Met with Lawyer 1721 today. This is a prominent insurance defense firm in NYC. I’m not a real estate broker, but from the size of their office, I’m guessing they are spending approx 30,000/ month on rent. But I could be off by 10 or 20 thousand.  I was thinking, maybe I should be a real estate agent; I have been watching a lot of million dollar listing lately on Bravo and that guy Frederick, he makes a lot of money.. But I digress… 

So why am I bringing this up? 1721 wanted to meet with me because they can’t access their current website. They are locked out; can’t make any updates, changes etc.

Here is the fun conversation that ensued:

With all my years of sales training, I asked them the following powerful thought provoking question:

Me: “Why are you locked out?”

Lawyer 1721: “We are using a company called $5 hosting to host and manage our website and they are not responding to our inquiries.”

Sarcastic Me: “So you bought your website for the same cost as a Footlong?”

Lawyer 1721: “Yes, I guess you can say that.”

Me: “And you didn’t want pickles, you would like to have some more meat and some provolone, and the option for some mustard right?”

Not happy Lawyer 1721: “Are we still talking about websites here?”

In my profession, they say that your website is your virtual office.

I’m not suggesting that this firm should spend $30,000/month on their website, but it should be in proportion, and not ten thousandth of a percent of their retail office spend.

By the way; the firm is still eating their same sandwich. They didn’t opt for roast beef, and you can forget about the steak.

I loathe the phrase you get what you pay for: but here are some other helpful hints and guidelines about future acquisitions that may help some folks out. 

Men’s suit: don’t buy one for $3

Car with 4 wheels: Don’t buy one for $400

House: Don’t buy one for $28,000 (unless you are in Detroit, sorry Detroit, but its true)

STD: Free