By BIll BonnefilSo… This is a blog post, but is also a call for feedback. Whether you are a client or a designer, a strategist or a programmer, hell, whatever industry you are in, your opinions and experiences would be greatly appreciated.
To begin this let me paint a little metaphor for you to help illustrate the situation a bit:
A guy has a problem. He is not feeling well so he goes to the doctor, despite the fact that money is tight (he has a budget). He enters the doctor’s office, the Dr. introduces himself and says, “Hi there, I’m Dr. Simmons. Now before we get started, I would like to discuss our pricing options for your visit.” The guy is attentive, since money is definitely a concern for him. “I have been a Doctor for many years, and have seen many ailments and provided many cures. Based on that, I have put together these options for my potential patients. Option 1: You can choose to pay a very cheap price, at which time I will talk to you for a while, ask you many questions, and, based on my knowledge, tell you what I believe your ailment is and what options you have to deal with that.” The man, now very intrigued, nods pensively. “Option 2 is more expensive: We will talk for a while, after which we will administer a series of tests selected to help narrow down the possibilities and identify remedies that will work. These tests will each cost money, and I will let you know how many of them we need to do. We will look at the results together, and I will show you what they mean. I will then interpret the results and recommend a cure that will best address your ailment.” The guy thinks for quite a while, weighing the two options back and forth. Eventually he realizes what he must do and announces his decision to the doctor…
OK, so hate me for not completing the story, but its irrelevant. In fact I don’t actually know the rest of the story. What I do know is how this applies to the web/UX industry which I know and love.
I myself have over 10 years of industry experience. Everything from branding to programming, from UI design to front end dev, from web copy writing (no, not very good..er..well..nevermind) to user experience and web campaign strategy. All modesty aside, I know my shit. I have experience. I can look at your website, ask you questions and see, without difficulty, ways that you can improve your site. But is this what people want? I would rather really dig in, study your site, look at analytics, conduct user group studies, etc. and collect some significant information from you and your users to tell you more definitively what is wrong. But that will cost more money, and even then, there is no guarantee of the results. In our industry the only true test is to make it live and see how people react.
Don’t get me wrong, I am happy to meet with someone and give them simple consultation, but they want cures, They want me to write a prescription. To do so without a thorough examination is ethically wrong, isn’t it?
The question I ask is this. What is the value of experience? What is the value of intuition and knowledge in an industry that evolves and changes at such a dynamic pace? Why do clients have so much difficulty understanding that even with years of expertise, research is still key, and that research, that discovery costs money (ergo the medical analogy). Hopefully it is because, somewhere, deep down they understand that this industry is still experimental.
To be truly great in this field you must always be learning. So perhaps the real question is, do you want to learn what I already know, or learn what I can learn about you?
I’m sure this post will spark questions, raise objections, insight discussions. I am open to it all. I have intentionally tried to keep it somewhat short and simply introduce the topic, so please ask me to expand on any of the parts and I will do so gladly.
Comments 6
Greetings, Mr. Bonnefil: A straight forward and Absolutely True overview of the real value of Successful Experience & Creativity.
As a wise/old Italian gent told me many moons ago, “Mr. Mitch, You donna buy the best tomatoes recommended by me for your restaurant sauce and be cheap, it will only costa U 300% more to fixa your situation, causa people NO come back.”
Eat Until Full
Drink Until Drunk
Sleep, What 4?
Mitchell Dominguez
Since this is for free I’ll be brief
Don’t sell what you don’t want to do. If they can’t afford you they should go somewhere else. What you’ll end up with is clients that can afford you to do what you want to do. – kp
I think from a client’s view (in whatever industry), they want to know if they are up-to-standard. If you can convince them they are not up-to-standard relative to their competitors or their personal expectations, it is much easier for them to make the financial commitment.
For example, it is very easy for an accounting firm to sell audit services to a public company because the client is required to meet industry standards.
It is easy for a designer shoe company to sell their shoes to a certain segment of the population because there are those who want to stay up with the dress standards of their peers.
It is easy for a doctor to convince a patient to undergo tests if they are suffering from a lot of pain but harder if there is no pain. The patient bases their decision on their perceived level(standard)of health.
Then there are those who get tired of living up-to-standard and can’t be convinced to change. For example, some give up on trying to stay thin.
