Nathan251

I know the answers to these question can vary wildly depending on the client but I am looking for the average or typical answer based on your experience.

1. Do they know the difference between an app and a mobile site?

2. Do they want you to host the mobile site or does that freak them out so you shouldn't offer that unless they want it?

3. How many mails/calls/contacts does it take to win them over?

If the initial sales pitch is something like: Heh dude everyone's using mobiles, I noticed you don't have a mobile site, you are missing out in a big way, check out this mock-up I did for your company, contact me if that interests you etc. etc.

How many steps after that does it generally take to close?

4. How much do you charge for the mobile site? What if they want to update content in the future? Who does that?

5. How fussy are they about customization? Or is it a case of you explaining that simple and easy design is better?

6. Do you recommend have a dedicated mobile site sales domain or is that not such a significant factor and an effective sales pitch will do the job? How big an issue is credibility?

7. Do you play the numbers game when hunting for leads and send out a generic pitch or do you customize it to each individual client, meaning higher conversions but also taking a lot more time?

8. Is the process of handing over the finished mobile site problematic from a technical standpoint?

9. Do clients generally want dedicated mobile domains or are they happy with a redirect from their own site?

10. Do clients let you play around on their CMS or do you have to send them everything via FTP - what if you need to install a redirect on their CMS but they haven't authorized you to use it and have no idea how to do it themselves?

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Jarrod

From my experience:

1-Not usually.

2-They don't usually give this any thought. In some scenarios it's best for you to host it, in others it's just fine to use their current hosting. Ask the right questions to determine which would be best for them and steer them in the right direction. If they do ask, inform them of the possible routes and benefits of going the route you're going. But if you can avoid it, don't make THEM be the decision maker on this when YOU are the expert.

3-Most clients I have, I had to make contact with 3-4 times. Typically a couple e-mails and a couple phone calls. The first one is to establish interest. If there is zero interest I don't contact again. If there is even slight interest, follow up AT LEAST half a dozen times before giving up.

4-Still testing various scenarios out, but I typically go for ~250 for a six page site plus ~$25 per additional page.

5-Not very.

6-I tried a dedicated sales site. Results were meager. Much better results just picking up the phone and having an actual conversation. Credibility is a huge factor. I did a few free mobile sites starting out just so I could show them to build credibility with future prospects. Makes a big difference.

7-I've tried both. I see most people recommend the latter (personalize each e-mail), but I personally have had better luck with the former (play the numbers). I'm considering hiring/outsourcing someone to do the personalization of each e-mail to get the better results without me having to sit and do it all day. Will have to test and see how that goes. When it comes to this sort of thing, IMO there is often no one right answer for everyone. You have to test and see what works best for you.

8-Depends on the back-end system of their site and hosting. Sometimes a piece of cake, sometimes pulling teeth.

9-Do not understand the question. You can have both, a dedicated mobile domain (example.mobi) and a redirect from main site to the dedicated mobile domain.

10-Most clients have had no issue letting me in to do it myself. The few that have not done so are skilled enough (or have a web guy that is skilled enough) to get the job done.

Hope that helps.

Also, some of the questions you're asking show signs of being a little hesitant to jump in and get your feet wet. Trying to figure it all out to minimize failure, whereas in reality a certain degree of failure starting out is inevitable. If you really want to learn, get out there and fail as fast and as often as you can as failure is a great teacher. Don't let any underlying fear prevent you. As a wise man once said: "Fear is the power of the dark side."

Nathan251

Thank you, very informative indeed. You are correct about just getting stuck into the process. I will report on how I am getting on. Incidentally have you noticed that new responsive sites are having an impact on sales?

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Jarrod

I have definitely run into a few folks that are in the process of having their website redesigned where the new one will be responsive (among other updates), but generally speaking that has not been a big hurdle for me.

+Awesome

Thanks for the detailed answers list Jedi. Gonna be helpful.

DougPage

I think it is great if businesses are getting a responsive site created. Their website will look much better on tablets. However, it is now starting to be understood by the better mobile website designers that responsive layers are still not presenting a great experience on mobile devices. It is better than not having anything. Preference is now being given to a responsive site to handle the desktop and tablet user and either a stand alone or adaptive layer for the phone. If the adaptive layer is built correctly, it will be able to handle all phones whether they are HTML5 compliant or not. It will also be much faster than responsive sites which is becoming more and more important to smartphone users as they are expecting desktop performance. Also we are now coming to the point where there will be more smartphones searching than desktops so there should be a corresponding transfer of importance. Analytics of each business will show how many mobile devices are searching their site. Good time to ask if they have analytics for their site. Of course, you will also need a very good redirect script so that it can handle all these situations by being able to determine the device and not the screen resolution.

As you can see, there is still lots to discuss with someone who says they are going to have a responsive website built. Acceptable is not going to cut it soon. A business is going to need to have an exceptional smartphone experience to be noticed.

HTH

DexterGallagher

If we can't close them on the first call, we move on. If they call back after thinking about it and getting other prices the price goes up - for sure.