How I Research Clients’ Brands to Build More Effective Websites, with Lance Finley, Firehouse Design
Lance Finley: [00:00:00] One of my first steps before we ever designed a website is, I can design a nice looking site, but the point is we want to make sure it’s effective. And I’ve had people that don’t know their brand. They think they do, but they have to understand that a brand is not a logo or a website and you can’t create a brand. A brand is discovered.
Lance Finley: [00:00:22] So, I will sit down with a client and say, “Tell me your good points. Tell me what you think. Okay. Now, let me talk to some of your clients. And let’s figure out what they think of you. Let’s hear what they say is your good points.” Because, John, if you like hot pink and I like hot pink, but your customers don’t, we don’t like hot pink. It’s got to be relevant to that client.
John Ray: [00:00:47] Now, this is fascinating to me. So, dig into that a little more in terms of when you get permission from your client to go talk to their clients, how do those conversations unfold? And how do you get to the answers you’re looking for?
Lance Finley: [00:01:06] Well, I try to keep it positive. It’s not a complaining session. They tell me everything that’s going wrong with the client. It’s more like, tell me what is good about this client. Tell me why you would refer them. If they wouldn’t, I’d say, “Well, what would it take for you to want to refer them to someone else?” I want to find out, like, through analogy. I’ll sometimes say, “If they were a car, what kind of car would they be?”
Lance Finley: [00:01:35] I have a client, you know, “What kind of car are you?” And they said, “We’re an F150 Ford truck. We’re utilitarian and we’re dependable and blah, blah, blah.” But their industry sees them more like a chassis, not even a full car. They have a software that you can add components on top of.
Lance Finley: [00:01:58] So, we assume that if it’s familiar, it’s correct. But not always. We’ve got to sometimes dig and see. It’s uncomfortable sometimes, but that’s the only way that we grow and reach our destination is by asking those questions where we might not like the answer. Or to find out what that value is perceived from someone else.
Lance Finley, Owner, Firehouse Design, Inc.
Firehouse Design are Online Rescue Specialists who deliver clients from an ineffective website and free them from site maintenance. Firehouse becomes an extension of a client’s company. They ask the right questions, determine significant challenges, and project the client’s ideal corporate image through website design, email marketing, SEO, online advertising, online promotions, social media strategies, and graphic design.
Lance Finley, owner of Firehouse Design, Inc., has been a successful matchmaker since 03; marrying a love of technology and creativity. After graduating from Lipscomb University in 1990 with a B.S. in marketing, this father of four has served in advertising, publishing, prepress, and now digital marketing.
His refusal to blend in and creative approach to online opportunities have increased demand for his company’s work. Lance is driven to make each site better than the last – having built sites for country artists like Shania Twain, George Strait, and Johnny Cash, Hooters restaurants, email marketing for a national chain, Swaggerty’s Sausage, community banks, insurance, and medical companies to bring them all online success. Feeding off customer satisfaction, he seeks to develop long-term relationships rather than the typical “smash and grab” of some of the web design industry.
Furthermore, Lance enjoys sharing his knowledge of the internet and its possibilities ad nauseam to any who will listen.
You can find the complete Nashville Business Radio interview here.
The “One Minute Interview” series is produced by John Ray and in the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® in Alpharetta. You can find the full archive of shows by following this link.
Renasant Bank has humble roots, starting in 1904 as a $100,000 bank in a Lee County, Mississippi, bakery. Since then, Renasant has grown to become one of the Southeast’s strongest financial institutions with over $13 billion in assets and more than 190 banking, lending, wealth management and financial services offices in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida. All of Renasant’s success stems from each of their banker’s commitment to investing in their communities as a way of better understanding the people they serve. At Renasant Bank, they understand you because they work and live alongside you every day.
