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Ask HN: Getting Clients That Are Clients of Another Agency

6 points by hanniabu 11y ago

I constantly see websites that are horrendously out of date that I'd love to approach to acquire them as a client. However, I notice that they are clients of another agency via tag at the bottom of the page. Has anybody ever dealt with this situation and how did you approach them to try and get their business? Second case: how does this change when the agency is extremely out of date with design? (Sites that were barely passable in the 90's)

ryduh 11y ago
Just because a site was built by an agency doesn't mean that the client still has a relationship with them. Reach out to the website owners and see if they would be interested in talking about a redesign.
- hanniabu 11y ago
  Follow up....how do you go about finding the proper person to talk to? Do you ask for the owner? Ask for who's responsible for their marketing? What's the process usually look like? Sorry if this should be obvious. I know there's people on here with a lot of experience and would know the ways that are best received by the potential clients.
  - eswat 11y ago
    Given a website as an example, ask for the person that hired the last team/person that worked on it. This could be anyone – the owner, marketing department, IT, etc. – so just cut to the chase and ask for whoever is currently responsible for it.
    - hanniabu 11y ago
      Ahhh okay, that's a good blanket statement, thanks eswat
dilipray 11y ago
But, the main thing would be knowing the pricing what the client is willing to pay and negotiating with them.
Mz 11y ago
Consider the possibility that it sucks because there is no money for an update and/or it isn't a priority. Try to verify that this is a viable business and that an update would at least pay for itself, preferably more than pay for itself. Consider the possibility that obvious need of an overhaul (in your eyes) is not very good evidence that these are good prospective clients. If you are offering charity, obvious need is a good metric for whom to target. But if you want a healthy business relationship, that is insufficient. A healthy relationship is symbiotic. It is one where both sides benefit. If they can't afford to pay you or just do not care, the suckiness of their site is not a good argument for viewing them as good people to target as future clients. Don't hesitate to email them and pitch them. But don't be shocked if the success rate is low. You may need to come up with additional metrics to define "good prospective clients."
- hanniabu 11y ago
  All valid points, thanks for the insight Mz
JSeymourATL 11y ago
> how did you approach them to try and get their business? There is an art & science to prospecting and pitching new clients. It's a learned and practiced skill. If you can master this, it will change your business and life. On this subject, Mike Weinberg's advice is huge > http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15863998-new-sales-simplified http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15863998-new-sales-simpli...
brudgers 11y ago
An out of date website is a poor lead because the likelihood that the company does not see value in their website is higher than if the company has a great up to date one. A low quality out of date website can be symptomatic of not spending money on web design/development. On top of that, telling a company that their website sucks is a low closing strategy whenever the company values their website. First because it is often contrary to their opinion, and second because the website may in fact work for their business and that what horrifies a designer is orthogonal to the business’s bottom line. Good luck.

6 points by hanniabu 11y ago

ryduh 11y ago

Just because a site was built by an agency doesn't mean that the client still has a relationship with them. Reach out to the website owners and see if they would be interested in talking about a redesign.

hanniabu 11y ago
Follow up....how do you go about finding the proper person to talk to? Do you ask for the owner? Ask for who's responsible for their marketing? What's the process usually look like? Sorry if this should be obvious. I know there's people on here with a lot of experience and would know the ways that are best received by the potential clients.
- eswat 11y ago
  Given a website as an example, ask for the person that hired the last team/person that worked on it. This could be anyone – the owner, marketing department, IT, etc. – so just cut to the chase and ask for whoever is currently responsible for it.
  - hanniabu 11y ago
    Ahhh okay, that's a good blanket statement, thanks eswat

dilipray 11y ago

But, the main thing would be knowing the pricing what the client is willing to pay and negotiating with them.

Mz 11y ago

Consider the possibility that it sucks because there is no money for an update and/or it isn't a priority. Try to verify that this is a viable business and that an update would at least pay for itself, preferably more than pay for itself. Consider the possibility that obvious need of an overhaul (in your eyes) is not very good evidence that these are good prospective clients. If you are offering charity, obvious need is a good metric for whom to target. But if you want a healthy business relationship, that is insufficient. A healthy relationship is symbiotic. It is one where both sides benefit. If they can't afford to pay you or just do not care, the suckiness of their site is not a good argument for viewing them as good people to target as future clients. Don't hesitate to email them and pitch them. But don't be shocked if the success rate is low. You may need to come up with additional metrics to define "good prospective clients."

hanniabu 11y ago
All valid points, thanks for the insight Mz

JSeymourATL 11y ago

> how did you approach them to try and get their business? There is an art & science to prospecting and pitching new clients. It's a learned and practiced skill. If you can master this, it will change your business and life. On this subject, Mike Weinberg's advice is huge > http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15863998-new-sales-simplified http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15863998-new-sales-simpli...

brudgers 11y ago

An out of date website is a poor lead because the likelihood that the company does not see value in their website is higher than if the company has a great up to date one. A low quality out of date website can be symptomatic of not spending money on web design/development. On top of that, telling a company that their website sucks is a low closing strategy whenever the company values their website. First because it is often contrary to their opinion, and second because the website may in fact work for their business and that what horrifies a designer is orthogonal to the business’s bottom line. Good luck.