johntabita - 8:18 pm on Dec 20, 2004 (gmt 0)

I came across a site for a realty company that had a really nice look to it. The homes listed on the site were primarily in the $1,000,000+ range. The only problem with the site was that they had _all_ of the photos of their homes on the first page. It took 30 minutes for the page to load on a dialup! I called the president of the company and asked her if she was aware that the site had a problem (hoping to get some work out of her). She said, yes, she's aware of it. I then asked if she would like a proposal for fixing it, which she declined. She said they don't update the website anymore. When I asked why, she said "because nobody ever uses it."

This example nicely illustrates a point, that in order to successfully sell your services, the prospect must [1] want, [2] need, and [3] be able to afford what you offer. Even though this realty company both needs and probably can afford a new site, they simply don't want one. Whether their reasons are good or bad is not the point. When someone doesn't want what you're selling, it's a waste of both your time and theirs to attempt to convince them otherwise.

Companies with bad websites will fall into three categories:

1. Those that think their site is great;
2. Those that know their site is bad, but aren't prepared to do anything about it;
3. Those that know they need a better site and are ready to act

Rather than trying to convince prospect #1 that his site really is awful, or prospect #2 that he really should do something about it, spend your time looking for prospect #3.

The other issue is, no one will choose to redesign a bad website unless they believe it will produce some type of return. You must state your offer in terms of increases or decreases. Just asking if she "would like a proposal for fixing it" didn't convey that message. A better follow-up question would have been why they haven't fixed it.

President: Because nobody ever uses it.

You: If you could get people to use it, how would that benefit your company?

Assuming she's willing to talk, here's where you'll find out what she wants to increase/decrease. Is it to increase sales, decrease the cost of sales, or something else? If you can demonstrate how you can achieve that result, then chances are, you'll land a sale.