How to Get More Website Clients, Part 1
Because this is the article that caused you to read my Substack.
I see many website designers and developers rely too heavily on their own website to sell their services. Sitting passively and waiting for your phone to ring is only going to leave you hungry for food. Meanwhile, many other website designers and developers are busy hogging up the buffet.
Note: Read Part 2 of this series here.
The Five Primary Phases of a Sales Journey
When a business considers hiring you to build their website, they go through a “sales journey”. There are five primary phases to this journey…
Marketing: client discovers your services,
Trust: client determines if they can trust you,
Discussion: you and the client discuss needs,
Proposition: you make the sales pitch, and
Closing: getting the client to sign the contract.
Most designers and developers fail to acknowledge the existence of the first four phases. Rather, they tend to think that all interaction with a client is about closing. As a result, clients feel pushed and unheard.
Marketing
When a client researches website designers and developers, they naturally look on the Internet. If all you have is a website to market your services, you probably won’t be hired.
You have to have several marketing channels… social media accounts, word of mouth, Google Business listing, other website directories, accrediting authorities (professional organizations, education), listing of past projects. Make sure these channels exist.
The 30 Day Rule: In the glory days of marketing (going back into 1950s, 60s, and 70s), there was an old saying that each customer goes through the “30 Day Rule”. What’s interesting is that the 30 Day Rule is very much alive and well today. It’s just that most marketers in the 2020s have lost sight of this. The 30 Day Rule means a customer typically becomes immersed with your brand for 30 days before deciding to buy, or not to buy.
The 30 day period is a journey of learning about your business…
(Day #1) Your journey towards buying that new Tesla vehicle started when you saw the video about this year’s model release.
(Day #2) You were so amazed by it, that you had to look it up on Google, and saw the dozens of articles that had already been written about it.
(Day #3) Facebook’s spyware noticed that you ran a Google search about Tesla, and decided to show you ads on its feed.
(Days #4-14) Over the next several days, you started seeing people driving the new Tesla. The more this car settled into your thoughts, the more you started seeing it everywhere!
(Days #15-25) You’re now talking about this car with your friends and family. You’re actually thinking about how you’ll make the payments.
(Days #26-29) You contacted a Tesla store and scheduled a test drive. You’re eagerly watching every YouTube video you can find.
(Day #30) Today is the day you meet a salesman and test drive a Tesla.
During these 30 days, you’re actually accomplishing the second of the five primary phases, “Trust”. But, it’s only at Day #30 that Tesla gets to cement that trust by talking to you in person.
How does this translate to selling a website build? How will they research you? Will they see your Twitter profile and review your tweets? Will they contact other client’s you’ve done work for? How long will it take before they call you? Have you even thought about all this?
Trust
A client always hires the website designer or developer they trust the most. If you’re going to charge a client $2,500 to $5,000 for a website build, you should assume that the client is going to shop around first.
The client will only come back to you if they trust you the most…
It could be that they were referred to you by a fellow business owner (that’s called trust)
It could be that they looked at your competitors, but decided your style is exactly what they want for themselves (that’s also called trust)
It could be that your business is located in the same town as theirs (that too is called trust)
It could be that they learned you went to same college they went to (again, that’s trust)
Trust is also gained by talking to you in person and identifying how intelligent (or unintelligent) you are, and if you’re actually listening to them.
Trust can also be earned by simply answering the phone when it rings instead of letting it go to voicemail.
Discussion
The Discussion phase of the sales journey is really just an extension of the Trust phase. The difference is that when a client calls you, they’ve already sifted out the other website designers and developers and made you their first choice.
The First Call is Always About Justifying Their Intuition: When a client calls you for the first time, they are trying to justify their intuition about making you their first choice…
During the first call with the client, they will be listening carefully to what you say. They will take note of your language, your tone of voice, your professionalism. Make sure to be at the top of your game.
To do this, you have to listen to the client carefully. Don’t make assumptions about what they’re saying. It’s good to repeat what they just said, and then offer the solution they want to hear.
