What Every Customer Wants To Know

When we’re off selling our services – whether they be web development, marketing, whatever - the most important thing to do is demonstrate the value we can bring to the client.

Because only then can the client make a true cost benefit analysis of the service we’re offering. For example, if we can show a benefit of $1,000 and the action to generate that $1,000 is only $50 then the client will look upon it as an excellent benefit for the small cost.

My company completes quite a few holiday resort web sites. We have a huge advantage over our competitors when we pitch for resort holiday web sites because we can do 2 things:

1. Demonstrate the benefit of what we have done
2. Quantify the benefit

Just recently we redeveloped a web site for a resort. After 10 days the client wrote to me with this:

"Our new website was launched last Thursday and since that time we have been totally inundated with enquiries!

In fact, the website has been so successful in generating sales we have had to put both Leslie and Emily on for as many hours as they can manage to keep up with the continual emails and phone calls."

That resort has 10 apartments with a particular wholesaler all year round.

The wholesaler get 25% commission.

The average rental for the apartment is $150 per night (so my client, the manager of the resort, only gets $112.50 per apartment).

Quantifying the Benefit Of The Web Site

Because of the terrific success of the web site already, my client is looking at terminating the wholesaler contract because he now knows he can fill the apartments himself at the full retail rate.

Let's say he does. That's an extra $37.50 per night. Multiply that by 10 rooms. And then multiply that by 365 days.

$136,875

My client stands to make an extra $136,875 profit in one year because the web site is working well (and that's not taking into account the fact that the web site is doing more business for him than that already).

Quantify the benefits of the product or service you are selling if at all possible (and prove it with facts, figures, testimonials and case studies).

Click here for a search engine optimisation book review I recently did.

Brendon Sinclair