Selling tips for GFP Websites
The current problems with websites
The web is 20 years old this year, 2012.
Everyone has a website, or knows they will need one for their business. Many of these people have had bad experiences with the website industry.
It is sad to say, but more people are unhappy with their websites than happy. WHY?
20 years after its inception, the web is still a mystery to most people. How many people do you know who can add an email address to their website, link an image to a web page, or simply add a line of text to a page? Forget about the design process!
Creating a website requires the user to learn “code”. The code has kept the mystery in the website business. The code requires people to be held hostage by good, and bad web design people.
No one would really care, if they knew they could rely on their web masters to actually do what they originally promised to do for their clients when they first took the assignment to build their website.
In most cases, with few exceptions, many people have decided to become “website builders”, because they learned how to do it as a hobby.
Problem is, they build a few sites for friends, then get asked to build them for a few real businesses, and finally, they go out of business and leave their clients hanging.
Others, build sites for people and do not really tell them about the additional charges to update their information. Their rates are in the $100 per hour area.
The point is, there are so many people unhappy with their websites, and their web designers, we have found that all we have to do is tell people about our website systems, and people can't wait to have us build them a website.
The Solution
You have seen the “build your own website” systems. They are here because of the issue I mention above. People need to keep their website current. They want to know they can make their own changes when needed.
All of that makes perfect sense. I believe the concept of allowing people to build their own websites makes a lot of sense. They have control, they can make their own changes, and they save money. Again, ask most people who have actually been successful building their own website...how easy it really was. One of the common methods in “do it yourself” website design has been to use “wordpress”. This is not an insult to the wordpress system, but, for the most part, a Wordpress website, looks like a do it yourself website.
I took some of the ideas and added a few on my own and created what I like to call a “hybrid” system.
We work with our clients to design and develop their websites, and when completed they can take over the day to day updating of their information.
We take care of all the “programming” issues. We add new pages for them, set the navigation links, add any hyper links to outside pages, and provide any other programming needs.
We are not new to providing web solutions to businesses. We developed shopping cart websites for professional photographers 12 years ago. We learned that once they were up and running, they did not require much daily assistance.
Instead of charging our clients huge hourly rates when they need a 5 minute fix, or charging again, huge monthly fees, for that 5 minute fix once in a while, we spent 10's of thousands of dollars to develop a system that allows our “non-programmer” staff to make these quick, simple modifications, and we keep the cost down!
The System
The key to our low fees for both website development and ongoing service is out “system”. Most web developers design every site assignment “individually”. They tell their clients they design ”custom” sites, and while they are not lying, in most cases, they are purchasing pre designed websites from the web, or they use a base site they have used for other sites, and simply make small changes in colors.
There is nothing wrong with that...we do that...but we don't charge our clients $1000 for a custom design.
We have multiple levels of websites we provide our clients. We do not work in the “vague” area of pricing. Try this. Call a few local web designers. Ask for a price for a website. You will hear 10 minutes of gibberish. You will hear how it is impossible to quote a site until they know more about your needs.
It may be true that if you have a really big company, hundreds of employees, thousands of products, and a lot of high tech programming, you may need to have a few meetings about your needs, but for the average local retail business, restaurant, lawyer, or other professional, we can give fixed price on the spot.
We have website designers who charge us a fixed rate for any type of business design. That is the key. A site design, which is usually the main/index page of a website, has nothing to do with how many pages are in a site, or what features a client might need in their site.
We have pre-programmed the common requirements needed on 99% of all websites. Everyone needs new pages on their websites from time to time. The “web designers” charge by the page. I have no idea where that concept came from, but I guess someone decided to charge their clients that way, and the word spread as the standard “billing method”.
Oh well...we can add a new page to a client's website in about 60 seconds. They enter their own data, and there is no charge for additional pages in a website we develop.
We have a list of common features/tools/code that we can add to our sites at no cost to our clients. When we receive a request for a new “tool”, we usually create programming that allows us to add that feature to additional site in the future. We never charge our clients for features they need.