Always be positive. Never say things like, “I’ll have to get back to you on that.” or, “I’m not familiar with that.” or “Right now we’re 60 days out on new projects.” If you don’t have answers to every question a client might ask you, then you should research every question a client might possibly ask you, and prepare yourself.
Tell them what they want to hear! If they need an e-commerce website that will stay in sync with the database of their store’s POS, then your answer should be, “Yes, we can build a website that will stay in sync with the database of your store’s POS.” Even if you don’t know how to build that, you’re smart enough that you can research it and learn.
Proposition
The discussion phase (above) generally goes on for three to four encounters. Each phone call is an encounter. Each e-mail is an encounter. Text messages are encounters too.
Once a discussion reaches its fourth encounter, you should make the offer. This is the “Proposition”. A proposition is simply you saying something like, “I will write up a proposal and send it to you. I’d like to schedule a call with you and discuss the details. Does that sound good?”
If you wait too long to make the offer, the client will likely go away. Most clients want you to make the first move. Remember that your client has other designers and developers on their list, and will call them if you wait too long.
Create Urgency: When you make the proposition, tell the client that if they agree to hire you right now, you’ll give them something extra…
This could be a $500.00 discount. (You can still charge your regular price, just don’t publish your prices on your website)
Offer to throw in SEO for free (SEO is a pretty vague commodity, anyway)
Offer to bump them up to your high speed server. (They’ll never know the difference)
Tell them they called you at a great time, because you just finished up with another project, and can get started right away on theirs.
Creating urgency is exactly what a car salesman does. They’ll tell you that there’s a dozen people calling about the very same car you’re looking at, and that if don’t buy now, it’ll be gone.
Closing
Closing seems like the hardest part. However, you’ll find that closing a sale can be a lot easier if you take the time to learn about the journey the client took before making their first call to you.
During the discussion phase (above) you should ask the client how they found you, or what lead them to calling you. This will give you a lot of information in your favor that will help you write a proposition and close the deal.
Once a proposition has been made, you should immediately remind yourself you are now in the “closing phase”.
At this point, you are on a clock to finalize the sale. Visualize a clock and calendar moving by to help understand the urgency. Make sure you scheduled a return call with the client to discuss the proposal. If you let the clock tick for too long, the client will lose interest and call someone else.
The Two Things You Should Be Thinking About: During the closing phase, a client will review your proposal. However, there will always be two primary questions the client will wrestle with…
How much it’s going to cost, and
How much they trust you.
You may not be willing to drop your price any further, but you can always work on trust. Do the little things, like making sure you call back as scheduled, never let your phone go to voice mail, always answer your e-mails and texts, act and sound wide awake, be friendly, courteous, and professional.
How to Nudge the Client into Signing
If a client feels uncertain about closing the sale with you, then it’s because he or she has legitimate concerns. You should never tell them not to feel concerned.
Ask the client what you can change with the proposal to help them feel comfortable about moving forward. Perhaps it’s just a small change for you, but it could be a very big change for them.
Never drop your price any further than the $500.00 discount I mentioned above. Even if the price is the client’s primary concern. This is because lowering your price will always be viewed by the client as getting something lower in quality.
Instead, offer to give more. For example, offer to include your “Advanced SEO Package”, which puts them on a faster server (which they have no way of validating), and that it includes doing things that you would have already done anyway. Offer to include your, “Advanced Analytics” which is installing both Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Another thing you can offer is, “Unlimited E-mail Addresses”, which isn’t going to add any extra burden on you.
Decide When it’s Time to Backout. It may be this client’s concerns are too big for you to address. If they feel your price is too high, and no amount of giving more seems to satisfy them, then respectfully back out. This is a client that will not profit for you.
But Wait, There’s More!
Over the next several weeks and months I will be writing about the nuances specific to selling a website build.
What I described above are the basics of selling a website build. These basics are actually the same basics for selling anything. But, they are very important to understand.
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