When we meet with potential clients they have a variety of questions that they would like answered prior to moving forward with a given project. The usual suspects include the following:

• Who have you worked for?
• Do you have any references?
• Who on your team will we be working with?

At the end of their long list of questions is the one that they really want to ask:

• How much is this going to cost me?

In the early years of Direct Response Web Solutions’ existence, the standard answer would be, “Based on this type of project, your requirements and our experience successfully completing similar projects, we would expect the project to take ‘x’ number of hours and cost roughly ‘y’ based on our bill rate of ‘z’.”

Over the years, I’ve realized that this question while valid on the surface hides a more revealing truth; the person who is asking the question doesn’t truly value the work that they are looking to contract out.

We all understand that if you are designing a catalog, building a website or launching an email campaign that a person’s time and maybe some materials will be spent achieving your project’s goals. The value of that effort can be looked at in two ways: as an investment in or an expense on your business.

Expense on your business

Business expenses are something that many people wish to minimize overtime. For example you wish to make your business more profitable by improving productivity, negotiating better unit pricing or cheaper utility costs. We define expenses as an expenditure that doesn’t pay for itself over time.

Investment in your business

People who don’t understand the long-term potential of a project to generate revenue will tend to classify the contracting of creative design, internet marketing and application development services as an expense that only drains their company’s bank account. We definitely understand that type of knee-jerk reaction. We also know that it may be easier to categorize something as an expense because calculating the return on your investment may not be the easiest thing to determine.

But when it comes down to it, paying for an advertising campaign, search engine optimization or a website redesign leads directly to increased lead flow and greater revenue generation for most businesses.

When you spend money on these types of activities you are building an asset for your business. It may as tangible as a new website or as intangible as increased word-of-mouth or better name recognition, but in the end you benefit from the activity.

So today when people ask me how much something will “cost” them, I ask them how much they are willing to “invest” in their business. More importantly, I ask them this follow-up question, “How long they would expect such an investment to pay for itself?”

The answer to that question speaks volumes about their belief system and the likelihood that their project will be successful.

Questions? Comments.

If you are looking to invest in your business, and are looking for a partner who can help your business grow through creative design, integrated marketing and application development services, contact me today!