Moving into a new house always presents itself with a host of opportunities to spend money on stuff you probably don’t need. For us, this includes a new kitchen, so over the last couple of weeks we’ve done a bit of research on what’s out there, who’s selling and how much it costs.

Now don’t fret, there no chance of this turning into a DIY blog, but the process of research and subsequent meetings with vendors eager to ply their wares has brought home some stark messages about some of the issues the web standards designer faces when trying to win new business.

We’ve got a pretty small kitchen, and recently moving home means an even smaller budget, but we were keen to investigate the different price ranges and quality on offer to the modern home owner.

Quality matters

After scouring the internet we came across a reputable company who seemed to offer good quality fitted kitchens. A phone call later and it was agreed that a sales chap would call round and have a chat with us about a kitchen. Actually to call him a salesman is a little unfair because this guy, we’ll call him Dave, was a craftsman; someone skilled in their art, honed at his craft and had a passion for what he did. I liked the guy straight away. Too often sales people care more about making a sale than the actual product they’re selling, but Dave really knew kitchens and prided himself on the quality that his company delivered. Whether this was sales bullshit I’ll never know, but I bought into it.

I could actually identify a lot with him. Web standards designers are some of the most passionate web professionals you could meet. Why? Because to believe in standards in the first place is almost an act of faith. There is the much vaunted business case for web standards and how they increase ROI, but I honestly believe that’s not why designers adhere to the spirit of standards. They believe in web standards because “it’s the right thing to do” ^TM. It’s almost an ethical decision as much as anything else, and the defining characteristic in this is a belief in quality matters.

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So with our common ground, it would seem an obvious choice to go for Dave and his high quality, luxury finish kitchen fittings and fixtures right? Well no actually, and I’ll tell you why. Price. As lovely as the solid pine drawers, with smooth action closing mechanism were I’m just not in the market to be splashing out £16,000 on a kitchen right now. What I probably am in the market for is a £5000 kitchen out of MFI. Just.

Dave wasn’t taking No for an answer though, he was convinced if only I understood the quality of the workmanship and fittings, then I’d see for myself that it was worth the investment. Pushy sales tactics aside, it was he reasoning that was flawed and not his methods.

At the end of the day I’m just not that interested in my kitchen to want to drop £15k on it, and I probably never will be.

This brought something home to me, because I realised it’s probably the same thing that certain clients think when I give them a quote as well.

The price is wrong

I’m not saying web standards make a site more expensive, but the using the best designers and developers in the world does. If you pride yourself on the quality you produce, you should bill accordingly so you’re probably not cheap. I’m not.

There’s no shortage of “cheap” web designers out there who’ll glad throw together a piece of junk site for a few hundred bucks as we all know.

It comes down to a client making a decision: invest in quality or go for something cheaper, and as much as we hark on passionately about standards some people are always going to want the cheaper option.

My point is, no matter how passionate you are about web standards some clients are never going to be in the market for what you offer and how much you charge. Don’t get frustrated, just accept it.

Be Upfront

Dave’s biggest mistake in trying to sell me a kitchen was to not realise that I just wasn’t in the market for his product right now. Either because I didn’t have the budget or I just didn’t care. What he should have done is suss me out straight away and walk instead of investing 4 hours of his life desperately trying to convince me that I really needed his brilliant kitchen.

And as a designer who prides themselves on quality, at a cost, that’s what you’ve got to do to.

Take the first point of contact with a new potential client: people often feel awkward about talking money at this stage preferring to set up a meeting or even write up a proposal before the thorny issue of cash comes up. I can understand that, but there’s no point wasting time in face-to-face meetings or spending hours writing proposals if the cost is ultimately way out of the client’s budget. Establish earlier on how much your client thinks a website costs and ascertain if it’s worth your while continuing with meetings or proposals. It’ll save you time in the long run.

Reality check

Remember it’s not necessarily the client’s fault. They just might not have cash issues right now, or maybe they just don’t care enough about a website to invest in that level of quality. I’m never going to care that much about my kitchen and it would be arrogant of me to expect every client to care as much about websites as I do.

The trick is finding the ones that do. The people who understand the importance of quality and accept paying accordingly. These clients are the ones you treat like gold.