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Over the past couple of months I have come across a few
clients that, to put it mildly, have
been lead down the garden path.
There seems to be a cancer in our
industry with dishonest dealings and
promises made with no delivery in
sight. However this disease is not
limited to our industry and that all
sectors of business have their bad
apples.
But what is it that
happens that gives our industry a
bad name?
In all my dealings with
clients that have been bitten, they
all end up saying very much the
same. “I wish I knew better, next
time...”
Sadly also the converse
happen and there is no next time,
once bitten...
I believe that
business men and women are duped
sometimes by snake oil salespeople
with techno garble and catch phrases
and rather than heeding the voice of
caution, they put ink to paper to
save their pride or ignorance of
these lingo-spewing, fork-tongued,
snake oil sales people.
But what
went wrong?
Everybody cannot be
an expert in everybody’s field of
work. It is this lack of knowledge
and comprehension of the subject
matter that give these snake oil
sales people the home ground
advantage. Most people are
intimidated by computers and the
internet as it is only a recent
development in businesses in
general. There are many business
people whose businesses operate
perfectly without any of this new
fangled stuff, but global customer
pressure is putting a spanner in the
works. Email is the communication of
choice, websites showcase products
and service renderings, and online
orders broaden one’s business reach
to the whole wide world. And this is
new to most people.
So where does
a “must have” turn into a nightmare?
More importantly, how do you guard
against it?
I believe there are
four categories to this disease.
These are four commonly encountered
points where sales people do not
share the pros and cons of their
products with the client. But, as
long as people are ignorant and do
not ask questions, the snake oil
sales people will prey on easy
targets.
1.
BAD, BAD People
There will
always be dishonest people no matter
what. They will not change or go
away. They will always promise you
the Moon, Mars and the whole galaxy
while they’re at it. Unfortunately
they can operate as individuals and
within companies.
They
usually make claims that are too
good to be true, even by moderate
expectations and their presentations
and sales pitch are peppered with
lingo, abbreviations and terminology
designed to confuse.
Call
their bluff by doing the most
important thing possible: ask
questions. Don’t fall for their
techno lingo; they rely on your
silent ignorance not to challenge
their knowledge. Ask them to explain
what “that” word mean, snake oil con
men don’t like it when their
cleverly rehearsed lingo and phrases
are broken down into everyday
sensible language. Honest people do
not mind educating their prospective
customers, dishonest operators like
to keep their mark in the dark for
as long as possible.
2. One
man band.
These
salespeople are the sales team,
marketing team, designers, tea lady,
technician, public relations person
and the managing director. For
obvious reasons, time is their worst
enemy. When their business was small
and there was ample time, things
were good. However, there comes a
point when the balancing act
collapses.
They will
often tell you that they are the
owner and pride themselves on their
skills and abilities as well as
achievements. Due to the business
structure they more often than not
have to make use of 3rd parties to
render certain functions. An example
of this, and a very important
example, is the hosting of the
website and emails for your new
website.
Ask
yourself what your expectations of
your website will be in the years to
come. Will Mr. One-Man-Band be able
to support you, your staff and
company to the same levels into the
future? Often, it is the 3rd parties
that fail to deliver service to Mr.
OMB and this knock-on effect travels
back to you. I see it so often,
where there are too many cooks in
the kitchen, the client is the one
that carries all the expenses and
costs in the end. Ask questions
like: Who will be hosting the
website? Who owns the domain (scary
one)? Who will be designing the
website? Check out their website and
scale of business.
3.
Cheap or Free
There are
hundreds of free or cheap websites
programmes and designers out there.
Very rarely do they make it to the
top of the search engines. Please
understand that you get what you pay
for. Cheap usually restricts you to
outdated templates and restricts you
creatively. Free comes with
drawbacks and bugs or somebody
else’s advert on your website.
Nothing is truly free.
Cheap
means that I can only give you a
little bit of my time because we all
know, time costs money. And that
free site designed by my brother’s
neighbour’s cousin’s uncle’s friend
in Pofadder, that’s into computers
because he knows this stuff, never
goes live. This category is
singularly responsible for driving
the most new clients to our
business.
Can
you truly afford to cut corners in
your business? Then why waste your
time and money over and over by
trying to do it cheap or for free?
You are in business to make money
and, with a professional website and
online marketing plan that is what
you will achieve. Cheap or free
usually does not understand how the
internet works and how your image
out there is portrayed. Cheap and
free seldom comes with support or
somebody to deal with when things
break.
4. CMS
or Content Management System
This concept
or product is more often than not
sold under a false or misguided
impression, purposefully or
unknowingly. The premise of being
able to control and/or be in charge
of your own website is a dream that
soon turns into a nightmare for many
business owners. CMS’s have been
around since day one and nine out of
ten times are completely FREE. Still
people end up buying this product in
big bottles covered in snake oil.
Most of these websites never see the
light of day and/or fail in their
upkeep as sold by the snake oil
sales people.
There are
only two routes with website design:
one, you do it yourself and two, you
have somebody do it professionally
for you. CMS means that you
do-it-yourself. This makes life
difficult for many business people,
as they now have to invest precious
time (and money) in learning new
software. Quality is often
sacrificed for cost savings through
creativity.
For
many businesspeople CMS is sold as
the ultimate solution to sidestep
expensive web design companies and
site control. Basic ftp (file
transfer protocol) rights (username
and password) will put you onto your
little space of the World Wide Web.
Old FrontPage™ from Microsoft® or
their new version called Expression
Web™ will do everything you need to
manage your own site and at a
fraction of the cost. Let the
experts deal with what they are good
at so that you can focus on
business.
Most of the questions can be
answered by a few simple web
searches if you doubt what you are
being told by the person in front of
you. After all, it is your hard
earned money.
Remember: ask questions...
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