Welcome to another in the WordPress Business Bootcamp series. It’s the series where we relearn EVERYTHING we know about building WordPress sites and running a web design business from start to finish.
The Premise is we have our first potential website client, Ms. A. All we know is that she is a lawyer in a large city. She asked a mutual friend… who thought of us. We have few skills and no business or processes in place. She has no previous website. No branding or copy.
Nathan and David (as we go through the series) will be taking different routes to get our business going and our client’s website up and running.
Presently, we are on Season 01 (of the series which is looking at the things that need to happen) BEFORE THE BUILD. This is episode 03… “Getting a brief and scoping the project”.
Nathan:
Going Traditional with fixed pricing. There is an element of value pricing in the sense that the quote may reflect the perceived value to the client, but no attempt to find business pain points and price accordingly. Mostly pricing will be an estimate of the time it takes.
David:
Going agile. Fixed free for a sprint of work expected to deliver a MVP – which is dependent on the client delivering their stuff. Basically, they are booking a few hours with the expectation of booking more to improve on what we had.
We need to make the client some form of proposal before we can move to our next episode on setting up an agreement contract and payment plan.
The proposal probably needs to focus on the main thing our service offers (some may be more about the design aesthetic, others more about producing business leads).
We probably need to bear in mind how legally rigid our contract will need to be. Tthe more money involved probably the more detail in both.
We need to decide on our form(s) of communication.
We need some way to find out what work is here for us. Can we deliver it and come in with a profit… and feel happy about it?
The proposal has to fit the contract and be in line with you service offer (more leads or pretty).
Let’s assume Ms A. has reached out by email saying what we already know. That she is a lawyer wanting her first site and she heard we might be able to help. What next… email return?
Do we get her to fill out the qualifying form which asks about budgets and puts enough obstacles in the way that it weeds out ‘tire kickers’?
We’re really not too sure of the wisdom of this approach as some of the ‘poor’ clients ended up being long term clients, who, over the years paid way more in after-care work than I could ever have hoped for.
Are we in danger of turning people into ‘tire kickers’ by giving them reason to be apprehensive (all the stuff we mention in Watertight Marketing series of podcasts).
Does this need to be locked down or kept pretty vague at this point? Should we introduce how / why we do things differently (this need an update), like David does:
https://wpcornershop.com/blog/why-we-do-web-design-differently/
This can be a great idea because it just irons out so many of the issues. It’s making a good impression and you’re becoming the guy that you have no objections to.
Nathan prefers the phone call, not the return email. And if he cannot get a phone call, the email is to get their number for a phone call! He always explains that ‘he can get more done in 5 mins on the phone than he can in 10 email exchanges”. Maybe this would not work for all people though?
Should you record this and if so, how… phone? I tried a few things like Zoom. Sometimes it’s pointless, but they can be invaluable as a way of referring back and seeing if you missed some important detail in the heat of the moment.
David prefers taking notes – now going to a Google doc to share later.
It’s a Q&A type of thing. Nathan used to try to do the ‘Go Wide Go Deep’ thing, until he realised that this was often a little uncomfortable for both the clients and him as well!
Perhaps just make a list question from things which you glean from their email… what type of lawyer, partners, what I they hoping to get etc.
If they have a live site what do we want to know about it? Maybe what they like and don’t like. What is missing and what does not need to be there.
We should not be as interested in what they have as what they think that they need, and I sometimes ask them to show us sites that they think are cool. Perhaps ask a question about the ‘feel’ of the site, fun, professional etc.
Nathan literally hates this and have never, ever got it figured out. Lorem was the default fallback! This could be a good use for the content creation AI tools that we’ve seen cropping up so that the Lorem is better than just random Lorem. At this point it is just a question to find out the extent of work they need.
This usually happens when the budget becomes clear and the cost of that ‘essential’ thing is so high, that it becomes less important! This is a great moment to show that you know what you’re on about as well. You can explain that literally nobody will use the ‘need to be logged in’ chat solution that they think they need etc.
Just give it to them! I’m sure that not all will agree, but often this is what the client needs to move things forwards.
Make the proposal a contract. We’ve cocked this up so many times. Just be honest and say that I don’t know how to do that, but I’ll get back to you. Then go figure out if you can / cannot do it.
David drops this right at the start, but no pressure. He makes more of that when the site is ready to go live. Most of his care plans came after they said that they did not need one, and then a few months went by and they realised that they had no time / desire to do what they thought would be simple.
Nathan: Tell them we will be back with a proposal or maybe further questions?
David: Ask them to book and pay for the next stage?
Is there anything we can learn about the existing site (stats on bounce rates signups)?
Can we achieve everything with the tools and skills we have already?
Ask the questions, but mostly the answer is yes.
Nathan: For me, this was always the design, but since Page Builders, I feel less worried about this.
David: I might turn down complex code jobs. Like to make clear my skill limits sometimes.
Nathan: If it’s simple pages, content, CPT stuff, that’s not too hard. If it’s something weird, that’s 100% guesswork.
David: I have a minimum 12 hours that a site takes me. The rest is largely down to
Nathan: I think that getting a template for all-the-types-of-content is a really great idea. Makes it easier to build, easier for them to understand.
David: The scope will not form the basis of the contract and price. There may be an agreement rather than a contract and we assume the scope is wrong. It could cost more or less, but the client is in control of that.
As always we hope that you found these show notes useful, but there’s not half as useful as using them alongside the audio! So hit the play button and give it a listen and let us know in the comments below what you think, or join the WP Builds Facebook Group and search for the thread there.
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