The truth of the matter is I never thought so either until the last few days of watching draft coverage. In reality the way teams pick players is similar to the way you SHOULD hire a web professional to design, develop and manage your website.
Here are the reasons, hear me out, they will make sense to you. (I think)
Film: Countless hours of film are watched on every player projected to be in the draft. The similarity here is that you should thoroughly review a designer’s portfolio. Don’t take their word how good they are, review their sites and see for yourself. Click around, do you see errors? If there is evidence of sloppy work, they probably aren’t the company for you to enter into a relationship with.
Team Visits: Players are invited by teams, and are tested and interviewed. For you this is the meeting you have with the web pro, it can be in person or via a phone call. Prepare a list of questions, hit them with your requirements and see how they answer. If they talk down to you or can’t answer any questions then cut the interview short. Now some questions require research so if the web pro tells you they’d have to look into certain requirements, that is ok and actually a sign of honesty. More than anything ask yourself, is this someone I can work with? if you are uncomfortable at this point the relationship won’t get better.
Background Research: Teams thoroughly look into player backgrounds and seeming top picks drop like a stone as they have questionable morals or red flags. For you this is checking references. Ask for a few clients to speak to and see how this person is to work with. Also see how they respond to support requests. If they don’t respond quickly, move on.
Bottom Line: See, it is a very similar process, both take a bit of work, but in the long run you will be happier if you follow these steps. Some NFL teams to better than others year after year. The reason is simple, they follow tried and true practices and always seem to come away with the best players. While it is luck grabbing players like Tom Brady in late rounds, in business we make our own luck. So put the time in before you hire a web professional and you will be much happier long term.
The old adage, “the customer is always right” is of course a good business practice. But is it correct?
No, not always.
Sounds revolutionary right? Not really, hear me out.
As a web development professional, your duty is to do the right thing by your clients. You should always recommend the best course of action. You should never just rubber-stamp an idea just because it belongs to your client. Now of course, you are in business and you need to please your customers. But don’t be a sycophant. Tell them your opinion as to what they should do. Now of course if they choose to go against you, that is up to them. At that point you need to back off.
Of course you want an example of this correct?
Okay, here’s a case that illustrates what I’m talking about. I had a client who wanted to go with a custom designed, responsive WordPress web site. Now, I love building these websites. We build quite a few of these types of sites, and most of the time I think it’s a fabulous idea. But, in this case, the client was a nonprofit, just starting out with very little funding. I knew that I could save them a lot of money, and build a kick ass website using a premium theme. With several thousand available, that are responsive and very high-quality, this was a better way for them to go. As they were in a rush to get this up and running, the premium theme would be much quicker to market. The design process adds quite a bit of time, and then of course we have to build out the WordPress theme. Now, most companies would love to go with the more expensive solution and would never even suggest a cheaper alternative. But at RooSites, we have built a company based on doing the right thing, even if it costs us money in the short term. Why? Not because we’re such amazing human beings. It is a business strategy, to take a long view and build long-term relationships based on trust.
Bottom line: The adage that the customer is always right is not necessarily true. Do the right thing by them, give your recommendations and let them decide. You and your customers will profit in the long term.
