Custom Script NEW
Calls
Here is our regular Vision Call Script. Do not change the overall structure, wording, order, or formatting of the original script unless specifically instructed below. I am also providing all available notes for this client, including what our sales team discussed with them, their project goals, current website (if applicable), business information, design preferences, and functionality requirements. I need you to update our existing Vision Call Script with a small number of client-specific questions that will help us understand how they want their website structured, designed, and built. FORMATTING IS CRITICAL: Use the original Word document as the formatting source of truth. Preserve the document's existing formatting exactly, including: - Bullet points and numbered lists - Bullet/number indentation and nesting levels - Headings and heading hierarchy - Bold, italics, underlining, and strikethrough - Font styles, font sizes, and font colors - Paragraph spacing, line spacing, and indentation - Section order and existing page breaks - Any existing internal notes, labels, symbols, or special formatting Do not convert bullets into normal paragraphs. Do not rebuild or reformat the document from scratch. Make edits directly within the existing document structure so all existing formatting is retained. -Also please prefill any of the questions that I ask with the answers (is necessary) from the Customer form / sales notes. EXAMPLE: If we know the customer wants a professional, local, dependable site, then we would prefill the section in the script where we ask for what look and feel the client wants. For the content changes: - DO update the first part "Rapport" with the area code, city/state section. Also please do include one interesting ice breaker question for that section as well. - Keep all existing questions and script language in their original locations. - Add only questions that are genuinely useful for this specific client. We only have an hour for the call, so do not overload the script with unnecessary questions. - ALL newly added client-specific questions must be RED text so I can immediately identify what was added. - If an existing question or section does not apply to this client, do not delete it. Keep it in its original location and apply strikethrough formatting so I can still choose to ask it. - Do not strike through questions simply because we already have a partial answer from Sales. If confirming or expanding on that information would be valuable during the Vision Call, keep the question active. - Use the Sales notes to avoid redundant questions where we already have a clear, complete answer. - Add questions near the existing section where they logically belong rather than creating a new client-specific section. - When functionality is mentioned in the Sales notes, add whatever concise questions are necessary to understand exactly how that functionality should work from both the customer's and admin's perspective. - For e-commerce clients, make sure we clarify products/variants, collections, inventory, fulfillment, shipping, payments, returns, product assets, and any client-specific e-commerce functionality when relevant. - If the Sales notes contain contradictory information, information that appears to belong to another client, or something you are unsure about, do not silently incorporate it into the script. Flag it for me instead. IMPORTANT: Do not rewrite or "improve" the standard script. Your job is to preserve the master script and strategically layer client-specific questions and strikethroughs onto it. Return the completed script as a .docx file that preserves the original document's formatting, ready for me to use during the Vision Call. ORIGINAL SCRIPT: Vision Creation Call Script Introduction Hello! Is this [CLIENT NAME]? Awesome, I’m Neal with HFB Technologies it’s so nice to meet you. Is now still a good time to talk about your website project? Quick intro: Great, well I’ll be your project manager and developer through the entire build so you’ll be working with me 1-on-1 until your site launches. Once it’s live, I’ll introduce you to our Website Management team and our SEO team. They keep your site running, identify opportunities to grow, and meet with you regularly to make sure your business keeps moving forward month over month. RAPPORT: I noticed your area code is [***] are you based in [name of city or state]? Awesome, [insert fun fact about location] / personal connection. Housekeeping Items Great, well just a few housekeeping items before we dive in: Are you at a computer in case we need to screenshare? Yes = “Great!” No = “Are you near a computer by chance?”, Still No = “That’s ok, we’ll just need to make sure we are very speedy in getting us the access we need to move forward. I’ll explain all of that in a second. Are we good to go for the whole time we have booked? Are you excited to get you new website launched? Development Process Awesome, well, I want to give you a quick overview of how we work, because we do this a little differently than most agencies. Our goal isn’t