Every web design agency in the country, including ours, has at some point received a response to a proposal along the lines of: “Thanks, but my cousin’s got a mate who can do it for £50”.

It would be easy to rail against clients who can’t tell the difference between a professional design agency and the mate of the client’s cousin who’s offered to design a website for £50 – but easy is overrated! I think that ultimately it’s up to us as web designers to accept that if we want to win the business, we have to take responsibility for educating the client.

First of all, web designers have got to speak the language of business: terms like ‘ROI’, ‘brand awareness’, and ‘higher productivity’ need to appear in design proposals, because business decision makers tend to use the language of objectives. By contrast, many web designers use the language of attributes, such as ‘user friendly’, ‘clean design’, and ‘engaging’. If clients are to recognise the true value of professional web design, then the designer needs to translate attributes into objectives and demonstrate how they will deliver a return on the client’s investment.

The second key component of a winning design proposal is to spell out the process step-by-step (like on our 50 point checklist…). Web design can seem like a mysterious art to many people – in fact, to most people besides other web designers! – so it can really help to show the client where their money is being spent. Most business decision makers who want a professional result will easily understand that £50 won’t buy them a thought-out design process that covers: concept, consultation, research, wireframes, design, build, testing and launch.