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jrrnow
Posts: 380
From: at the beach in NJ
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What do you ask prospective clients? - 3/1/2003 23:02:57
I' m in the process of starting a very small on the side web design business. Mostly the clients will be churches and small businesses that have no or very little internet experience.
My question is; what do I ask a potential client to provide to me to get the ball rolling. Do any of you have a list of questions or a form for them to fill out that will give you the basics of what they want and the content to begin building their site?
The problem that I seem to get is that they want a site, but don' t really have a vision for it. Again, most of these potentials are people who have never thought through what a website could do for them so they have no starting point.
Most of you guys probably run from these type clients, but if you have any insight or suggestions I would appreciate it. Thanks
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Jim
We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess.
www.JimRobinsonPhotography.com
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Paula
Posts: 394
From: Morrow, Georgia, USA
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RE: What do you ask prospective clients? - 3/2/2003 1:43:22
Hi jrrnow,
I' ll be interested to hear other answers to this question, too. This is a good topic. I usually start by looking at any marketing material they already have. Even churchs usually have flyers or letterhead. I always ask if they already have a logo and/or a color scheme. I usually ask questions to find out what they want the website to do for them, ie. do they want to sell products or do they just want to provide information about who they are. I always ask if they know of a site or sites that are like what they have in mind. Depending on the client I may even ask them if they have a budget in mind. Frequently I don' t ask this question because some people will take this the wrong way. I don' t do many sites, so I don' t have a form or script, I just talk to them. That also gives me some idea of what they will be like to work with. If I get a sense that they' ll be a problem I' ll turn down the job. Hope this helps some. I' m sure others will be along later, weekends are usually slow around here.
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Paula
The more I learn the less I seem to know.
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ritarun
Posts: 676
From: Upstate New York USA
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RE: What do you ask prospective clients? - 3/2/2003 6:54:42
Great question! I am also looking forward to posts from others. I am struggling along the same lines. I know what you mean. I have one client who does not use the internet very much at all so it is really hard to get an understanding of what they want on their site.
When I asked what sites they liked so I could get an idea of what appealed, the response was that they did not surf or use the computer much so they could not tell me.
_____________________________
Success often occurs in private, but failure usually in full view.
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LB
Posts: 5551
From: Montana USA
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RE: What do you ask prospective clients? - 3/2/2003 13:54:49
quote:
When I asked what sites they liked so I could get an idea of what appealed
lol-- this one I avoid!! I did it at first, but too often they gave me sites that were either scary (flashing stuff all over, busy backgrounds, big colorful text, slow downloading pics, etc) or had very advanced additions to them -- think *huge* budget sites.
I often start out by giving them a graphic mock-up of an idea or two and then going from there. If they have a logo, brochure, any ads, etc. I use those to get ideas for the mock-up.
Linda
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abbeyvet
Posts: 5095
From: Kilkenny Ireland
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RE: What do you ask prospective clients? - 3/2/2003 15:03:35
Funny enough I do ask them to give me the addresses of sites they like.
I make them work on this one!
I look for
- 2 sites they like that are related to the topic of their site
- 2 unrelated sites they like
- 2 sites they hate related to the topic
- 2 unrelated sites they hate.
I also ask, in each case, for 2 or 3 reasons for their choices.
While you do get them saying they like things like the Mercedes or Levis site, though they have a budget that barely stretches to images let alone Flash, I find it helpful. It is the reasons for the choices that tell you most about what they want.
I also discuss with them where their audience might be - male or female, younger or older, internet savvy or not, since that will make a difference too.
I also tend to get them to go to a couple of sites I want them to look at - basically to get them to grasp the difference between different types of layout and to begin to realise the importance of navigation and how it is placed/used. Often I do all this on the phone in real time. I get them to give me links, I give them links and we discuss what we see. It brings up all kinds of issues and makes for a very informative discussion.
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Katherine
:: InKK Design :: InKK Domains
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bbrunt
Posts: 124
From: SC USA
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RE: What do you ask prospective clients? - 3/4/2003 21:16:36
I agree with what all of you are saying and I certainly ask the basics, and when dealing with a totally new client, I also ask for sites that they like, just for some sort of direction. I personally feel that you have to have confidence in your ability to please your client. If you convey confidence in yourself, your clients will have confidence in you.
I have found that many clients wanting their first web site really are not familiar with the internet...they want to be, but just aren' t. I find out what type of presense they want, corporate, friendly, family, laid back, direct, etc. Also, I ask them to give me three words to describe their anticipated finished product. This helps me the most...when people have to limit their description to three words, they really think on those three words and you can derive some direction.
Finally, get going. Almost every new web owner will want revisions. I limit the number of revisions up front. This helps me with my time management and cost control and it lets the clients understand that they need to be clear in their revision statements as to what they want. I think it helps us both to pay closer attention to detail.
Ask what they want, make what they asked for, get their feedback, and finish the project.
As you build more web sites and work with more clients, you will develop your own style and find a method that works for you and your clients and that you can be successful with.
My best to you!
bonnie
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www.outfront.net
bbrunt@gmail.com
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brcorner
Posts: 42
Joined: 8/21/2002
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RE: What do you ask prospective clients? - 3/5/2003 17:36:42
I love this question to get the customer talking about their business. I found that if you focus the content of your web pages on the answers to these questions, the internet starts making sense to a business as an extension of their sales force:
What' s the first 3 questions a potential customer/client asks when they call?
Walk me through your sales process.
Even if you are completely familiar with the product or service, letting them talk about how they do it enables you to start differentiating them from their competition.
The first or last question would be :
What do you want this site to accomplish?
