We are not for everyone. We are for you.

Meeting potential clients and discussing new projects is a big part of my role at We Are Sweet. We have always had a high success rate whenever get into a room with people face-to-face to discuss their projects or ideas. This post will focus on the few times where we haven’t got the gig but why we're ok with that.

We can’t work with everyone and it would be really unproductive to even try. Companies are looking for digital agencies that can add value and those are the types of people we like working with. When we’re an asset to a company, they continue coming back to us. We choose our working relationships carefully so we grow as our clients grow.

These types of clients eat up a large chunk of our available time and resources - which is exactly what we want. This allows us to dedicate time so our people can really get their teeth into a project.

The Perfect Match

We’re fortunate enough to be picky with whom we work with. We choose to work with people that share our progressive attitude and look at how technology can benefit their business. These clients understand that they are not specialists in design and development and that’s precisely why they got in contact with us in the first place.

Our ideal clients appreciate the value we are able to add and give us breathing space to work our multimedia magic. By giving us the professional autonomy to provide the solution we believe in, clients can then spend their time focusing on their own products or services.

To do our best work and provide top-level service, we sometimes have to say no to projects where we don’t think we’re a suitable fit. Turning down work is never easy, but forging meaningful relationships is truly a time and energy saver in the long run. It’s best to decide early on if we think we can bring a project to life. If we can, we will give it our all but if we don’t, we will politely decline and recommend an alternative supplier when possible.

The Pitch

We are often invited to pitch for projects against other competing agencies. We have found that Requests for Proposal (RFP) or client briefs are often poorly constructed and lack a large amount of technical experience. We understand! If a company had that knowledge already, they wouldn’t be putting a tender together at all - they’d probably do it themselves or recruit an in-house team.

This is why we are consultancy-first. It’s nearly impossible to quote timescales and costs for projects when they have not been properly specified and defined from a technical viewpoint. We know that writing a brief is hard work, but to get good technical answers, you need to be asking the right technical questions first.

Companies that don’t do the upfront work will ultimately have to ask these questions or make up their own poorly informed answers as they run into the problems during the project. We're not afraid of telling clients that we need more information early on and we often won't provide a time or cost estimates until we have everything we need - not everyone 'gets' this approach.

Architects

In our experience, a brief from a client is typically lacking some important details - but this is fine! After all, if I was building a house I wouldn’t write the technical brief for the architect.

Comparing digital builds to construction projects can often help people to realise some of the implications. With this in mind, I would instead meet the architect beforehand so they can understand my requirements and tell me if my ideas will work as a building. This gives the architect the opportunity to explain how and why my ideas might not translate effectively to construction and offer a solution that will be more effective.

We’re the architects of our digital platforms and certainly don’t expect everyone to know how to execute their ideas as a website or system. We do need to understand the aims and limitations of a project so we can construct a plan that meets those objectives. We do this by consulting with clients prior to starting any project.

Discovery

Most multimedia agencies focus on production; drawing things and coding them. But we put the aims and business objectives of a project at the forefront. Without understanding the objectives of your work, how can you design a website or platform to deliver those objectives? We believe that web and software projects should be designed to achieve a specific business outcome. These outcomes need to be understood by everybody involved and measured throughout the process to ensure they are met.

Discovery sessions are the key to kicking off any project. Our model is to charge for these consultancy meetings as they require a lot of expertise and time. The fee also acts as a way of qualifying our potential clients and ensures they understand the importance of this approach. These sessions allow us to learn about the project in detail and share our experiences. We can only create a proposal and estimates once we have a thorough technical understanding. 

The outcomes of these sessions are written up in a technical manner and wireframes are usually created as part of this process. Effectively it means we are being paid to turn your original brief into a technical specification that will work effectively on the web.

The Process

Clients can then take the write-up to anyone to actually carry out the design and development work - but we’re proud to say that we have a 100% success rate on our discovery sessions so far. Everyone that has taken the time to spend a day with us to properly spec their requirements has always continued to use We Are Sweet for the production. 