just to build you a website. It’s to build one that gets found in search, earns trust with your visitors, and turns them into customers. Every section on every page is built for a specific reason tied to those outcomes. Over the next few weeks, we’ll have 3 major touchpoints during the build to make sure we’re on the same page and that the site is matching the vision you have for it. *** Internal strategy: After this Vision Call, we build out the FULL site, not just the homepage. The goal is to show the complete site on the next call, then to close and schedule launch. *** First we have the “Vision Creation Call” (today): Which is the call we’re on now. I’m here to understand your business inside and out, who you are, who you serve, what makes you different, and most importantly, what success looks like. Everything you share today shapes how we build your site. The next touchpoint will be the “Website Review Call”: On this call we will review the results of all the research our team has done on your business and then showcase to you the website we’ve built based on those insights. Then we’ll get your launch scheduled. Finally, we’ll have the “Growth Implementor Call”: After launch, you and I meet one more time to confirm everything is working properly now that the site is live. Then you’ll start meeting regularly with our Website Management team and SEO team to keep your business moving forward. Here is where I like to take a quick pause and see if you have any questions on what I’ve shared so far. How does all that sound? One thing worth pointing out: between today and our next call, a lot happens before we even start building. We dig into your industry, your competitors, your local market, and how people actually search for what you do. That research is what makes sure every section of your site is built around what actually works in your space, not just what looks good. EXPECTATIONS: That’s why people come to us, because we know how to get your business on the map. You’re the expert in your field, and we are the experts in what we do. That’s why we appreciate your trust as we make recommendations for your site, based on our research and experience. We’re not just throwing your logo onto a boilerplate template and pushing publish; we are building a clean, fast, and super functional site to help you grow your business. Any questions on that? We’ll revisit pieces as we go. Business Intelligence Collection *** Get them on a Google Meet so you can share your screen. Open the calendar invite, click edit, click “Add Google Meet video conferencing,” save, and send the update. *** Alright, let’s get into the heart of this call. I just updated the meeting invite with a Google Meet link so I can share my screen. Can you check your email? Go ahead and mute yourself on Google Meet, and we’ll stay on the phone for audio. Sales briefed me on your project, but I want to go deeper here. Some of what I ask might overlap with what you’ve shared with sales, so bear with me. I want the full picture before we build. I’ll walk through five areas: your business, your brand and vision, your website goals, how you operate, and the assets we’ll need. *** Handling pushback (PM reference): Some clients, especially ones who’ve been burned by agencies before, push back on discovery questions. Common patterns and quick responses below. Stay warm, validate first, then redirect to what only they can answer. *** *** “You’re the expert / that’s what I’m paying you for.” → “You’re absolutely right that we bring the expertise on the build side, and we’re going to apply everything we know to your site. The one thing I can’t bring is how well you know your customers and your business. The questions I’m asking are the ones only you can answer, so the site reflects what’s actually true about your business, not a generic template.” *** *** “Obviously to get calls / whatever converts.” → “Totally fair, and that’s what we’re building for. The reason I push a little deeper is there’s usually more than one way to convert someone, and the right one depends on how your customers think. Some industries get more leads from forms because people aren’t ready to talk. Others get more calls because the work feels urgent. I want to set up the channel that matches your customers, not just default to one.” *** *** “I don’t know.” → “No wrong answers here. Let me ask it a different way: [reframe the question more concretely].” Or move on and circle back. Don’t pressure them. *** 1. Business Discovery Before I dive into questions, quick context on how I’m approaching this. When we look at top-performing sites across every industry, the ones that actually convert visitors into customers all do one thing the same way: they answer the 5 W’s right in the top part of your homepage, what we call the “hero section”. It’s the first thing visitors see when they land on your homepage. The 5 W’s are who you are, what you do, when you do it, where you do it, and why someone should choose you. Visitors decide in just a few seconds whether your site is worth their time, so if the hero gives them clean