Thread

Over the years I’ve interviewed enough clients, read enough client intake forms, and attended enough meetings to realize that the vast majority of clients either (1) really don’t know what they want or (2) THINK they know what they want but they’re completely wrong.

I’ve seen…
  + companies request quotes for websites without contact pages
  + organizations ask for functionality their visitors will never use
  + individuals insist that their color preferences and sitemap concepts are exactly what they need to have built

What I really see is a desperate need for is STRATEGY PLANNING prior to proposals being offered or cost estimates being provided—otherwise we’re just providing proposals for what are often crappy sites.

Because of most clients’ insistence that what they think is always right, we’ve found that very, very few clients are open to strategy planning upfront—they don’t want to pay to have someone help them come up with an effective master website plan—after all, why would they spend money on that when they (think they) know what they want?

We want to help clients when we see they’re shooting themselves in the feet, but we can’t spend 10 hours meeting with them and crafting master strategy plans for effective websites for free that we can then provide proposals/cost estimates on. 

—-> Does anyone else run into these issues?

—-> How do _you_ approach potential clients asking for sites that won’t help them achieve their goals?

—-> Do you ever *require* paid strategy planning prior to working with a client?  Do you ever suggest them and, if so, do people agree??

I’m dying to hear people’s responses; I can’t seem to figure out a solution that feels “right” when it comes to tackling this dilemma…

Thank you!!!

Working with a client is a mutual agreement between you and them. You have to have clear ideas on what you will and won’t do and that needs to be clear to tboth parties. Everyone is going to deal with this differently but if it’s not working for you or them, you have to discuss and negotiate it and come to some agreement. It’s uncomfortable when you have to deal with these issues but that is the nature of doing business sometimes.

I didn’t see this until Robert revived it yesterday but it certainly reflects a common experience of anyone who works commercially in a “consultative” business. I use the scare quotes because lots of clients run, run, run away from any implication that they’re engaging 1) an open-ended process, 2) that might require strenuous thinking by their senior people, and 3) that touches upon so many aspects of their marketplace/message/value-proposition. But unless we’re trying to make a living off competitive RFPs, that’s exactly what we’re asking for, right?

Face it, web design isn’t generally valued as a way to expand profitability or achieve organizational objectives. If it were, you’d see less push-back on the consultative aspects of your work. I think clients often perceive web development as a low-cost undertaking relative to their other organizational investments. They delegate responsibility for it to employees who lack the oversight or experience that even minor “strategery” requires. (And those people usually think they’re hiring a tradesman and not a Level 80 Mage.)

Something I’ve found helpful—if only to keep my wits during the sales prelude to a new project—is to weigh what I’m being told about the project against the ROI criterion described in Lance Loveday and Sandra Niehaus’ WEB DESIGN FOR ROI - Turning Browsers into Buyers & Prospects into Leads (New Riders). It’s such a clear-headed, succinct primer on the VALUE of good web design practice that people immediately grasp how failing to take the book’s advice leads to underperforming websites. The authors identify essential roles for successful web features, provide a superficial information architecture that can be used to understand most projects, and help focus discussion around measurable causes and effects in a design. (If a project merits educating your Economic Buyer, buy her a copy and tell her This stuff is the reason my clients refer me.) Once I’m confident that we’re speaking the same language, I look for ways to position my expertise as a practitioner of ROI-focused web development first and foremost, and only incidentally as a competent craftsman. We sell ROI, and not our color-wheels.

That’s not to suggest I don’t slip once in a while, but I’m usually comfortable explaining that it’s impossible to quote a project without first understanding its ROI implications for the client. I’ll ask How do you expect to assess the benefits of this work? If the answer is nebulous or unexplored, then perhaps we should document some ROI criteria first during site-planning, the first step in every project. Where a client simply refuses to consider VALUE versus COST, taking his money usually leads to regrets.

Clients that don’t know what they want but have clear goals are the best type of client. Providing you explain your strategy clearly and have evidence to back it up then you should both be happy with the outcomes.

Typically we are involved in a project early enough to influence the IA and content of the website. However, on the occasions where a client asks for a proposal on a set brief we do try to get them to take a step back and identify their project goals and then tailor our proposal to that. Most clients really appreciate the extra effort that goes into understanding their business needs and it usually doesn’t take too much time to develop a strategy or mechanic that will build on their own ideas.

At the end of the day the client has to be pleased with the end result so they are happy to promote their own website - without that even a perfect strategy is worthless - so some compromise may be necessary by both parties.

I think the most important and the most difficult solution to the problem is knowing when to say “no.” You have to make clearly defined rules about when you can not work with a client. For example, I absolutely will not begin work on a site unless the client has every shred of content completed and turned in. I certainly can’t design without content, and developing without content opens up a whole can of worms in the long run. Sure, I could use “Lorem Ipsum” or “Coming Soon,” but experience has taught me that clients who don’t have their content prepared end up being huge liabilities down the road. Never-ending revisions, changes in site design and structure, requests for free work once the site is live, etc.

When a client comes to you with ideas that are clearly bad, you have to do your best to stress as vehemently as possible why that’s a bad idea; and why, as someone who’s been making websites for xx years, you strongly discourage it. If you’ve done everything you can to discourage the client on that point and they still won’t listen, then you have to be strong enough to say “I don’t think we can work with you on this project.”

Because, in the first place, you don’t want to be associated with a website that contains glaring mistakes and bad judgment. Second, if a client is inflexible and irrational in the beginning stages of the project, those are clear red flags that the client will give you further headaches down the line. And difficult clients will always cost you money.

I’m not saying that every client with a unique idea should be shut down on the spot. Because creativity and ingenuity are what make online businesses successful. That’s why I suggest you set down clear rules based on known facts about what is not an acceptable request from the client, so you know when to throw in the towel. I realize that this is an especially hard line to take if you are a freelancer and scrape for every client you get. And sure enough, there will always be another company happy to put up with irrational clients. But your sanity and ultimately the success of your business depends on good judgment and emphasis on quality over quantity.

Simple test…ask them what is their Mission Statement of the company (or what should be on ‘about us’ page)...if they answer by question “What do you suggest?”....drop them.

People often associate the “I want a website” as tool or first step to consult their way (for free) into figuring out what their business lacks. Sometime you will have marketing team whose extend of brilliant ideas is “let’s use a website” but really have not strategy behind it; they are hoping to milk you for ideas such as “what should our logo look like,what color,what should form ‘x’ collect, what image should we go for, what do our customers like…” etc.etc. Many ‘start-ups’ think that all they need is website to be profitable or even to call it a business and that is all they have to work of.

Bottom line know what you do and stick with it…next thing you know, you will be fixing their refrigerator just to ‘keep the client happy’.