What good is a website for a company that doesn't sell products?

I hear “We don't sell online, we give quotes” a lot — usually followed by “so the website isn't that important for us”. The second part is wrong. The site simply has a different job: not selling, but bringing in qualified quote requests and keeping you in mind during the decision.

You have references but no story

In this industry the buying decision is made almost entirely by looking at past work. Yet on most sites references are brushed off with three photos.

The form that works for telling a project: situation → decision → result. What was there, what you did, why you did it that way, what happened in the end. A photo on its own says “nice work”; this telling says “someone who knows the job”. The second one brings quotes.

Give every project a credit line: duration, scope, scale, materials used, before and after if available. Visitors look for something similar to their own job; a filterable archive takes them to the right page.

If everything runs by phone, nothing is recorded

If quote requests, site visits and material questions all come by phone, these three problems definitely exist: nothing is recorded, nothing is followed up, nobody can answer when you're away.

The form itself is the easy part. The real issue is where the request lands, who replies when, what happens if nobody does. Without that system in place, a form only produces emails that get forgotten.

The decision takes months — what happens in those months?

The person browsing your site today isn't deciding today; maybe they will in four months. If nothing reminds them of you during those four months, the one they remember will be your competitor.

The solution isn't complicated: a reason for the visitor to leave an email (a project catalogue, a technical detail file, a care guide) and then a few messages spread over months. Not sales messages; messages that show your work and are genuinely useful. I built a completely unknown brand in America this way: content goes first, sales come after.

Don't write for two different visitors in one voice

The architect or contractor looks for technical detail, quantities and specifications. The end user looks at “how will it look in my place”. A site written in a single voice leaves both half-served.

Opening two paths at the entrance is enough: the technical side sees drawings and documents, the end user sees application photos and care information. One site, two readings.

Technical documents: the invisible elimination

A corporate buyer looks for the safety data sheet, the technical data sheet or the certificate of conformity. When they can't find them they don't ask you — they drop you from the list. This elimination happens silently and you never hear about it.

Making documents downloadable and searchable is probably one of the cheapest and most rewarding things you can do on your site.

What will you measure success by?

In this industry a site's success isn't measured in revenue. The measure is: how many qualified quote requests come in each month, and how many turn into work. Until you measure that you can never know whether the site works — and measuring is far easier than building the site itself.