Looking Beyond Your Web Page
I am starting to feel incredibly guilty after I have new business meetings for websites. A potential client will come in, sit down with (sometimes) a fairly clear idea about what they want from their own website.
Then, we hit ‘em with the “This is what your website really looks like” behind the design. Then we move onto “this is how it could be” and they tend to leave feeling rather shell-shocked with overload having learned that there is more to a website than the way it looks on a PC running Windows XP and Internet Explorer.
What really annoys me about so many of these recent pitches I have been involved with is that the prospect companies existing websites have been very new in terms of age - one was less than a year old, and with images as links and no ‘alt’ tags, unspecified content, no meta titles or descriptions, I am amazed that some companies are still building websites like that, and that they are selling them.
Let’s face it though, they can do it because it’s an in-depth process building a website, which can easily be glossed over. A mechanic could tell me all sorts of technical stuff about what is wrong with my car and I’d nod like a lapdog because really, I wouldn’t have a clue what he’d be talking about - it’s the same thing.
It reminds me of my friend who doesn’t know much about computers but recently bought a PC Laptop from PC World. He was sold on the big numbers of the machine (so many Ghz processor, so much hard disk space and ram) and the fact that it had the very latest Vista software on. Of course, he didn’t understand most of it, but the numbers seemed big and the demo was good.
Now, the laptop is a great machine and the price was fantastic - well done PC World. Unfortunately, the machine with all this ’speed’ hardly had enough RAM to run Vista so it runs like a dog… with a limp… in water… carrying a bowling ball in it’s mouth.
My point is this. What you buy isn’t always what you think it is. What you see may be what you get, but it isn’t alway what you really need, and with the average amount of money that companies put into their website, they should, quite rightly, be expecting a solution that delivers.
Comment by David Rhodes June 13, 2007 @ 11:04 am
Hi Craig,
I find it is all about getting what you pay for. Some customers go entirely on price and fail to appreciate the value they will get from a more professional solution. Normally I find it is a matter of economics, you get what you pay for. It is impossible to produce the sort of quality you are talking about for the money a customer is willing to spend. It may be that some fail to convince the customer of the value in spending on a professional solution, but that is another story
Comment by Craig Killick June 13, 2007 @ 1:38 pm
Agreed David, value is key when people pay for what they get.
Also, the sale is hard due to expectations and the knowledge of the person in the meeting, and I know I am not the best person to sell these things as I expound the need for the investment of time by clients to create great content (or at least the basis for great content). I also think there is the barrier when people have spent thousands in the past on a solution that doesn’t work. That’s the art of effective selling I guess.