New look for Webcraft's corporate site

[claymore]

ByGum Mattiemelad
Tha's learnt a few tricks sin leevin Bratfud

[Nick]

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Lots of good and very valid points there, which I will be mulling over prior to foolishly ignoring most of them.

Sad truth is we DO attract the most poverty-stricken types and it is a totally over-saturated market. As regards the Scottish thing - probably 75% of our clients are Scottish, out of all proportion to UK demographics. Put it down to Scottish xenophobia or a desire to feel close even if you never meet or whatever, but it is what happens.

Basically, I do web design. I don't do marketing. Lots of people have told me I am crap at it. (Marketing, that is - although some have told me I am crap at web design as well). What I need is some whizzo marketing spiv/genius to take me over, put me on a huge retainer on a consultancy basis and market me however they chose. Alternatively they can find me lucrative contracts and I will pay them 50% commission just for doing the selling. If I can carry on doing what I do well but for loads more dosh and never have to interface directly with clients again then bring it on.

(Don't all rush at once . . . )

[tcm]

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What I need is some whizzo marketing spiv/genius to take me over, put me on a huge retainer on a consultancy basis and market me however they chose. Alternatively they can find me lucrative contracts and I will pay them 50% commission just for doing the selling.

Um, well, this is exactly what happened when i started a business (with a different but still just about as slightly-arrogant and know-all programmer techie type who also referred to sales as "mainly lying" and used the word "spiv" a lot...) about 20 years ago, and i spose i was tranna help out, but free!

Gotta be said, but first off, you won't make much money called "webcraft". Webtech Webtastic WebCorp WebNext are just 4 names i thought up as fast as i could type them, and all DON'T include the word "craft" which conjures up images of raffiawork and everything less than twenty quid.

[claymore]

webberk
webcrust
webwonk
webfoot
webplonk
webplump
webpomp
webcadge
webnick

All quite specific and in my humble and often accurate opion, wholly appropriate

[Nick]

Well, you are of course entitled to your opion, whatever that is . . .

[Nick]

referred to sales as "mainly lying"

How would you describe it?

[claymore]

Webchamp
Webfantastic
Webgreat
Webbswonder
xxxxx

[Nick]

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Lettuce be content with Webbs Wonder then

[Nick]

Gotta be said, but first off, you won't make much money called "webcraft". Webtech Webtastic WebCorp WebNext are just 4 names i thought up as fast as i could type them, and all DON'T include the word "craft" which conjures up images of raffiawork and everything less than twenty quid.

The business was originally set up in 1995 as a virtual trade show for the UK craft sector as we used to make raffia knitwear ourselves so knew the business a little. Of course, although it was a brilliant idea whose time had come that was timeously promoted at the British Craft Trade Fair in 1995 the wee weaving girlies and hairy potters condemned it as the work of the Devil, and we were left with a pile of glossy brochures on our hands.

So - the name has a history and all the Webulastic Webhype domains are long gone now.

I don't need, want or expect to make a fortune and WebHyping it to the max would just result in having to outsource programming to a dodgy Ukrainian outfit, employ a 24-7 call centre in Hyderabad and retain a solicitor in Edinburgh to write threatening letters to people. That isn't what either of us want at this stage of the game.

We make sites that generally work well for pretty small businesses with (generally) very small budgets. It is the murky end of the market, in competition with the bloke next door's nephew and poorly grasped copies of Dreamweaver with a dodgy educational license. The difference is that our sites get good Google rankings, have well-written copy, work technically and usually pay for themselves within months. Our wish is to open up some clear blue water at that end of the market. We need a big enough pool of potential clients to be able to realistically charge my stated fee of £35 per hour with a view to putting it up to at least £40 by next year, and we need to not be afraid to charge for any extras. Sorry for the lack of naked ambition, but if I had wanted to be an arse I could have stayed in the oil industry.

If anyone wants to set up WebCorpHypeTech.com and use me to produce the digital goods then I would be delighted to work on a consultancy basis and bill them at a suitable rate - much easier than actually running a small business under fire . . . but ferfecksake Matt, I was inviting people to check the site for technical issues, readability and typos, not give me a load of off-the-peg marketing advice I could get from any airport bookstall for £6.99 . . .

I think that will probably do for a dissection of my business failings, fascinating though it is as a subject . . . haven't you got a pond to cross?

[tcm]

Sales should not be mainly lying at all. Essentially, a good salesperson helps people get the things they want as quickly as possible.

The very best salesperson i saw in the coimputer industry simply rang people and asked them if they were in the market. If they said no, he said thanks very7 much and called the next.

Most salespeople think they just wait until someone pitches up, but that means they are about as much a "salesperson" as a someone selling newspapers in Smiths. In your business, finding the punters is the hard bit.

It is not expensive to find contact info for all the relevant smallish businesses in your region and ring them up. Someone like Dunstreet will give you an idea of companies in reachable distance, director/owners name and phone number. The pitch is direct, to the point but chatty eg "hi there, sorry to bother you, I'm Nick and the name of this company is WEB CRAFT (say that bit slowly) and we do web software, systems and services for businesses based in this region ...and,well, I wondered if that might possibly be of interest?"

And seeing as how people get a new website every (say) five years ie 60 months and seeing as how they think hm out website is scottish excrement/missing for 3 months before going to the market that means 3/60 months they're just hoping someone will knock on the door same as you are sometimes hoping a gutter fixer just knocks on the door to fix the gutters or whatever. That means that at any one time 1 in 20 companies are thinking about it, but done nothing about it yet.

If you make you own leads, there is far less competition. If they say how the hell did you find us/me/my name you say that you bought a list of the sort of companies who are already customers. Easily the very best lead is the one where you find them not the other way around.

Where's the lying? Well, ok, you could call yourself Nicky to make it more likely that the usually male usually bored boss will take the call from receptionist cos it's more fun for them to be called by a female and nicky/nikki could be female, so you'll have the upper hand when they uh, find it's a bloke on the phone...but other than that, no actual lying.

Pond crossing is late november, not late oct. Off t'boat this afternoon.

[Nick]

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All good stuff and taken on board Matt. I'm just hideously crap at cold calling - but will give it a go when the existing leads dry up.

Weather here is vile beyond belief - enjoy the boat and remember to ask the price of the drinks!

[claymore]

Absolute tosh - I've watched your Cold Calling antics wedging perfect strangers for drinks. You seem to be a natural to me