At Engage Web, we often get asked to submit quotes or proposals for websites as part of a tender. This usually means there are three or more companies pitching for the work. There’s nothing wrong with this as it creates healthy competition, and it allows the client to compare different proposals against one another to decide which is best for them.
However, where this process often falls down is when companies request quotes for something very specific, and don’t enlist the advice of the web design agencies in the first place. When a brief is written and presented to the web designers and they are asked to submit their quotes without their input being taken, or a consultation happening, is when issues arise.
Imagine this – your car won’t start, so you call three garages and you tell them you want the head gasket replacing and ask them to quote for doing just that. You get three quotes before choosing the cheapest. What’s likely to happen?
Firstly, you’ve chosen the cheapest so you’re unlikely to get the best work. Secondly, you’ve TOLD THEM what was wrong with your car and what you want, rather than asking them to look and diagnose the problem. It may not be your head gasket. It may be something else entirely. Even if it is the head gasket, you may also have other issues with the car. It may be cheaper to do something else, such as scrap the car and buy a new one.
You’ll never know, as you didn’t ask. You dictated what you wanted, so probably didn’t get what you needed.
Let’s look at another scenario – you have a pain in your chest so you call three private doctors and ask them to quote for fitting a pacemaker, before choosing the cheapest. You can see where this is going, so I don’t need to finish that analogy.
Rather than TELLING a web designer what you want them to quote for, it would be much better to tell them what your business goals are. What do you want to achieve? Where do you see your business in one year, three years and five years’ time? What do you hope to get out of your website? When a good web designer knows what you’re looking to achieve, they can propose the best solution. They can design and develop the website best able to achieve your goals, rather than design one you decided you wanted when it may not be right for you in the first place.
Don’t tell a professional the solution you want them to implement. Tell them the problem you have, and let them offer the best solution. It’s most likely the same in your industry. You probably wouldn’t want your clients or customers to come to you and to dictate what they want you to do for them. You’re the expert in what you do, not them. You can better help them by finding out what they need, not what they think they want.
That’s the issue with briefs sent out to tender. Often, they are put together by committee that has no more idea of how a website should work than the average man on the street has about head gaskets or heart conditions.
Let the experts help you with their expert advice. It’ll be better for you in the long run.
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