Two years ago we got badgered by a marketing company that basically wanted resell our services, we didnt see the value in it for us as our prices are so competitive there is no room for commission. I recently re-found the notes I made from conversations and insisted that it wasn’t worthwhile having a meeting to discuss what we could do as we had nothing to proove being a successful Essex website design company, I said I personally dont see that we would achieve much with a visit as much more would be sorted out / discovered actually doing work for your clients, we can be sent a brief spec / detailed spec or liaise with
clients directly to give them exactly what they want / need.
They told us about their Marketing Company:
We offer tailor made marketing packages to suit client needs, targeting small, local businesses that often are looking for a modern yet cost effective method of bringing their business to market.We are looking for local Web Designers who would be interested in handling the Web design part of the marketing packages that we offer. We would generate the business and provide you with a specification based on our client requirements. Our hope is that by using local Web designers we are able to operate a much more face-to-face and collaborative way of doing business.
We are looking to offer a range of packages to our clients which would include a basic, intermediate and advanced wesbite (depending on content etc). It is possible to obtain some example costings for such sites? After looking at your packages and thinking about the costings, would you be able to offer any sort of discount to us if we provided you with work on an ongoing basis? We are looking to work closely with a web designer over the next 12-18 months who would be able to handle some if not all of our work web deisgn in the near future. Is this something you would be interested in?
The visit was just to discuss in a bit more detail what we are about and what we are trying to achieve, but I guess high level you already know the sort of products/services we offer our clients. As more work becomes available we will certainly be in touch.
After one hour they send a specification for a website similar to this:
- Aim to deliver an online platform to market apprenticeships.
- Create portal that employers, learners and providers can use to share profile information.
- Communications channels including forums/message boards for posting updates and sharing best practice.
- Document repository for providing support documents for learners/employers and providers.
- Ensure appropriate security/access restrictions in place due to Pii.
- Front facing website for marketing apprenticeships through video/written case studies of best practice.
- Going forward is fully sustainable and operable by designated members of HPN via content management system.
We replied with: Its impossible to get a meaningful appraisal of your notes about this project.What you have sent is a very high level list of ‘things’ that someone wants. We need a detailed project specification if we are to spent time and money investigating and quoting on your requirements
After getting no reply I left it in my archive folder.
The result 12 months later the company doesn’t exist and the website is down! will leave you to consider where they went wrong.
