Allan & Steve are the chubby founders of LessEverything. This is their blog, hear them rant, praise, give advice and talk about Just Stuff, Less Accounting, Lovd by Less, More Honey, Events, Less Memories, Code, Business, Design, Marketing
What are you selling?
written by Allan Branch on March 19th, 2009
When a potential customer looks at your website what do they think you're selling? Web development?
You provide web development, but what are you selling? Are you selling yourself? Are you selling a development methodology? Are you selling a certain technology? Are you selling piece of mind for your customer?
What answer(s) is your potential customer looking for when they're looking at your website? What question do they need answered before they call you?
Hint: they're not looking for web development.
9 Responses to “What are you selling?”
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Allan,
You didn’t answer the question for for yourself. What are you selling at lesseverything.com? It seems obvious to me that the answer is yourselves (though maybe you disagree?).
The question then that would be nice to have answered, for everyone reading this post, is why did you decide to go that route instead of one of the alternatives you mention?
Thanks, Sean
Hey Sean, you’re right we’re selling ourselves. Why? Cause other dev companies don’t have us. That might sound egotistical but that’s our angle.
Most people can write good code, there’s alot of people that can do UI work well. But there’s not many that can tell a client no, or take their idea and make it better. You’ll fine more clients looking for a cheap price when you’re selling technology over personal value too.
We also only take certain projects so our angle might not be right for many people, but it’s worked for us.
What did you sell before you could sell yourselves? Before you were good enough, smart enough, and not enough people liked you? I mean, it seems you have to have a certain amount of cred (or be really confident, or a really smooth talker) before you can go this route.
Before Steve and I came together I had a small web shop doing mostly CMS work and brochure websites. Even then I was selling myself. Although I slightly different angle. “I’m going to make this process of doing a website easy for you” angle. Clients spending 2-5k on a website are scared of the process. I wanted people to feel like I was approachable. Here’s the site, tell me what you think. http://speedymediagroup.com
Now the client we want to work with have a decent budget and realizes they need someone that can collaborate on a project. Someone strong enough to tell them what is good, they don’t want a yes man.
I’m where you were, shooting for where you are. I have a large company engineering background, and to an extent I miss the big projects with difficult tradeoffs where success is hard won. But I do love working directly with clients.
Thanks for the post.
Allan,
That is a good question, and I think more small to medium size software development companies need to think long and hard about this question.
What our firm, Mobile Foundry, sells is deep collaboration with our clients in conjunction with solid execution in turning their ideas into easy to use solutions. I know that sounds vague, but we too only take certain kinds of projects (information management, automation, and e-commerce) so that we can pull it off.
What we probably should be selling instead is confidence to our clients.
What this requires though is the right kind of client. So its also important who you sell to, as well as what you sell. If you aren’t careful you can end up with client’s who don’t appreciate this, or don’t fully engage with you in this, it won’t lead to a positive outcome.
Matt
Right effin’ on, you guys could not have written a better post to reach me personally than this one, right now.
Asking myself the same question…
And, now I know I am not selling Web Development! Brilliant, thanks!
Right effin’ on, you guys could not have written a better post to reach me personally than this one, right now.
Asking myself the same question…
And, now I know I am not selling Web Development! Brilliant, thanks!
I know that I have quit selling myself as a developer and more as a solutions provider. People don’t want to buy code. They want to have their problem solved. I seldom run across someone that was to do something new. Most of the stuff is a new blend of existing ideas. So the hard part is not writing the code. It is getting it done on time and within budget.