answers to those questions, they stay. If it doesn’t, they bounce. Our Design Team will make sure those answers get showcased right at the top of your homepage. So to really understand your business, I have a few questions that’ll help me get the full picture of you, your work, and your customers. Tell me about your business in your own words. What do you do? Who’s behind it? And how long have you been doing this? What problem are you solving for your customers? Why do they come to you instead of doing it themselves or going to a competitor? Who is your ideal customer? What are they worried about when they reach out? What makes them pick up the phone? What area do you serve? Any specific cities or neighborhoods that matter? Who are your top 2 or 3 competitors? What do they do well, and where do you beat them? IF CURRENT SITE: “Aside from (list out services/products), are there any services/products missing?” What are your most profitable services or products? *** These questions feed both the hero section content and the deeper competitor analysis and search research. Push for specifics. Vague answers produce vague research. *** 2. Brand and Vision Direction Now I want to understand how you want to be perceived, and lock down the visual side. The reason I ask all of this is because a site only really works when the branding is cohesive across every page. Same logo, same colors, same fonts, same feel throughout, plus consistency across everything that comes after launch: your marketing materials, anything else you put out there. If the branding is fragmented, visitors notice it even if they can’t name what’s off. If a customer described your business to a friend, what would you want them to say? What’s the tone you want for the site? Premium, approachable, technical, family-owned, modern, rugged? Do you have a logo? If you do, is it something you want to keep using, or are you open to a refresh? Do you have specific brand colors and fonts you want us to use? If you have a style guide or brand guidelines, we’ll want to get those from you for sure. (Make note/task) Any taglines, slogans, or existing marketing materials we should pull from to keep things consistent? [SALES PERSON] showed you a few sites we’ve built in your industry. Were there any that stood out? What specifically did you like? Any other sites you like the design or feel of? We’re not copying, but it helps me understand what resonates with you. *** For existing websites: *** What works on your current site, and what doesn’t? Are we keeping the same logo, fonts, and colors, or starting fresh? 3. Website Goals and Functionality Two quick framing questions before we get into the build details. I ask these specifically because there’s no universal right answer here; what works for one business doesn’t always work for another, and these decisions shape our strategy for how we structure the whole site. When someone lands on your homepage, what’s the one action you most want them to take? Call, fill out a form, book online, buy? How do you prefer to receive leads? Calls, emails, text, form submissions? Now the bigger picture: What pages do you want on your site, and which ones do you want in your main navigation at the top? Reference Sales notes and previous notes from the call [Include any relevant questions about functionality and content, especially if there is a current site] Is this informational, e-commerce, or both? Any special functionality like booking, quotes, member areas, online ordering? *** Review the sales form and walk through any functionality requirements. If you don’t understand something, ask them to dumb it down. Notes from this section feed the build, so be thorough. *** For custom functionality: If I’m a visitor on your site, walk me through what I should be able to do. Now from your side as the admin, what does that look like? What happens after a customer submits, books, or buys? *** Repeat the flow back to them and confirm. If anything is outside of scope, flag it now so we can push back before the build, not after. *** Custom vs. WordPress *** If this question comes up you want to be able to rebut and explain why we do it this way.*** So we have worked with WordPress for many years here, but have discovered that although it can be a powerful platform, it can also decrease performance. Usually we’ve got to use several plugins which make the website slow and hurts your search rankings. Then when plugins get updated things break and your site goes down. You’ve also got to worry about being hacked and server uptime. It makes maintaining your website a full-time job. Recently, we’ve pivoted and have started custom coding sites to fit the exact needs of each business. This allows us to streamline the build process, write cleaner code that only does what we need it to, and leads to blazing fast site speed. Our goal is to get you results, so a lean, efficiently running website is the best path forward for sites like yours. *** If they push back on wanting a backend… *** One of the strengths of WordPress is that it gives site owners the ability to make changes