Our Clients Don’t Care About Conversion… EXCUSE ME? ARE YOU MAD?
Earlier today during a meeting with a potential local employer/client I heard one of the dumbest statements ever made in the history of the Internet: Our clients don’t care about conversion!
The culprit, a successful Tampa, FL based entrepreneur named “Mark,” a tequila promoting “Christian” serenaded me with a clumsy ballad of mediocrity mixed with lameness that showed not only an obvious lack of web marketing savvy, it exposed the “used car” salesman lookalike as an unfortunate “clueless” victim of marketing seriousness whose intention was obviously driven by bottom line rather than glorifying to God almighty.
During our meeting Mark shared a “before and after” depiction of a client web site I would be responsible for duplicating on behalf of his company, based on the “aesthetic excellence” his company put out for their clients. While my impression of the “before” was bad, the “after” turned out to be even worse!
Mark’s vision did not only go against 2012 web trends, it completely violated more Internet marketing rules than I can count, removing from the homepage the most important aspect of his client’s local law firm, their PHONE NUMBER!!!
His executive partner was blown away with the fact no one other than I noticed the mind blowing faux pas, as Mark just shook his head seemingly immured to the importance of a phone number above the fold, specially for business depending on a local market. After a quick critique from a humble servant ready to help, it became obvious Mark was left to realize his company’s output was WEB DEV 101 at best, and his client’s freshly designed web site, who relies on local business yet did not feature a phone number AT ALL on the homepage – was bound for average conversion!
An Uninformed, Dynamite Salesman
While I’m sure Mark certainly can sell, and he must be among the world’s best considering the mediocrity of his company’s output, his sales pitch based 10 year old trends and proposed compensation plan was completely absurd. Closer to exploitation than compensation, after prayer and consideration I knew Mark and his secular company, ran from a converted house in a “challenged” part of Hyde Park, FL was not a road I was appointed to explore as a faithful believer and disciple of Jesus Christ. The rule of thumb usually is, if the front door has bars on it and needs to be locked during business hours, keep looking!
I hope and pray the insight I shared during our meeting will be used to glorify God almighty. In spite of the fact Mark spent most his time taking notes seemingly soaking in as much as he could from an otherwise free consultation from an obviously more intelligent, Internet marketing savvy professional, I feel bad for the man and his clients who put their trust in someone unaware of his limited knowledge of the web, the very media he promotes himself as an expert. Mark knows just enough to get ahead, but not nearly enough to truly prosper and glorify God.
Today was a revelation of God’s will for my life, that not every job opportunity is one I should accept. I would rather work for free as I advance the gospel of Jesus Christ then go back 10 years in time and contribute to producing lame, static HTML sites for ignorant clients who trust a white haired salesman out to, at the very least to my opinion is out to exploit both clients and humble disciple contractors like myself… :)
