Sometimes the clients you get are ideal clients. They listen to your advisement's, and they trust your judgement. As an web expert knows, this isn't always the case. A lot of clients are set in the way they are used to doing things, and it can be a hard push to help them see the value of using different platforms.
We have worked hard to hone the art of persuading clients to consider using other platforms, platforms that will actually benefit their business. We broke down our strategies at selling clients on using three platforms: Wordpress, Shopify, and HubSpot. It's definitely not always easy, but once you show the value of using these website platform types to clients, your life as a website developer becomes much easier.
The key to convincing clients to consider web development with Wordpress is to focus on how user friendly it is for the client. Wordpress is easy enough to navigate that clients can go in and create posts, edit pages, or upload things to their site without too much trouble. This way, small edits and posts can be done by clients and not taking up developer's time. If the Wordpress development team isn't asked to do every small change, the client will be saving money, which is one reason why startups should use Wordpress. Control over their own site is a wonderful thing.
Another reason why startups should use Wordpress, or why any even Enterprise level clients should use Wordpress, is the ability to use plug-ins. A quick 10 minute search can yield multiple plug-ins that can do almost anything a client could want for their site. For clients this is great, because even if they don't know how Wordpress plugins work, they're easy to understand with a small amount of research, and are easier to use than a fully customized site.
Shopify is one of the best ecommerce platforms to use. If your clients want to join the ecommerce world and set up an online store, leading them to this platform is a great plan. However, your client will probably have many questions. You'll likely be faced with: is Shopify good enough? This seems like an easy enough question to answer, but when it comes to ecommerce, clients can be skeptical, cautious and will go with what they know. This is usually a recommendation from a friend or advice from a competiting web development company.
Convincing clients to work with Shopify and use your Shopify web development services is similar to convincing them to use Wordpress. Show the client the back end of a Shopify site you've created before. Show them how easy it is to upload a product and how easy to interpret the reporting. Another benefit to share with clients their focus on ecommerce customization services. Shopify has a large theme collection, which clients can choose from and then customize. This takes less time than a full customization of the site, making Shopify the best ecommerce platform to use when your client wants their site up and running as quickly as possible.
As an experienced HubSpot developer, we're quite well versed in convincing clients they need HubSpot on their side. HubSpot's content optimization system (COS) allows for any kind of website design and customization that any web design and web development company could want to use.
Clients should know that it's completely flexible, easy to use, will give you the most heavily tracked website anayltically you could ever have and is mobile friendly. This is important because, as you know, mobile traffic is only going up, and any site built for a client needs to be responsive. To sell your client on HubSpot you need to highlight just how efficient it is compared to other website platform types, so that they know they're getting the most for what they'll be investing in HubSpot.
Hopefully this is a helpful guide for you to understand how to sell clients on certain platform types. Keep in mind the benefits of the platforms, and highlight how the client will benefit from the use of them. If you have further questions about building or optimizing websites for clients, check out our free guide below.