How deep are you getting in your first interview?
Do you turn a fifteen minute interview into a 45 minute discussion?
When I go into a meeting whether its at an office or any other place where the moment to sell my self becomes available I can easily just tell someone "I do web development, design and I optimize your audience and brand your company online" or something relative to that (I like to let the moment flow with who I am talking to.).
Now, many times I find myself talking to someone who has a web site, they have been down this road several times; if I was just selling a simple package or two this could be hard but its not and here is why.
I want to know how they are doing, I am not so concerned at the beginning to know if they are going to buy something, give me money or just say yes to any mental whim that I have. I really want to know, do they understand the power of the internet at the levels that I do - or at least close enough to do them some good.
First, I assume they have a web site, but what kind is it? Is it just a billboard, a business card floating around in the ether? Does it offer their customers a reason to come back as much as possible and see "what's new?" we all refer to this as the "sticky" factor. Also, these days the buzz is all about apps: mobile apps, web apps, or even desktop apps that are connected - to everything and anything. Even if there is just a simple code that makes a mobile phone auto dial a number off a web site, that is still an app - it applies and has an application for the end user to benefit from.
Now its one thing to get customers to follow a brand, but one question I am really interested in is "Do your employees use the site?" Is the web and the various networks being used by their employees and how? No matter which way you look at it, much of advertising and marketing exists to keep the employees happy about being part of that organization. So it goes in more directions, than you would think. I want to know if there is a way that I can offer, ebooks, presentations, video creation that can also help with the clients internal organization. Companies many times spend large amounts of money to create internal communications, as well as the ones they present to their stockholders and more - what I often want to know is there a way that I can create ebooks that can be used with an internal email system that can help with any of that.
Of course I also want to know, if they understand the power of getting any and all forms of electronic publications out - if they are retail oriented, do they do "end caps"? Are they doing tuesday specials? Are they interested in getting more localized data gathered from several channels? If you don't know what these are, end caps for example, those are the sunday ads or similar that run in the color ads for stores, and the stores then place those products on the end caps of the aisles. Ask yourself, is there a way that you could offer a solution for these?
I am really curious not necessarily what everyone's interview list or sales sheet looks like; but I am curious how detailed you think it is? Do you like to just shoot out two or four packages, or do you like to enquire about everything you can think of when it comes to a client?
When I go into a meeting whether its at an office or any other place where the moment to sell my self becomes available I can easily just tell someone "I do web development, design and I optimize your audience and brand your company online" or something relative to that (I like to let the moment flow with who I am talking to.).
Now, many times I find myself talking to someone who has a web site, they have been down this road several times; if I was just selling a simple package or two this could be hard but its not and here is why.
I want to know how they are doing, I am not so concerned at the beginning to know if they are going to buy something, give me money or just say yes to any mental whim that I have. I really want to know, do they understand the power of the internet at the levels that I do - or at least close enough to do them some good.
First, I assume they have a web site, but what kind is it? Is it just a billboard, a business card floating around in the ether? Does it offer their customers a reason to come back as much as possible and see "what's new?" we all refer to this as the "sticky" factor. Also, these days the buzz is all about apps: mobile apps, web apps, or even desktop apps that are connected - to everything and anything. Even if there is just a simple code that makes a mobile phone auto dial a number off a web site, that is still an app - it applies and has an application for the end user to benefit from.
Now its one thing to get customers to follow a brand, but one question I am really interested in is "Do your employees use the site?" Is the web and the various networks being used by their employees and how? No matter which way you look at it, much of advertising and marketing exists to keep the employees happy about being part of that organization. So it goes in more directions, than you would think. I want to know if there is a way that I can offer, ebooks, presentations, video creation that can also help with the clients internal organization. Companies many times spend large amounts of money to create internal communications, as well as the ones they present to their stockholders and more - what I often want to know is there a way that I can create ebooks that can be used with an internal email system that can help with any of that.
Of course I also want to know, if they understand the power of getting any and all forms of electronic publications out - if they are retail oriented, do they do "end caps"? Are they doing tuesday specials? Are they interested in getting more localized data gathered from several channels? If you don't know what these are, end caps for example, those are the sunday ads or similar that run in the color ads for stores, and the stores then place those products on the end caps of the aisles. Ask yourself, is there a way that you could offer a solution for these?
I am really curious not necessarily what everyone's interview list or sales sheet looks like; but I am curious how detailed you think it is? Do you like to just shoot out two or four packages, or do you like to enquire about everything you can think of when it comes to a client?