Topic: Special services

Hello all.

I am talking with the head of a local website making agency.
I want to sell consulting for websites, but html/css, they know how to do.

Now what to sell, what to sell? At a high price in addition (60 euros an hour).

Ideas :
- forum and CMS software maintenance
- Flash / Flex / Ajax development
- Rich banners (Java or Flash)

...

(Edited by argo navis on 03-07-2008 10:10)

What to sell as a consultant to a web agency ? Easy : best practices.

They can probably do all the things you mentionned to some degree. But doing things right is another story.

Okay, I see the divergence. Thank you, first, then :
My first knee jerk reaction here, when reading the answer, was "what the hell is he talking about?..."

- technic
- vs business

So I figured, "what the hell did I ask incorrectly".
I set the context incorrectly I am a software development, integration, and support consultant : I can do all these and tell you how
to do them (no, not YOU poi - although some things are specific to one or the other ).

That company does web : they do it ok, but sometimes with a delay due to lacking personel. Girl is a friend
of my business partner. So we want to expand on her current offer : her customers do have css/xhtml.

What I am looking for is how to expand their horizons, in order to propose another service,
and then another service, and then another... and develop a relationship to the customer.

I seriously hope you explain things better when you speak with your clients

I had to read that last post twice. I understand that some kind of girl works in some kind of company that does html and css. So you want to give her ideas what else to provide to their customers although they're lacking time and personnel and are barely able to finish what they're doing right now? Here's an idea: GET MORE PEOPLE And yes maintenance is a nice thing to charge a fortune for :P Will get rid of your clients in no time at all. Unless this has been discussed in the early stages of planning the website...

edit: Clients want to feel taken care of and cared about. Rather than charging a fortune for simple maintenance tasks those things should be done for free so you can charge them more for larger things that they ask for.

(Edited by Arthurio on 03-08-2008 18:54)

quote:

---

argo navis said:

So we want to expand on her current offer

---

and that would be what?

Like DL-44 and Arthurio, I don't understand what they do.

Their problem of delays might also reside in the (project) management. Do they estimate times correctly, including a margin for fine tuning ? How often do finish ahead|behind schedule ? by what % of the initial estimate ? is there a particular kind of project that put them into trouble or is it random ?

The things you mentioned above - forums, cms, flash, ... - are no rocket science to get done. But doing things right, even if it is just (x)html and css, is another story and makes a big difference in the long run. This is where I think a technical consultant/expert could come to their "rescue". This could also help them ease maintenance, and hence lower the cost of it and land more maintenance deals.

As for the business side, they could also offer identity/branding work. And aside reasonably priced maintenance deals, they could/should get back to clients every few months to see how things are going and if they would be interested in new features or adjustments, resulting in a good relationship and a change order now and then.

answering from my ipod. Lady is the head of a small
webdesign agency. she has problems and customers.
I only care about her customers. Eg. Selling stuff to them.
This generally implies proactively analysing their needs,
and one step at a time, selling one software after another.

I do not give a damn about selling cheap : Honesty yes, high quality,
rapid execution, comprehensive service including support.
So if she is on the web side of things, I should offer complements
to the default web package.

Arthurio, a major step to consider towards mutual understanding.
My question contained "what", not "how"