People all across the globe are facing similar problems; their business is not doing as well as they would like (or think it should). Businesses are seeing a drop in sales or are not seeing the level of enquiries they once did. It’s all down to not having a new website. But, is it?

With the rise of the web design agency, the digital agency, the SEO company and the many other businesses who are the answer to all of your problems, it’s becoming quite hard to see what the actual problem is.

Of course a web design agency is going to tell you that you need their super all-singing, all-dancing new website, because that is what they do.

After all, you heard on TV last night that a new website was the answer to your problems so the following day you are on the blower ringing every single company that builds websites and you tell them, you need a website. 

Being the lovely customer-friendly people that most agencies are, they sell you a new website and wow you with their design skills and you end up with something that makes you look as good as your competitors. 

Six months down the line, you are still having the same problem and go back to your web company and say that it’s not working, what they did just isn’t working and your business is in the same position it was six months ago.

“Well I thought a website was the solution, you told me that I needed a new website or according to your website, every business needs a new website and that you could get me to the top of Google.” 

What the web company failed to do was to find out exactly what the client wanted, what their problems were. Instead, they just took instruction from the client who thought they needed a new website.

Instead of asking what led the client to that decision they just cracked on and built a new website. Should the question have been asked they would have quickly realised that the client actually needed to reach a number of interior designers and to simply get their work in front of them.

Whilst this could have been done via a website, at that precise time it would have been, perhaps, more suitable to setup a LinkedIn campaign, create some stunning case studies and start publishing them in groups where interior designers hang out, adding new connections along the way and making introductions to new prospects. 

Instead, the client ended up with a new website, had to wait for the SEO to kick in and spend additional money on pay-per-click in order to generate leads, which in the end were low quality and did not give the results expected. In the end, the client ran out of budget and had to go back to the drawing board.

That is where a digital growth specialist should come in, with a unique process that allows them to truly understand their clients’ needs. 

Yes, they may well build awesome websites, but that does not mean that they sell every single person a new website for the sake of it. 

They should be able to listen, collaborate, promise and over deliver. Forget the ones who simply say you need a website, because you might not.

The point I am making is this, although you might think you know what you want, or you are being told that you need a new website, you need to reach the top of Google, just step back for a minute.

Cut through the noise and think about what you really want to achieve and ask yourself: is this company right for me or are they just trying to sell me what they think is best, because that’s their answer for everything?

I know of a company that is on its sixth website redesign in two years. Two years!

They have gone from agency to agency and every time they have ended up leaving because they do not achieve what they want, all because the companies they approach do not ask the right questions and with the lack of understanding many companies face, they get mis-sold to and end up on the back foot.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Dave Hartshorne is co-founder of dijitul

Image: Shutterstock