Selling Web Design Services

Do any of you sell web design services?

Do you just walk into random stores, salons, etc... and ask if they need a website?

Any advice?

Thanks

Here are three simple things to do before going door to door:

1. Build some great websites for customers - even if you have to start with doing a bit of free work.
2. Next get them let you write about them and take phone calls from prospective customers.
3. Figure out who your target audience is and then go after them via phone,visits,e-mails,mailers,etc...

Another good move is getting your happy customers to refer you to their colleagues.

Good luck and happy hunting:

It really depends which market segment you're going after.

Small businesses with no current web presence will mostly buy the same way they buy most things - via word of mouth & referrals. So that's what you need to be focusing on getting.

At the opposite extreme, leading edge companies who already have good websites and are looking to move tothe next level with their web presence will probably not be "sold" to - but will probably instigate a search themselves. So in that case you need good marketing and promotion to build a strong reputation and visibility for high quality work.

So the first step is to identify which segment you're aiming for. Then identify how they buy - try talking to a selection of potential customers about what they would be looking for, what would trigger them buying, and how they would go about selecting a supplier.

Ian

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Ian Brodie
Lighthouse Business Consulting
Consultants specialised in Professional Services Business Development

Great question, great starting point.

I suspect the questions you are asking are...'should I just be walking into random stores to offer my services?" How do I determine and find the right customers to target?

The answer is no for two reasons...

1. Cold calling on unresearched and un-profiled customers is to time consuming/expensive

2. There is no determination in this approach as to whether you are selecting to target clients who are likely to be a good mesh with your product and services.

A fruitful approach I often use on workshops is to get attendees to create a profile of their product and service and then create a profile of customers who would be an ideal match for their product and service and then seek out and market specifically to these customers

Product service profiling
When creating a profile of your product and service, start with writing down what you do that is unique and then move on to what it is that you do better than anyone else. Be as specific as possible and be honest. (remember nearly everyone claims the best service, so don't claim it unless you can really deliver and demonstrate it. Everyone's product/service combo is unique.

Customer profiling
Having created your unique product/service profile write up a list of key words that might occur in the description of the perfect customer for your products service. You will be amazed how this key word list will help you notice, and focus on hunting for exactly the right potential clients.

Cold Calling is NOT expensive if ...

The problem with generalities is that they only apply to certain situations. If we lead with COLD CALLING IS TOO EXPENSIVE as an expert opinion we are really assuming that the person thinking of doing it is busy. If on the other hand you have no work (or not enough), no networking function to attend and you are not working on putting out a mailer (which if you are not busy you should be doing after hours - as things are so desperate that you need to work on sales 18 hours a day to get out from behind the rock and the hard place) ... then pick up the phone now and often ... dial till you have calluses! You will find work. And every little bit will add to your bank account and your testimonials/references.

What you really need is a UNIQUE marketing approach, something you can say to prospects that they have not heard. But that approach cannot just be something written on a piece of paper or stored electronically, it is real world technique I am talking about, how to translate the Unique part of your service into something you explain (sell) to a prospect.

If I was selling WEB DESIGN (and actually I have a unique web design angle to my product - though I am not exactly in the web design business), I would want to be able to point out a missing element in their existing marketing strategy. Just as those illustrious experts have stated create a plan for yourself on the market segment - realize most businesses don't do this, including your prospective clients.

If you ask restaurateurs or chiropractors what the cost of acquisition of a client/patient is, they don't know. Why? Because they don't know what they don't know.

For me, all business advisers - and that is what a web designer needs to be - have to start from the perspective of educating the prospect what they don't know. Once they begin to realize that they have no clue what advertising and direct marketing works and why, then you can start to show them systems that track that, which the web is perfectly suited to. It is a BEAN COUNTER or tracking system that costs nearly nothing!

I would not even promote myself as a web designer, though I might tell a prospect on the phone that I had looked at their site, as part of my research, and that it was obvious that certain things that can be done to dramatically increase results were missing ... I would then allude to the fact that "no doubt there are other issues that need addressing" sort of insinuating that they are missing the boat in off-line marketing too, which is the case 98% of the time ... then I would get the appointment.

But I know how to sell. I also know how to create a Unique Selling Proposition. If you don't, getting an appointment with this approach would be "out of the frying pan into the fire" though I would prefer you did that than nothing. As you have to learn and start some where!

It is difficult as a sales and marketing master to advise you further, not knowing your strengths and weaknesses. I will say that if you are not busy and do not have a big budget (relatively speaking) to advertise that you should definitely be thinking cold calling, despite that some experts will tell you.

I will also say, it is what happens AFTER your prospective client captures the data of their prospective client or existing client that is the area that 98% of business owners do not understand. That is why my company offers as 12 month training called "Powerful Marketing and Promotions" to teach them what they don't know and an e-book called "Mindset of a Marketing Millionaire" so they learn that they don't know what they don't know ... in other words; so they learn they must learn marketing and how technology makes it easier.

Since web design is about selling technology I mentioned these things to help you, not to promote my products (the website in my profile does not even mention them).

Most advice that I see is general in nature, not street wise and certainly not entrepreneurial enough in nature. It does not anger me, it saddens me that those who have never built a business advise those who would. So, my last piece of advice is the moist important; be careful who you listen to!

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Perhaps I should have underlined 'unresearched and un-profiled' in my opening comment to better make my point. "Cold calling on unresearched and un-profiled customers is to time consuming/expensive"

'Gold Calling' I certainly agree with looking for a unique approach. A great suggestion well made.

I thought the posts by the other 'experts" in this thread were particularly good and I got value from reading the different but complimentary perspectives and suggestions.

Certainly in this case it all seemed very street wise to me. But if you need to check if the authors have street credibility check out their profiles (Most of them give some idea of the the authors credentials and accomplishments.)

There is no one idea that is always the best, there are no hard and fast rules in sales. Every opportunity is different. No sales trainer is the definitive expert. Certainly not me!

Even today I still attend workshops and seminars run by other sales trainers and I always get some good value from them.

Seek to find knowledge and ideas everywhere from everyone, and blend it and distill it to best suit your environment.

You know, this is a great point more generally - not just for a new business.

When I was still working for a big consulting firm in the corporate world I found myself constantly banging my head against a brick wall, fighthing the accepted dogma of "you must focus and prioritise your time on only the biggest prospects" - meaning don't make so many calls. Yet most of our sales people at the time just weren't busy. The dogma would have them sitting at their desks doing nothing rather than making calls to nlower potential" prospects because the accepted wisdom had been developed in more prosperous times and was based on an assumption that the sales teams already had as many leads as they could handle. The strategy that had helped the company become more profitable in the good times by focusing only on very large high potential customers was the very strategy that was slowly killing them in bad times because they couldn't adjust to the specifics of the new situation.

Ian