at lunch today asked me what it costs to set up a web site for a business. I gave him what I call my politicians answer:
“Well, it all depends on what you want the site to do, how many pages you’ll have, what interactive functions you’ll have, if the site has a newsletter, how you intend to market it, your level of understanding……..”
Yep. I rambled on without giving a clear answer. But the answer I gave is the only true one. I also mentioned this to the guy:
“The important thing is finding the right web developer. You can find a kid with no experience or skills to do your web site for $100. But if you want it done properly you need a guy like me. Blah, blah, blah.”
But that is the important bit – finding the right developer
And it’s not easy. Because of the technical nature of web development work, it’s easy to get bamboolzed in the language. That kid starting out can talk a good game. But that’s the thing.
He has to be able to talk a good game.
And he has to be able to demonstrate (via examples, testimonials and analysis) that what he says is true.
That’s really the only way to know.
We can all demonstrate our expertise via testimonials. They’re great for demonstrating your expertise and you have the added benefit of having a third party endorsement (and that’s important to allay the clients fears about selecting you).
Regards
Brendon

Howdy. Building credibility with a client is one of the fundamental ways to ensure your business is presented in the best possible light. And to build credibility, we have to take into account stereotypes. Stereotypes are basically mental habits that people have.
Usually, people will apply a stereotype thought to you based on certain criteria.
* If you wear a white coat and a stethoscope – you must be a doctor
* If you wear a oil stained pair of overalls – you must be a auto mechanic
* If you wear a suit and carry a briefcase – you must be in business
Now when you think of each of those people and occupations, you’ll attribute certain emotional to them. For example, most people trust medical doctors and assume a high level of professional behaviour from them. So if you wear that white coat and stethoscope, you’ll be likely to receive the benefit of that bias.
How we can use stereotypes to our advantage
Sounds a bit cynical, but it’s not. Everyday in everyway we act certain ways to elicit the behavioural response we want – my daughter can basically get me to do anything by changing her voice to a soft and gentle pitch and saying “Daddy, I love you…….”
I’m sure we’ve all been victims of something as simple as a change in tone of voice!
What is going to be most beneficial
So firstly, we have to decide what perception of us is going to be most beneficial. I’ll use myself as an example and I’ll narrow it down to 2 aspects.
In our web division, it is commercially useful for me to be seen as an expert and successful at what I do.
So this is what I do
# 1: Expert – write a book, write articles, write this web site, write newsletters, give speeches, have a good media profile.
Okay, people read my book/articles/web site/newsletters, hear me give a speech and then read about me in the newspaper. Safe to say that most people will assume I’m an expert from those things.
# 2: Successful – good media profile, dress well, have a ‘Brag Wall’ in the office, refer to successful clients and provide ++ testimonials to prospects. People see all that and assume I’m successful.
People look at those aspects and make assumptions about me. And they have to be assumptions, because the vast, vast majority of our clients cannot assess my level of expertise in web work.
(And because they can’t assess my expertise, they rely to a large extent on the perception of my success because that perception basically provides an independent 3rd part endorsement of our success.)
Regards
Brendon