to their sites even with no technical knowledge. However, this requires a clunky database and dashboard that is honestly unnecessary for most informational/service-based business websites. Unless you’re doing e-commerce, most changes to your website are going to be related to content, which take minutes for our team to do. And once your site is launched, you’ll have access to our team of developers who will be able to make any changes you’d like. But we’re also confident that you’re going to be spending more time running your business than tinkering with your website. That’s where we come in. We’ll be proactively improving your site to get you better and better results, so that you won’t have to worry about it. *** If it’s an ownership issue… *** You own your website. We just host it. After the term of your agreement is fulfilled, should you choose for whatever reason that you don’t want to work with us or you want to host your site elsewhere, there will be no hard feelings. From time to time we do get clients who want to go separate ways, and we are able to get their site files handed over and part amicably. 4. Operational Intelligence A few quick questions about how the business runs day-to-day. What are your business hours? Best phone number and email for the contact section? Service area, cities or zip codes? How do customers usually find you today? Word of mouth, Google, referrals, paid ads? 5. Asset Collection Last piece is what I’ll need from you. I’ll send a recap email after this call, but start gathering: Logo (vector file if you have it) Photos of your work, your team, your location Any existing content you want to keep Reviews or testimonials, or access to your Google Business Profile so we can pull them A list of your services with brief descriptions To keep us on track for our next call, I’ll need everything by [date]. If you can’t get it to me by then, no problem at all. Just let me know, and I’ll be happy to help generate or source what we need so we don’t lose any time. *** Set the deadline 2-3 days out, before your build phase wraps. The fallback offer is important: solution-based, not a guilt trip. If they can’t deliver, we can use stock photos, write the service descriptions, pull reviews ourselves from GBP, etc. Don’t let asset gaps stall the build. *** 6. Platform Access Ok great, last thing here is to make sure we have access to all of the existing platforms and tools to make this as easy as possible for you. So far, it sounds like we’ll need access to: Google Business Profile (GBP) Stripe Current E-commerce site Shopify WooCommerce Domain GoDaddy? Other? Design Inspiration *** Pull up any example sites from the customer form or your prep notes, ideally one sales already showed them and they said they liked. Share your screen and walk through it section by section. We just want to find out if there is anything specific they like. *** Google Business Profile *** In your prep, you should’ve already requested access to their GBP through our seo@hfbtech.com account. *** Before our call, I requested management access to your Google Business Profile. You should’ve gotten an email to confirm. You still own it. We just need access to optimize it, which is critical for local search. *** If they don’t have a GBP, set one up with them on the phone and start verification. *** Domain Credentials What URL do you want for this site? *** If they own their domain, get login credentials. If it’s with GoDaddy (check WHOIS in prep), request delegate access to avoid 2FA. If they don’t own a domain, search GoDaddy with them, find one they like, and submit a domain purchase ticket in the CRM. Billed to the client. *** Existing Website Credentials *** Get access to their existing site, especially for e-commerce, so we can pull products, blog posts, etc. Test credentials and load them into the vault. *** E-Commerce *** For new e-commerce sites, confirm they have products from an existing site or a product import spreadsheet (send template if needed). Ask about payment processor and shipping providers. *** Scheduling Next Call *** Check #dv-project-managers Slack for the next available dev time. Soonest you can schedule is two days after that, to allow for the build and your QA pass. *** Perfect. Last step is to schedule our Website Review Call. I should have your website ready by [two days after next available dev time]. I just need you in front of your computer so we can walk through it together. Would you be available on _____ at _____? (Confirm time zone) *** If Yes *** Awesome. I’ll send a Google Calendar invite and have your site ready by then. *** If No *** No problem. What day and time works best for you? Awesome, I’ll send a Google Calendar invite. In the meantime, it’s crucial that you send over the assets I mentioned to keep things on track: logo, photos, content, domain info, etc. I’ll follow up with a recap email and the full list of pending items. If you need anything, email me at neal@hfbtech.com or call (435) 264-4143. Anything else I can do before I let you go? Awesome. Have a good day. Talk to you on _____ at _____.