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Would You Hire You?
or How To Beat Lenny The IT Guy
 

 

September 23, 2010

"What we've got here is... failure to communicate."

Here's one for my fellow designers. How many times have you found yourself fending off petty attacks by the house IT guy, when you were trying to tell a conference room full of decision makers about your firm and why you're different than the other 11 firms they interviewed that week?

REVENGE OF THE IT GUY

Lenny the IT guy. The @&%# IT guy. 6 months ago he was quietly tapping away in the basement, cranking out Excel sheets for accounting. Then he heard that the company was bidding out the new site project... and he's been stewing ever since. Now he's locked in mortal combat with me, the guy who's going to take his little kingdom away and develop a company site that might actually stand a chance of increasing their profit margin.

In the middle of his latest inquiry about the version of PHP or mySQL that we'll be using for the content management system, it hit me. I turned to the boss and listened to myself blurt out, "The ONLY reason I'm here is to make... you... money. (dramatic pause). You can hire any of a thousand designers in Middle Tennessee to build the site, and probably two thirds of them will give you a smokin' hot product. You hire me because you want the site to be an asset instead of a liability."

Then like magic...

The boss leaned back in his seat, cocked his head, and smirked almost unnoticeably. That was the moment that I got the job. It was also the moment the Lenny's sails deflated.

WOULD YOU HIRE YOU?

Then I changed the conversation completely and we spent the remainder of the hour discussing PROMOTION instead of DEVELOPMENT.

What makes my company different than all the others? We specialize in internet marketing, so we know what it takes to draw actual warm bodies to a website and make them buy. But my habit (like all my competitors) was to focus on our design and programming skills. At least it was my habit until that afternoon. I don't know why anyone hired us before that.

Companies make money. Period.

It's our job to show them how we fit into their strategy OF MAKING MONEY. They don't care about ASP, APIs, Apex, Ibexes, Ibises, Ibuprofen or any of the other Chinese that designers blather at them. They want to believe that you want to be a member of their team, focused on their goals - not focused on your own breathtakingly object-oriented database architecture skills.

The boss called me 2 days later and said, "First of all you have the job. Second - you're the only guy we interviewed who mentioned ANYTHING about making money with the website. What the hell did the other guys think we wanted a website for? We can barely SPELL website!"

Ever since, my approach to the first client meeting is the following:

  • ask the client to explain their business to me while they show me around the office, warehouse or factory
  • shut up
  • listen

Do you like a first date to be monopolized by someone machine-gunning their life's story into your face while you contemplate the blessed peace of a solitary ride home? Neither do your clients. People like to talk about themselves. People LOVE to talk about the business that they built from nothing but a dream. Listen to them. Make yourself fit into THEIR picture. Don't kid yourself that they're going to change their whole routine to fit your brilliant plan.

On the ride home, ask yourself... "would I hire me after that meeting?"

 

 

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