So, for web development, I think a compelling argument needs to be made to a client that their web site or social media strategy fails in comparison to a competitor or to the industry standard.
Trying to convince them ‘they can do better and increase revenue’ (rather than showing them they are not up to snuff) is a long road to hoe. I’ve been around a number of new product / company launches. Amazingly, it didn’t matter how much money could be added to the bottom line of a client. It takes a very long time to convince the client to set a new standard. But, it was very easy to convince a client to commit if you could demonstrate they were not up-to-standard and needed to catch up to their competitors.
There are very few first-movers among established companies. If you want to help companies establish new standards in their field, plan for a long, arduous road. If you are more interested in an easier sale, go after those companies where you can demonstrate they are not up-to-standard with their competitors.
Hi Bill. It’s been awhile!
I was actually talking about this very subject with someone yesterday and I’ll be watching the comments as they roll in to see what others think.
Tough question, and I’m not sure there’s a concise answer (or an answer at all). We’re in the business of serving our clients as best we can. Ideally, the doctor gets to do a full diagnosis, but if that is prohibitively expensive and the patient is going to walk out without a diagnosis or prescription, is it better to just do your best on the budget they are willing to work on?
And the real trick is that you aren’t even building a website for your customer – you’re building it for THEIR customers, or really potential customers. That starts you off in a position where you are not only unfamiliar with their particular industry, but multiple levels removed from the audience you’re trying to serve.
You have to get inside their heads. What are they hunting for? What emotions are they bringing with them that you need to address? Without any industry knowledge, how are THEY going to search for your site, and how are you going to convince them in a matter of seconds that your website is worth looking at instead of bouncing out?
And your client wants you to perform such miracles with only the loose change he has in his pocket.
So yeah, what do you do with the ideas, experience, and creativity running amok in your head if your client’s budget keeps you from putting them into practice? After awhile, you just get tired of cutting all the corners to build another mediocre ‘solution’, if you can really call it that…
Great post. Thanks!
Though we are no longer doing business with DT (we were under utilizing your company as an email provider – smile), I have a couple of thoughts about what you say here. We have enjoyed your blog posts and wonder ourselves how we might entice our own clients through such content – hence we read everything we get from blogs.
Experience tells me, and my strong belief, is that anyone offering a diagnostic service needs to be able to quantify the results clearly. I have always believed that research should be actionable when used for a commercial interest. In this market in particular, our ability to invite action from a clients’ audience is central. I don’t know exactly how this applies to web optimization, but I do know that in general we have been living in a time of low transparency with plentiful fear and scarce trust (look at the country). Hopefully the new administration will begin to reverse that equation. I think this mistrust permeates all areas of life, and overlays onto business transactions, whether you are being transparent or not.
The experimental nature of the technology business (and speed of change) makes it necessary to use emergent strategies – many people do not understand this concept. It is frustrating educating clients. I have worked in this realm for many years. But it’s an exciting time to gain insight into what invites people to connect with your business. An environment of change offers tremendous opportunity. If we had budget to spend, we would want to hire someone to help us with digital convergence as a marketing tool. It will be a much bigger piece of the marketing puzzle going forward.
I have nothing to gain here – I just opened this up and had been thinking about the same topic for ourselves and on behalf of our clients, as we live in the marketing/branding realm.
p.s. from your respone earlier today — I marketed diagnostic
work to fortune 1000 companies. I am biased for clients
who regularly use these tools and have solid budgets for them.
That said, I have no idea who your clients are. Just a thought.
Thanks everyone for the comments and discussion around this topic. It has given me a lot of food for thought.
Ultimately I agree with the fact that you must filter out the clients you don’t want from the ones that will be good partners going into the future, and a good client will recognize the fact that our time and expertise is worth paying for.
I thought through the medical analogy some more and (coupled with San Diego Tim’s comments) began to think more about the idea of pain. If a client knows their pain and knows it well, in detail, then perhaps a diagnosis can be made with only a few tests or some simple consultation. If a clients description of their ailment is inconclusive or vague then more tests will need to be done.
I guess the simplest way to look at it is that the charge for discovery is relative to the level of information the client comes to the table with. Some clients are lost when it comes to online and other are very knowledgeable. All will need strategy on some level, but a client partner who is an expert in their field should not be treated as a child, but rather as a partner in the discovery process.
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