We are changing the way the website industry has been operating for the past 20 years.
The “Pitch”
The poor auto salesman gets the bad rap, but let me take a little liberty here. I like to think of us as “car repair” people, not sales people.
No one needs to be sold on needing a website. Every business needs one. As mentioned above, most people already have a website. So many are unhappy with their website, all you need to do is tell them about our systems, and they will be interested in hearing more.
People who do not have a site, usually know of a friend who has had a bad experience and they know that our system sounds like what they are looking for.
Keep this in mind. No one really wants to build their own website. They just want to know that they will be able to keep their site up to date, and not go broke either in the initial process, or later when they need some programming assistance. That is not much to ask, and we developed a system that allows them to do that.
We also offer total ongoing updating services for those customers who are so busy they want us to do everything for them.
So, tell them we can do that. There is an additional monthly fee, but they don't have to start paying it for a few months. During that time we will show them that...the same time and effort the used to send us the email with the information they wanted on their site...they could have done it directly on their website!
So, it calms them down with the fear of needing us to do it all for them, and in the end, we get then to do it, and they don't have to pay us extra to do it for them.
If we steal the famous line “ if you build it they will come”...we built it!
We don't sell “Search Engine Optimization”
Tell your prospective clients the following....
The selling of SEO is the biggest will eventually will be known as the biggest legal “scam” to take place on the web.
People are promised that they will appear on the first page of Google. There are 10-12 spaces on the first page of Google. If 20 SEO experts promise all of their clients placement on the first page, or even pages of Google, how will they all fit?
The truth is, Google like activity on websites. Work on your website every few weeks, change some text, and Google will keep looking at your site.
Our page name/linking system is optimized for Google. We will register your website with Google for you, free of charge. There is not really much more you can do. The best way to promote your website is with your existing customer base. Promote your website to them, they will frequent the site, because you will be able to keep it current!
We have the ability to include your Keywords on your index page, and there is no cost to do that. It is not that “knowledge” of doing a few things to improve your placement does not have value, but personally, I feel the costs have been established based more on an “ignorance” of us not knowing what to do, than the actual value of that knowledge, that you could not find yourself in a ...Google search.
You won't “sell” everyone.
We are not trying to be the website system for everyone. You will meet people who truly need a lot of custom programming and design. They are usually not your average, local retail establishment or professional service provider. We may take a look at their needs, but we may also feel more comfortable passing on it, or even referring it to a custom developer we know they can trust. When possible, we will see that you get paid for the lead.
We want to do what we do best. That is...provide beautiful websites, great customer service, at a reasonable cost. We may not be able to meet those goals with certain complex type website requirements...to the “masses”.
Get to work!
If you have not figured it out yet. We don't have a sales pitch. Just go out your door and tell everyone you meet “I sell websites”.
You will meet many people who are happy with their websites, or at least they think they are, and of course, there are many more who are not happy.
You don't need to spend time with the happy one's, thank them for their time and move on...
Throughout your day you will meet people who:
Are unhappy with the look of their website
Are unhappy with their web master (who is probably out of the business)
Who need some of the features we offer in our system
Who know some one who is starting a new business and will need a site.
Demo sites
Because of our investment in our “System”, we can provide a real, working, modifiable website for any prospective client. They can login, upload images, add text, and see how easy it will be to use our website system.
If they like what they see, we can have our designers work with them to customize their website. Any images or information they added to the demo site is not lost. That site is actually their base site. We can add the new “face” to the site, and change any pages, and the text and images will work in any pages.
Walk About
Your day should simply be one of walking in and out of every business you have in your town. There are no special types of businesses that are better prospects than others. Everyone is a prospect, or some one working in any business, may know some one who is in need of a better website.
This is one of those 10 “Happiest” jobs in the world!
When you can help people fix their problems, they thank you!
Bob Kahn
Developer of GFP Websites
What does the GFP stand for?
Great Food Photography. I was photographing the food for local restaurants. When I asked them why the images were not appearing on their websites, I learned about all the issues I mention here, and GFP Websites was born!