That will help you to manage the construction and investment of the site development to their expectations. Remember that no answer is a bad answer to this question. You can, of course, make suggestions and share ideas for them to consider, but make sure you get agreement on the direction before including it in a proposal or site. Good Luck!
Bigdoggy
" Don' t be afraid to try something new. Remember, the ark was built by amateurs and the Titanic was built by professionals."
www.icorner1.com
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shastasdad
Posts: 3
Joined: 3/5/2003
From: Southern Oregon
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RE: What do you ask prospective clients? - 3/5/2003 19:07:39
Some great suggestions. I have some to add.
One of the issues I run into with clients who don' t really know what they want is that they say that when you go off to do a mockup, then when they get the mockup, the endless series of interations and changes starts.
It' s important, even if the client says they don' t know what they want to at least sit down with them and go through some sites with them in your meeting. Since you know what the client is selling/offerring, you can look at competititve websites with them and offer your expertise, along with what they like/dislike.
The more conversation you have with them in the beginning, the less time you' ll spend in this phase.
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Paula
Posts: 394
From: Morrow, Georgia, USA
Status: offline
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RE: What do you ask prospective clients? - 3/5/2003 19:07:47
From an experience today I' ve discovered that you need a way to quickly determine whether or not the prospect is trying to imulate some great new " get rich quick" scheme they found on the internet! I' ve had a bad day. Sometimes the most intelligent and reasonable sounding people can act so stupid and somehow a lot of them seem to get my phone number.
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Paula
The more I learn the less I seem to know.
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Dario
Posts: 90
Joined: 3/27/2002
From: Minneapolis, MN, USA
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RE: What do you ask prospective clients? - 3/5/2003 19:40:22
For me it comes down to few simple questions from sales and marketing point of view:
1. What are you trying to say? Or put another way, What should your site convey?
This determines the overall message and you could say " mission purpose" .
2. Who is your audience?
This has to do with so called " packaging" . THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. You want to package your presentation (the web site) to fit to expectations of the visitors that the site would like to attract and communicate with. You have to have answers for these questions:
- Who are they?
- Education level?
- Are they techie?
- Are they white color or blue color?
- etc......
If the designer has personal experience within the industry or audience that the site is intended for then that is one major step ahead of the competition.
3. And how much do you want to spend?
Obviously this gives you an indication of how much you (the designer) have to put into it, what quality of graphics to use, or do you make it a static web site or a dynamic one.
I hope this helps.
dario
www.bizpronet.com
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WC
Posts: 21
Joined: 3/7/2002
From: Virginia USA
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RE: What do you ask prospective clients? - 3/5/2003 22:05:47
This first meeting is very important for you because it will determine if how much time you will be wasting in the future and if you will ever get reimbursed for your time. If money is no object and you have plenty of free you can skip these questions.
" What do you expect your Web site to do for your business/church?" , " Who is your audience?" and " What are the three or four major points you need to communicate?"
Everyone is probably trying to solve a problem that they have. And they think a Web site may be the way to do it. They need to grow their business, they want to get more church members, they want to spread the " Good Word" around the world to support their missions outreach, a doctor' s office needs to replace the patients moving out of town, a distributor needs to sell his/her product beyond their state.
You will be very lucky if they whip out a napkin with drawings and pages of text that speak to what their audience is needing to learn. Most of the time they will be dumbfounded and stare blankly at the ceiling. They haven' t thought about what their site should do for them. They probably haven' t even gotten around to developing a business plan either (which you could easily use to get most of your answers).
So you will need to ask a series of questions to learn about their business or congregation. Only after you understand them can you ask yourself the question " Why should this business / church have a Web site in the first place. "
If they have a good, identifiable reason to have a Web site, determine the ability for them to generate the content to keep it fresh. Ask them how the content will be generated and by whom. If everyone is overworked things will probably get pretty stale quickly. I' ve had a large client with a PR Dept. with more than 5 people do nothing with their site for years except post news releases. What a waste. I can' t even get the benefit of a reference Web site because their site is so out of date. What happened? They never created an Internet Strategy that would support their business goals. Thus, their time and money is spent on other things.
If a Web site goes up for the wrong reasons and fails at some unwritten goal, they will say the site failed because of you. And they would be right! Because you should pass up a project where the client doesn' t know what they want and how they will measure success. It only makes headaches for you and you might not even get paid. If they aren' t mad at you they may just go out of business and not pay you (this happened to a friend I built a site for and this person should have never gone into business in the first place).
Either ask them " How much money would you think that this project would take to successfully launch?" or state " I believe that to build a successful Web site of this type/size a person would need to spend X dollars" . Either way you should be able to find out quickly, how committed they are and if they are ready to fund a project that would be worth your while.
If you get to continue your meeting ask, " Give me several Web site URL' s that you like" then discuss with them what they like and things they do not like. Get inside their heads to see if they are thinking FLASH animations everywhere with only a budget for 4 pages.
Help talk them through their project and talk about Phases. If they bite off too much, they will never get it started. Starting small helps them understand that they are a participant in this process and they will be successful if they can provide you with the new content for the existing pages as well as the new pages to come. It' s a lot of work especially for overworked departments that have been downsized. You may be there to help them out, but unless they go out and dig up the content, review it for accuracy, get the pictures shot (you get the picture..) this Web site will not be solving many problems for them. And when that board member or minister sees the out-of-date content, the site will now become a liability for them.
Your job is to help them to focus on why they NEED a Web site, it' s a marketing communication tool. You are the " designer and printer" but they have the message to communicate. You have to find out what the message is and with all your skills, present it in the best possible and most economical way for your client. When you do that, you do us all proud!
< Message edited by WC -- 3/5/2003 10:52 PM >
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