How to get your boss to approve your website project

PODCAST TRANASCRIPT

Today, I'm going to talk with you about how to get your boss to approve the redesign of your manufacturing website. 

Although what I'm going to explain can be used by any marketing manager, struggling to convince their boss that they need to invest real time and effort into their website.

I'm focusing on the manufacturing industry because it seems like to me in 2024, manufacturing companies, they're late to the game in using their website as an effective sales tool, one that convinces people to choose their company over someone else. 

Look, B2B companies have figured out years ago that the internet has changed things and the website is a critical piece of their sales process. The best example I can give is the direct to consumer model where you no longer have to use those heavy printed catalogs that get updated and published every year. Now everything can be researched and bought online through an e commerce website.

And I've also seen a lot of B2B companies, not all, but a growing number of them have embraced the concept that:

• People research before they buy.
• Prospects are no longer moving in a straight line from the top of the funnel to the bottom.
• B2B buyers, they use digital content to help them create a shortlist of potential vendors. 

But in the manufacturing industry, there are so many companies who don't yet understand or recognize the risks they're running by having a brochure type of website and how it impacts their sales growth.

And, wow, I've seen a lot of reasons why companies view their website as little more than a necessary evil or the cost of doing business.

It sounds something like this. We don't need to invest a lot of time or money into our company website because

• We have a sales team.
• We don't sell directly to the public and
• we sell through distributors.

My personal favorite is, oh, no one comes to our website or really uses it anyway.

And really, if your leadership has this point of view, then the only type of websites they're going to approve are the bare minimum websites, or the brochure type of websites.

You know and I know that these types of websites don't really say anything more than,

• Hello world, here we are,
• this is what we do,
• this is the stuff we make, and
• please contact us.

So really, is it surprising that no one is using your website to determine if they want to do business with you?

Maybe not to you, the marketing manager, you get it.

But if you try using marketing reasons to justify the time, expense, and necessity of a website, and you try to tell that to senior leadership, you're going to get turned down.

And you know, the marketing reasons, it's the standard reasons you give when they ask.

Why do we need to redesign our website?

And then we answer,

Well, uh, a website will help us with our credibility, our branding, our awareness.

Yeah, these are marketing reasons. The one that us marketers love to tell, that doesn't really resonate with executive management.

Even the best marketing slash business reason, which is to generate leads, that's been used so many times and failed to deliver. It sounds hollow.

Bu the way, the reason your website is failing to generate leads is because your brochure website is not convincing people to do business with you. I'll explain more in a little bit.

For now, it's important to understand that the reason management is reluctant to fund your website project is this.

They don't believe, or they underestimate, how much business they are losing. Losing by having a brochure type of website.

And that's because they don't understand how the website fits into today's digital buyer's journey. So, it's time to rethink the approach.

I'm going to explain to you two business, not marketing concepts, that executive management needs to know, understand and believe in order for you to get the funding and the resources needed to bring your manufacturing website out of the dark ages.

Ready?

Business concept number one, how people make purchasing decisions today. 

It doesn't matter if you're buying a $10 book from Amazon, a $50,000 car from Toyota, or a major company signs a 10 year contract with your company to be their primary supplier.

The process for making the purchasing decision is exactly the same. And the reason it's the same is because we're human. And by this, I mean, as human beings.

We don't like making mistakes.

We don't like buying the wrong book from Amazon.

We don't like buying the wrong car from Toyota, and

We certainly don't like hiring the wrong company.

So to avoid making a mistake, we research before we buy. 

And, since it's 2024, it's so much easier to research because we do all of our primary researching online by visiting our potential suppliers websites.

Think about the last time you bought something or hired a company to be your vendor or supplier.

Did you go in and buy blindly?

Absolutely not.

You went to their website and you did your due diligence before picking up the phone or emailing the sales team.

Perhaps you even looked at several vendors websites to come up with your shortlist.

If you did that, you're not alone.

According to Forrester, 62 percent of B2B buyers, well, they develop their shortlist based only on digital content.

So, even for you manufacturing companies, it doesn't matter if you're made to stock, made to order, Or made to assemble,

You can bet your potential customers, yeah, they're researching you on your website before they pick up the phone and call your sales team.

If you don't have the answers they're looking for online, You don't even get on their radar screen.

And that's why you need a website.

People research you and your company online before they decide to call your sales team.

Which brings me to concept number two. What are they looking for in a B2B vendor?

Now IBM did a study back in 2015 about what people look for in a B2B vendor. I'll provide a link below in the transcript.

Before you tell me, oh man Dave, this study is like 10 years old and it doesn't apply to us in 2024, hear me out. This study is evergreen, and here's why.

IBM looked at three different generations, the baby boomers, the Gen X, and the millennials, and they asked each age group the same question. What do you look for in a B2B vendor?

