This was just such an absurdity that I had to share it with you. It is a particularly disturbing instance of ignoring good business principles of using the right tool for the job. It is also a perfect instance of gross underestimation of the value and cost of proper Website development and secure Web hosting, especially where it relates to the medical profession.
Let us say that you have a medical consulting business and you need a Website. You provide your medical consulting services with an emphasis on electronic delivery and hosting of the doctors’ Policy and Procedure Manuals. This is a highly important and legally required facet of a medical practice, so common logic would dictate that you want to do things the right way when it comes to your Website. After all, the Internet will be an integral asset to your business model.
Although your Website is highly important to your consultancy, you want to keep as much profit as possible. One way to do this is cut cost. This is fine so far, but here is where the plan shatters to pieces. You assume that Web developers and Web hosts are basically all the same. Your logic and experience has told you that the main difference is in their cost. After all, a Website can be saved from a MS Word document.
Fine, I will continue the humor, for now, that Website developers are the same thing wherever you go, but medical consultant services are different, for certain. I can prove that to you in the next few paragraphs. Let us test this medical consultant agency in Topeka, Kansas.
One may imagine that the medical practice would not think it very responsible for their consultant to cut corners with their data, but some people find saving a dime more important than serving their clients’ needs. In this case, it was so extreme that while sitting at the table with me, he pulled out a Blackberry and took several minutes to try and find the email that another company sent because he thought their Web hosting was a couple dollars cheaper. I tried to explain that the time he spent doing that was more costly than he stood to save. Just my time alone was ringing up at hundreds of dollars per hour, and from the way he talked, his must have been worth thousands, because he towered over me in business savvy.
Now, I gave him the benefit of my doubts while he tried to be frugal. Normally, that is a perfect oil and water mix in the medical community, but we are not talking about medicine. We are talking Websites, so pretty much any unskilled labor can handle this … right? Well, that is just how I heard it from the man himself. I will probably be called a bully and put down for this, but it is just exactly how it happened, so I am just the messenger. I am the unskilled labor who wasted a few hundred dollars worth of my consulting time with a guy who had criticized others in my field for misspellings in one breath, but yet wanted to be cheap in the next. Notice his comment about using an “unskilled laborer to continue doing this manually using word” . Below is the verbatim content of the email I received after our meeting. Be sure to read my reply to understand how the cow really eats the cabbage. You are welcome to contact me with your replies before contracting with a medical consulting service in Topeka, Kansas for hosted Policy and Procedures manuals.By the way, the cost two of his brilliant manuals would cover the cost I quoted him for the Website. He expects to sell 6,000 of them!
Mark,
I am quite confident that Phase 1 of this project will consume more than 50MB of space. There is nothing in the contract that says what the price will be if it exceeds that amount. As I stated during our meeting I have no need for search engine optimitization. This is a form bid and in my opinion does not reflect the conversation that we discussed today. Second, if this is cost of the first phase I am quite wary of the second phase you will present. For phase one as a straight informational site I have bids much lower than this from reputatable companies in town. The second phase of this is the only part that I am having difficulty managing virtually and at this expense I am assuming that I will be able to hire a unskilled laborer to continue doing this manually using word. I understand that you are not the loss leader but this is far overpriced for what my needs are.
At this point it is up to you to decide whether or not you are willing to try to gain my business. If not, Thank you for your time.
I am not the vision of the perfect salesman, and I never hope to be. I am, however, at the top of my field in Internet marketing, search engine optimization, and many related technologies. I really wanted to take this on the chin, but I realized that others could benefit from the understanding I share here. My verbatim reply to his email is as follows:
Douglas,
An average disc space estimate for a well produced marketing Website without ecommerce would not be expected to exceed 10Mb, and 50Mb is quite an oversubscription. Otherwise, I would have written it as more space, because space is not a matter of a lot of cost. As a wholesale Web hosting company, we have a quite broad view of this. If you needed 300Mb, I would not flinch to offer it at the same price, so to this, we have an answer. We will host gigs for less than most people will host megs, if that is what is needed.
You are correct in that this is a form bid. That is because it represents an advertised price leader of nearly half of our standard minimum job for custom development. This is also a price dramatically lower than the industry average for the same thing. Perhaps you have found lower offers, but that also comes with its own hazards. I have only encountered one other reputable professional in this field in Topeka, and that is Spinnaker’s Mike Burgess (http://www.spinnakerweb.com) whom I would also recommend visiting with before you make a decision.
I do not believe in delivering a product that is sub-par. I simply will not bastardize my industry or harm my client’s interests with bad results. I gain a lot of business from former clients of developers who do things the wrong way. In an instance of this, I recently had a call from a man with a lawsuit from a rights management company because he could not produce proof of his right to use the images he had on his Website. They were suing him for many times what he paid for his Website. This is the site owner’s responsibility, so be aware of this and other potential liabilities by hiring unskilled labor. If you Google the term “image copyright infringement” you will find my article right about the top of the page … it is a worthwhile read. Unskilled labor produces unskilled results, and you cannot expect professional results by hiring the first kid who raises his hand. That is good for hammers and shovels, but not so good where your business interests are at stake and legalities matter.
My reputation for producing quality results is far more important than my reputation for generosity, or even for being the most likable guy with a great sales pitch. You work with professionals every day, so I hope that you can appreciate my emphasis on quality and professional results. Just as there are people willing to produce Websites for the salary of a store clerk, there are also those of us who do so for a specialized surgeon’s salary. When business results are expected from a hobbyist developer, the aftershock is often similar to hiring the store clerk to perform your surgery. I am a skilled professional, and if or when you ever find yourself in need of such, I will be delighted to assist you. Alternately, we provide do-it-yourself Website templates at no additional charge with any hosting package. I simply had the impression that we were discussing a custom Website solution.
Best regards,
Mark Aaron Murnahan
YourNew.com, Inc.
Direct: *REDACTED DUE TO AGING WEBSITE*
http://www.yournew.com
Let’s call it a lesson learned, Douglas. if you want to sell a hosted policy and procedures manual to the medical field, you may want to take the Website and Web hosting more seriously before you take it to your clients.
Author Mark Murnahan is the Chairman and CEO of YourNew.com, Inc. and provides SEO consulting services to companies and non-profit organizations. Mark Murnahan may be reached toll free at 866-A-Web-Guy (*REDACTED DUE TO AGING WEBSITE*) for consultation.
