Hear Hear, Excellent Post!
Another tip I have found to be very successful, is the following quote (and this was told to me by a client!) The client is not paying you for the few minutes it takes to change the site from blue to green, he is paying you to know what buttons to push and what methods to use to best implement this - if the client is billed $100 for a 30 second change that occurs site wide - they are going to think they got off cheap and you are going to feel like a bandit who got away with the king's jewels! Especially, since you did it so quickly for them. It's a win - win situation! You look good and so does the client! Sincerely, Brian Grimmer theGrafixGuy http://www.thegrafixguy.com 503-887-4943 925-226-4085 (fax) This reply to your initial e-mail is sent in accordance with the US CAN-SPAM Law in effect 01/01/2004. Removal requests can be sent to this address and will be honored and respected. -----Original Message----- From: Michael Kear [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2004 2:38 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [WSG] legal requirements for accessability There's a saying in the sales business (/me thinking back all those years to when I was a sales trainer): Sell them what they want, and all the rest comes along for free. If the customer loves the car's hot stereo, sell them the hot stereo and the rest of the car comes along for free. IF the house buyer falls in love with the kitchen, let them have the kitchen, and the rest of the house comes along for free. IF they want an accessible site, sell them an accessible site, and the good design and easy navigation comes along for free. If they want a web presence, sell them a web presence, and the accessible design, good layout, easy navigation comes along for free. SO it's your job when you first meet a prospective client to find out what it is they want. And what they need. (Not necessarily the same things) Then you sell them that. When you build it, you build it as well as it's possible to do, given your cost and time parameters. Just because the client wanted this and that and something else, without mentioning standards compliance, doesn't mean you cant build a site like that. When you get a house built, you tell the builder you want this room, that cupboard, this kind of roof, that kind of bathroom, but he still builds structural strength, water proofing, adequate foundations etc in even if you didn't specify it in your requirements. And as to cost, I've found that building to standards has REDUCED my time (and therefore my cost) to build a site. By forcing discipline on my html code, and completely separating content and presentation, it's made many things more simple. And since the ongoing maintenance of the site is FAR easier, it's going to make the cost of ownership of a site over the whole life much lower than it would otherwise have been. It's my opinion that if you are losing business because you are quoting on standards-compliant sites, then you're doing it all wrong. Standards compliance should give you a competitive advantage over the other mugs who haven't learned about standards yet. Cheers Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia AFP Webworks http://afpwebworks.com -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Lachlan Hardy Sent: Wednesday, 26 May 2004 5:57 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [WSG] legal requirements for accessability [snip] So, please, folks, while we're here : How do you get your clients to care about accessibility? Are you dealing with folks large enough that they actually consider the chance that they might be sued, or do they actually care if people can use their site? The same goes for standards, actually. I understand the concept of just doing it. And that's what I do. Until the client asks about such and such and I let slip either of those cursed words : 'standards' or 'accessibility'. "Whoa. Reign in there, fella! Who told you to go around doing things like this? How much is that costing me?" Every time I have quoted for a job by mentioning standards or accessibility, my quote has been rejected. If I don't mention it in the quote and it comes up later, I'm royally stuffed I may be drifting off the thread here. Hell, I may have cut it! But I feel the point is pertinent : my clients don't care about the legalities, and if I try to push the point, they are no longer my client So, how do the rest of you deal with this? ***************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ***************************************************** ***************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help *****************************************************
