How Do You Do It?

During a TABLE call this week, we got off on the topic of creating a “our process” type page for our agency website… And the more I’ve thought about it, the more convinced I am that a page like this has tons of value.

I thought I’d share a few of the reasons I’m going to be adding this to my site…

Clients don’t know what they don’t know. When you’re out shopping for something you’re not very familiar with (like most clients are when they are buying a website), you have a lot of questions. But worse, you’re not even sure what questions you should be asking.

You don’t know what you don’t know.

A process page that covers “what to expect” could get in front of a lot of those potential issues (like payment schedules, content, maintenance, and more).

Overcome objections. I mentioned this last week, but our industry isn’t held in the highest regard. Other developers (who disappear, don’t deliver, or are unprofessional) have given us a bad reputation.

By showing you have a process, and that you know how to take a project from concept to completion instills confidence. You can drop subtle hints that show how your process will prevent the project from going south with guardrails built in for both you and the client’s benefit.

Puts you in the driver’s seat. A lot of the people we deal with (since we’re often B2B) are use to being in charge. They’re often the owner, but if not, usually some type of manager or “boss”.

Nothing wrong with that, but those kinds of people are used to taking the lead and will probably take that posture by default. Of course, you don’t want them dictating how you run your projects, right?

Having a documented process of how things will go down helps put you in the driver’s seat and establishes that you will be leading how things go — because you are the expert!

Helps you stand out. Strip out the colors and logo, and a lot of our agency websites are pretty similar — and probably indistinguishable for many clients who don’t recognize the nuance.

But your unique process is something that has a good chance of sticking in your prospects mind.

Imagine they are comparing two companies, yours leaves their imagination to fill in the gaps while your competitor walks them step-by-step through the process from beginning to end. Which one do you think they will be more comfortable with?

Justify your price. We’ve all had the prospect who experienced massive sticker shock when you threw out a price (even a low one!). Since a lot of people have no idea what goes into building a website, they might assume it’s simple (aka “cheap”).

And websites can be built quickly for cheap — but that’s probably not what we’re trying to promote.

Showing what all goes into your process to deliver an excellent product is a great way to justify the price you charge and help reconcile that in your client’s mind.