Superstitions are rife among sales teams and if unchallenged can grow into unofficial policies which can harm your sales and reduce productivity. We explore three big myths that persist among sales teams. We’ve tied them to the three P’s of selling websites: Price, Proposal and of course Portfolio.

  1. PRICE: The most expensive / least expensive bid wins more business

Trying to win the race to the bottom of a pricing war with your competitors is a sure-fire way to lose business, even when you win it. Remain careful to price your solutions in line with the value you are offering and stick to your guns when presented with a lower quote from your competitors.

There’s always a cheaper web designer down the road – but it’s hardly ever a better one.

Ensure you have to hand at least three killer reasons why your work is better than the other firm and chances are, if it’s the type of client that’s a good fit for your business, you’ll win the work.

  1. PROPOSAL: A Very Detailed / Very High-Level Proposal Wins more business

Ask any group of sales veterans with experience of selling websites “which wins more business – a long proposal which focuses on in-depth descriptions or a high level proposal which focuses on outcomes?” and you’ll likely get close to a 50/50 split.

While some firms have a standard proposal (read: catalog) for their services, with a couple of placeholders left open to be customised to client’s name and project scope, others prefer to take a more boutique approach, crafting each page specifically for that client’s requirements.

Whilst both methods are valuable in some instances, most of the time, if your proposal is too long, it won’t be read and/or comprehended well, too short and it’ll leave the client with more questions than answers.

The key here is balance. Sure, have a couple of pages of techie info, and a page or two, on your firm’s key achievements and recent projects, but for heaven’s sake, don’t take up five full pages bleating on about yourself and another five pages talking about how great WordPress is.

Do have a fairly detailed proposal, which includes frequently asked questions and do make sure you include an executive summary (200-300 words, max) of your proposed solution, in the body of the email, along with the proposal.

  1. PORTFOLIO: Businesses value proposals more than portfolios

We’ve heard this time and time again and it’s as untrue now as it was 10 years ago. When it comes to web design, businesses buy based on portfolio more than proposal.

If your portfolio of past projects is a simply a collection of thumbnails of every project you’ve done over the past decade, it’s time to update one of your most valuable assets.

Select 5-10 of your most impressive, recent projects and showcase them on your website under a section entitled “Our Best Work 2017/2018” or similar. An updated and curated portfolio is one of your most effective conversion boosters because it not only shows your prowess, it answers client’s questions about your firm’s capability of delivering a solution which fits with their needs.

Once you have covered these three points, you have covered the three P’s of Selling websites and you need some new leads to test out your newly tweaked assets. We have those leads. In fact right now,  we’re busy connecting businesses with Web Designers they can trust. If you’d like to become one of our suppliers, please visit our Suppliers Page to get started.

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