I’ve been thinking about KISS almost everyday lately and this recent post by Jason Guthrie has got me inspired to share why I feel it is such a big necessity in business development and client relations for every graphic design firm.

For those that don’t know, KISS stands for:
Keep
It
Simple
Stupid

The Background

I learned about the KISS methodology when I started out in 1998 as a web developer. From day one my supervisor embedded these four words in my head. It was the hayday of the dot-com bubble and he could sense trouble on the horizon. We were seeing a tendency that other companies were having overcomplicate things and provide complex solutions to problems that could be solved with much simpler executions. Even though we “kept it simple”, the company still folded in 2001. Not until about three months ago had I remembered this notion of KISS. I think that because I have started thinking more from an entrepreneurial perspective, I know have a vested interest in not making things more complicated then they need to be.

I KISS All Day

Each day, in everything I do, from sending emails, to writing proposals, to meeting with clients, to writing at night on the train, I am constantly examining how I can keep my current action as simple as possible. I try to eliminate the complexity of individual tasks throughout the day by quickly determining if the task is something I need to do now, table for later, or give off to someone else who could handle it better and quicker than I. i guess you could say that my own personal methodology is a cross between David Allen’s Getting Things Done, Franklin Covey’s Seven Habits, and KISS.

Some Specific Ways I KISS

• Voicemail
  I used to be that guy who would call up and leave an 8 minute voice mail telling you what I changed in the proposal, why I changed it, and how much I am looking forward to working with you. Blechhhhhhhhhh! I scrapped that because I was finding that so many clients were telling me, “next time send me an email”. So now when I call a client, I tell them my exact intention for the call, give them a number they can reach me at, and if there is more they need to know before we speak then I let them know I’ve sent them an email with all of the details.
• Email
  I have a tendency to ramble in email and that is something I am always working on improving. What I do to make my rambling more coherent is use bullet points to immediately let the reader know what the meat and potatoes is of my email. I also send out many new business emails each week. So instead of rambling on about our company info, explaining our process, etc… I have focused on sending a few quick sentences to the new client explaining how I found them (I always try to get referrals by other clients or friends - never cold), I explain that we are a graphic design firm and tell them who our most recent clients have been, and I provide a link to a portfolio page that is specially created for them with only projects that I think would be of interest to their company. I rely on the email to hook them in and the portfolio link to secure their interest. One thing I leave out is any mention of a follow up because I myself always feel like it is a sales call once the person tells me they’ll “give me a call later this week to dicuss”. Instead, I try to be more of a friend and make a call after hours or some other non-traditional time to connect with them on a personal level.
• Capabilities Presentation
  I can’t go too much into our capabilities presentation because we mention some NDA stuff but I can say that I use no powerpoint, no charts, and no graphs. Just a good old fashioned conversation to explain our company, show how some of our projects may be similar to the clients needs, and more listening to the clients problems then telling them how we can fix it. A funny thing you should realize is that if you ask questions and listen, people will think you are a great conversationalist. Try it some time and see the results.
• Proposals
  Before I explain my KISS method for proposals, I must say that I put very little investment into proposals. What I have found is that a real human connection with your client will win that project much better than any proposal will. What we have tried to do, since there are now two business developers at the Block, is to standardize what goes into our proposals. We have focused on only including the core sections in a proposal that would compel the client to choose us for their project. These include our process, concept for the project, staff bios whom will be on the project, estimated timeline, and cost. We save all the fluff such as legal terms, milestone schedule, payment plan, and signature lines for the contract. We have found that by separating the proposal from the contract, we have been able to give the client something that is easy to read, cuts straight to the point, and provides good reinforcement to our discussions and efforts with the client up to that point. Essentially it shows we’re no bulllshit. Typically, the proposal ends up being about 4 - 6 pages long, while the contract is about 10 - 12 pages long.
• Estimates
  To make estimating go much quicker with established clients, I secure a Master Service Agreement with them. This agreement establishes all of the legal terms to any work that we may do in the future and allows us to provide a pruned Statement of Work that only outlines the objectives, cost and timeline of the project. This is even smaller than the proposal and typically runs about 2 pages in length.

So there you have it, some of the ways I KISS. Just remember to have fun the next time you KISS!