Once a project gets the green light, we deduct the cost of discovery from the overall project fee. This approach has been really positive for our process - Everyone’s a winner. The consultancy essentially becomes free of charge but it allows us to create an accurate proposal for a website, platform or video that actually addresses the objectives of the client. 

Our process is to; Discover, Plan, Create, Grow. You cannot Create something that will Grow without the correct Planning as a result of Discovery.

Win-Win

Not everyone is up for this approach, and that’s fine. It’s how we choose to work and there are plenty of suppliers out there who will work in a completely different way. We’re very protective of our process because we know it works. Whenever we arrange a discovery session, it always takes longer than the client expects. Discussions are a two-way street and everyone always has a lot of questions that take time to answer, digest and learn from. 

After discovery we’re confident that our pricing, timescales and roadmap for progress will be accurate. Agencies that don’t carry out this upfront learning are taking a stab in the dark at what it will take to deliver a project. We know that no 2 projects are ever quite the same and estimates should be as precise as possible.

Clients that ‘ do get it’ will end up working with us, clients that ‘don’t get it’ probably won’t work with us. We’re cool with that, we don’t want to waste anyone’s time or energy if our outlook doesn’t align.

Spec Work

We are often asked during tender or pitching processes to provide mock-ups or prototypes of the proposed solution. Our answer is simply no. For all the reasons we’ve covered, we don’t believe a mock-up will actually be any good without understanding the project properly. All a fake website design would prove is that we can draw pretty pictures. If a client needs any confirmation of this, our portfolio is available online with plenty of examples.

It can be really simple to make something look good when it has no real purpose. Our strength is in creating websites and platforms using real information to drive users towards a specific outcome. We probably wouldn’t have landed the meeting if you hadn’t already seen our design work, so take our word for it, we can make nice looking stuff.

The Commercials

Employees need paying. If they’re working on your prototype that you haven’t properly specified in hope that we just might land the job - who’s paying for that time? The sad answer is that the extra cost is probably being added to other paying client’s bills. 

We don’t believe this is the way to work. We say; look at our portfolio, if you like what you see, then talk to us. Then, if you want, commission us to do a good job for you, one that adds far more value to your company than the cost of our fees.

We’d rather spend our time working on the paid projects that we understand in detail, with clients that value our approach. The cost of speculative work is ultimately covered by the clients that do pay and so we want to focus our attention on those partnerships. 

The Stragglers

There has been plenty of occasions where a potential project has gone to a less experienced or cheaper agency. Typical reasons for us not working on a particular project are unrealistic delivery times or unsuitable budget. Without doing the consultancy groundwork, how can you expect an agency to get this right? Unfortunately, lots of agencies work that way and will take on a project without the proper information or technical specification they really needed. 

We regularly check up on projects we didn’t win to see how they played out. Sometimes it works out and a functional, good looking product appears. More commonly though the old website or system is still in place even years later, where the project never properly materialised. 

Finally, there are the few that come back to us. After being burnt by suppliers that seemed good value but didn’t take the time to fully understand the project or did not establish any clear objectives. We feel for these guys, we don’t want to see any good ideas executed poorly.

Our prices and time estimates won’t be any lower second time around because we would have conducted all the discovery to make sure they were accurate the first time, but now that client has the added expense of whatever the failed attempt cost them.

Conclusion

We love speaking with new potential clients. The variety of challenges and changing technical solutions is what excites us. Our clients are more than clients - they’re partners. We’re working with our partners to achieve mutually beneficial business outcomes. We actively seek relationships where our work impacts our clients, helping them to grow. If our clients grow as a result of our input, usually we grow too.

Our process is tried and tested. The approach is the real core of our business, our brand and our values. We’ve completely transformed businesses that have gone from consultancy, through production, on to growth and back to consultancy for the next phase or new project. That’s how we work and the way we intend to continue.

For those that want to be part of it, please talk to us. For those that don’t quite get it - no worries, you’ll find yourself a different agency to work with.

We are not for everyone. We are for you. We Are Sweet.