Why We Hate Losing a Client over Price

The Sprocket Report

This article has been updated on 2/15/2022 with the article entitled “Penny Wise and Dollar Foolish Choices When Building and Maintaining Your Website.”

Some people want the best value their money can buy. Others shop around for the lowest price and don’t care so much about the quality. We don’t judge. Still, it sure hurts to watch a prospective client walk away.

We just want to get folks on the web, but boy howdy! It sure can be tough for us to help them! Recently a proposal was returned to us with an apologetic “Thanks, but no thanks” because the client found a cheaper solution.

Everyone has the right – even the responsibility—to get the biggest bang for their buck. Working with startups and volunteer organizations is great fun and highly fulfilling, but they have notoriously teeny budgets. We totally get it. In fact, we launched our SprocketStore so folks with teeny budgets can build their own starter websites for under $7 a month.

Do-It-Yourself web builders of course have their limits, but when you know that up front, you accept it and plan around it. The trouble starts when folks pay for a budget website thinking they bought something better. Links break, updates aren’t being made, browser compatibility is lagging and suddenly no one’s answering the phone any more to deal with questions.

Success can also be problem, believe it or not. When the startup needs a shopping cart or the not-for-profit needs a registration system, they’ll come to us to add it to their existing site when the original developer is unavailable. We hate having to explain that by the time we detangle all the existing code, they’d be better off building a new, more versatile, website.

That’s why we’re heartbroken when we lose a prospective client over price. They’re going to be delighted with their new, cheaper, website. At first. But before long, another less delightful adjective will describe how they feel about their website. And when that happens, they won’t come back to us. We won’t get another chance to help them.

So when the time comes to build a new website, ask lots of questions, take lots of notes and compare apples to apples. Then you’ll be ready to make the choice that’s right for your needs. If you want to know the pros and cons of the websites we build, just give us a call. As you know, we’re always happy to help.

Kate GingoldKate Gingold

I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.

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Full biography

I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.

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