Hey guys,
I have a client who has an basic open cart website for their cd and record store. Site was designed in 2004 and the only update is Opencart V2.
Am I best updating the theme and installing extensions to make their search engine better or is there a particular product I should be selling them? magento?
They have over 5000+ products so dont want to over or under quote.
Thoughts?
Don’t suggest something else just for the sake of selling them something. Instead of thinking about the age, think about your client’s actual needs.
Does their current software fit their needs? Do they want to do something they can’t? Assuming there’s “new” things they want to do, can merely updating (and securing) their current implementation fit the bill?
Focus on figuring out what your client actually needs to do to make their business better and then work back from there to develop functional requirements to meet their business requirements. Lastly, find the software implementation that’ll meet their needs and recommend it. Charge them appropriately and consider what they’re getting out of it; if it’s going to offer them a ton of value, there’s no harm in taking that into consideration when you’re at the pitching/scoping/estimating/proposal stage.
There’s always new software (and software products). Don’t put your client on a track to constant switching. Put them on a track to using software that’ll help their business and you being the source for that.
Hi Chris,
Thank you for taking the time to write a long reply.
My fear atm is what has their previous developer done. Without gaining access to the backend it is almost impossible to quote. To make matters harder, I am a Prestashop/Joomla developer so OpenCart is new to me. I’m sure I will pick it up quickly.
Client needs to be able to export a list of their products weekly (solution extension)
Clients needs a better front end design (solution theme)
Client needs a better Search Engine (solution extension)
These solutions are purely guesses.
I have convinced them to stay with OpenCart which is a bonus.
Paul
Sure thing!
My fear atm is what has their previous developer done. Without gaining access to the backend it is almost impossible to quote.
I can totally understand this. Definitely do not quote them without accessing the backend. With a third party developer in the mix (the previous dev), you have no idea what the state of things is. For all you know they hacked up the core of OpenCart to override things instead of following whatever the best practices are.
It sounds like you have an idea of their scope, but you need to flesh out what’ll take to provide the direction.
Charge the client to find out. Don’t do free work if you can avoid it (and back it up with a solid history of quality work). The company I work for does something called a Discovery Process, and we charge for it, just like we do for any other work we do. Research takes time, expertise, effort. Charge clients to produce answers.
If the client can come to you with an exacting spec and clear details of what needs to be done, you can probably quote them for something like that – but if they don’t know where things are (and won’t guarantee it), you need to find the answers for them. You’re doing their work in research.
Don’t charge a client for your knowledge gaps (your lack of experience with OpenCart), but do charge them for their knowledge gaps.
Good advice Chris.
I have given them way too much free information already
Thanks heaps!
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