Each group gave a different answer.

Because this study applies to the three different age generations, it's relevant today.

At that time, the millennials, they just passed the Gen X folks as the largest component of the workforce.

Now, it's almost ten years later.

Guess who is still the largest component of today's workforce?

Yeah, it's those Millennials, except today they're 28 to 43 years old.

They are in positions of influencers and decision makers.

Guess who you're trying to sell to today?

It's not the Boomers, and less and less, it's the Gen Xers.

So I think we can all agree that ignoring the Millennials and what they're looking for, that would be very short sighted.

Here's what IBM found.

The Boomers, who are 60 to 78 years old, Well, they value speed. How fast can they get their stuff? Now, of course, there are other factors, but speed was a primary attribute.

The Gen Xers who are between 44 and 59 years old. I'm a Gen Xer. We value quality. I can totally relate to this. There's a reason why I drive a Honda. It's because of build quality and reliability. My car is going to run forever.

But the Millennials, well, they're different.

For the Boomers and Gen Xers, it was features and benefits. How fast can I get my stuff? How reliable is my stuff?

The Millennials, it's different.

It's not that the Millennials don't value speed or quality.

In fact, that's a prerequisite.

If you can't deliver quality products quickly, then you don't even get invited to the dinner table.

But they value something else. Here are the three things that they look for.

1. Are you willing to work collaboratively with your organization?
2. Do you have the industry expertise and experience? And
3. Are you easy to work with?

In other words, They're looking for a great client experience.

And here's where it all comes together. Business concept number one was people research before they buy and they develop a vendor shortlist based only on their digital content.

And two, you need to prove to them that you can offer a great client experience and prove that you understand their problems and have the experience and expertise to solve their problems.

You need to do this all on your website because that's where they're researching.

Only after you convince them of all of that on your website. Are they willing to pick up the phone, schedule an appointment, subscribe to your newsletter and become your lead.

Explaining this to senior management.

Yeah, it's challenging, but you need to do this before you try to tell senior management, the cost and timeline of your website project.

IF you don't educate senior management, that B2B buyers research you and your company before they pick up the phone and call your sales team.

IF you don't help them understand the [00:10:00] questions the Millennials are asking when they're selecting a B2B vendor.

IF you don't convince them that your website needs to be a part of your sales process and be viewed as an education center,

THEN the chances of you securing the funds you need to create a website that actually delivers results, The chances are going to be pretty low.

I'll link a couple helpful podcasts and articles at the bottom of this transcript that goes into these concepts, a little bit deeper.

After you convince senior management of those three things, then the second step is you need to get an accurate cost and timeline for your website.

Now, in the past, this meant asking your preferred vendor to bid on your project, or maybe you collected some requirements and issued an RFP.

I'm going to tell you that this approach usually results in either

A, an inaccurate cost and timeline because the requirements were not at a sufficient level of detail. Or

B, if you did issue an RFP and you had multiple vendors bid on your project, each one of those vendors came back with a different approach, solution, cost, because the requirements left a lot open to interpretation.

And then when you try to compare the multiple bids side by side, it's difficult because every approach was different.

So how do you solve this problem?

After running a website and a full service marketing agency for 10 years I ran into these exact problems again and again.

So, I created my five step website discovery process, one that helps marketing managers get the funding needed for their website by documenting the information that the content writer and web design agencies need in order to give you an accurate cost and timeline.

The five components are,

1. Website strategy.  Where does your website fit into your sales process? This is also getting senior management to understand the importance of reengineering your website.
2. Content strategy. Who are your ideal customers and what problems and questions do they have?
3. Requirements. This is where you need to get the business to document and rank the business requirements and pages needed for the website. Then you need to have the technical team go through and evaluate the complexity of meeting those requirements. Together, this defines the scope in detail so your content writer and web agency can give you an accurate bid and timeline.
4. is to actually get the bids from the website developer and content writer. And because you have the requirements and pages in detail, it helps minimize scope creep and change orders once your project kicks off.
5. is wrapping all of this up in a business case so you can present this to senior [00:13:00] management and get the funding you need for your website project.

If it sounds like a lot, it is.

So, for those who want to execute this on your own, I've created the ultimate guide to running a website discovery process. I'll provide a link in the transcript.

Or, if you would like me to do this for you, you can also check out the process and cost on our website. I'll provide a link for you in the transcript.

By the way, my company no longer does web design or build. So this is a completely independent service and it's designed to help convince senior management that your website needs to be upgraded.

I hope this helps and provides a path forward to get the love and attention your website needs.

I'll talk with you next time.

REFERENCE LINKS

IBM: What buyers look for in a B2B Vendor

DWW: Why should I buy from you?

DWW: Three Reasons your website is not generating leads

DWW: The ultimate Guide to running a website discovery process

DWW: Do It For you Website Discovery Process