I get all excited when I write up free quotes and proposals. It takes a chunk of time to put together a plan, estimate the hours, plan for sub-contractors if needed and their fees, figure their project into my timeline and review their web site to make sure I allow enough time to meet their needs.
So when an RFQ is ignored or refused, that time is gone forever and I have nothing to show for it.
I have a friend who spent literally weeks and her vacation trying to come up with a proposal for a potential client who had a menu of needs, both SEO and Usability based. After agonizing, and even me bidding low on my part of the project, she was turned down because our prices were too high. It floors me because there are SEO’s who charge more than I do for usability work and their people are not even members of the Usability Professionals Association (UPA).
In this economy, some companies are looking for creative ways to cut costs. That includes laying off their most talented employees. Web sites are suffering for this because they are no longer maintained for search engines or tracked for user experience issues. When conversions do go down, the alarms go off but management has no idea whom to turn to for help. The most experienced professionals are not cheap labor and many are booked. It’s typical for me to get a request where the prospect is desperate and by the time they break down and come for usability help, they want it “in a few days” and expect to see results yesterday. And, they are not willing to pay much for it.
I interact with a large number of people from both the SEO and Usability industries and I do a great deal of referrals. I only refer to the best people and yes, they charge more but this is because they know what they’re doing. In most cases, I’ve already worked with them and know they are team players. In my opinion, it’s worth paying for team players and especially groups of people who know each other and get along well. Whenever I can, I team up on projects and we fuss over the client.
I also hear from prospects who want their sites to work as well as Amazon, Netshops, or Lands End. And yet they have no clue how many hundreds of thousands of dollars a month go into those sites to make them user friendly. Search engine marketing, social media marketing and web site usability are ongoing practices that every web site must have to be successful for the long term.
It’s makes little sense for a company or site owner to not invest in their web property in this economy if their revenue is Internet dependent. Find someone who will take payments if you need to. Find someone who is willing to teach you some things, if you want to have more control over your site to save costs. Reward whoever you hire with referrals and testimonials.
Go get what you need and be open to paying for the best help you can find. Search engine marketing, optimization, accessibility and usability are well worth paying well for if long term success is your ultimate goal.
Well said Kim. I no longer create lengthy proposals, but a scope of work because I know they’re always going to get more than is ever in a proposal. Then I give a range for an estimate with the caveat that if work falls outside the initial scope, the fee is $x/per hr.
My last quote I turned around in 24-hrs and the prospect still hasn’t responded. Too expensive? Too bad. He wanted a 30-page site optimized and all content rewritten and I gave him a fair quote.
I’m a one-person shop with a great network of professionals and I feel like if my own site isn’t cutting-edge, non-marketing people hit the back button. What about my 25 years experience? Aaargh! Thanks for letting me vent.
oh how I hear you, @Nicolette. I tend to be more informal and laid back, so it was hilarious (not!) when I referred work for a team project to 2 of my more “business-like” friends and they were challenged for being “too business-like”, LOL I only refer the most experienced or credible and this is the feedback?
I also get the experience vs cobbler kids have no shoes site issue. Um, too busy working on everyone’s else’s stuff. HELLO!
I am reminded of the saying (paraphrased because I can’t remember it exactly)
“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional, just see how much it’ll cost you with an amateur! *Now* how much have you saved?”
Such a timely post for me. I am actively watching an online small business go down in flames after turning over the entire IT / Web department to well-meaning but far less qualified employees. Sales are plummeting, and they have no idea what to do. I’m predicting that the whole business will collapse before the summer is over.
When the going gets rough … fire the people who are most qualified to help you?
Thanks to Cre8asite, I’ve beaten myself into not letting first conversations with business owners go by without budget being discussed. After one too many potential clients wanting Nicolette’s 30 page designed, optimized, written website created for them for $500, I couldn’t take the waste of my time anymore.
Anybody who thinks a Kim Krause Berg quote is too high just lost out on their own success.
Agreed. If a website is unusable whats the point, and if they potential customers cant find it, whats the point.
We are now building seo into the website process so that people can actually get a return on their investment.
Some people cant afford that but I’d rather have a portfolio of successful sites that i have control over than a bunch of sites that go out of business in a year.If they do you cant use them for portfolio anyway.
I remember a few years ago I submitted a proposal and did not get the job, and I was very bummed about it, because I had a great track record of getting almost all the projects I submitted proposals for. Then my husband told me that if I get every job, I’m charging too little, and he’s right. And I’ve found that the lowest proposals are the most aggravating clients who expect bells & whistles for the low fee, which is when I learned to be as specific as possible in the scope of work.
@adrienne-I’m sorely tempted to offer free services to those who actually follow my recommendations. Sad state of affairs that so many companies, but especially small businesses, are being led astray or literally misled, by tech types who know nothing about Web marketing or the sales funnel.
SEO and usability is all about “communicating” with your customer.
I think I may have to unsubscribe to this thread as these stories make me pull out my hair.
Unfortunately this is an accurate reflection of the industry right now. Your comment about taking payments is actually a very important one. If clients would only communicate the fact that the quote is too high, you’d be able to get creative with the financing of the project and probably save the deal. Everyone wins.
Risa’s point is also a good one – clients put a low value on cheap and treat the project, and the consultant, accordingly.
I’m aware of a company that layed off most of their web dev/IT dept because of the economy. One remaining employee was shocked to learn that no one left in charge of the servers has any idea what robot.txt is.
SCREAM!
Unfortunately, there are so many companies that have sprung up who will do the work very cheaply. While we know it’s not actually the same work as premium SEO or Usability, the clients don’t always know this.
One of the most difficult things to do is to try to get across these differences, and why premium services are worth what we charge. It’s even more difficult in this economy where budgets have been slashed.
We’ve taken to offering some lower priced alternatives to at least get a foot in the door, which has been working well. Whether it leads to more work down the line when there’s more money to go around, is yet to be seen.
My business development team had to follow another company in a bid to get a niche recruiting client today. Our competition gave a Google “guarantee” (gotta love companies who believe they can guarantee rankings) and a cheaper price, but wanted to lock the client into a 3 year contract. What we have to compete against, may as well have the illustrious silver, gold and bronze packages, the one size fits all clients approach. Argh! I think we’ll get the contract, but it is insane the type of snake oil salesman out there selling dodgy search marketing services these days.
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