The one question I ask every prospect on the first call.
By Adam Hardegree ·
Written with AI assistance and checked against my published services and prices.
It isn't about their website.
Somebody books a call because they want a new site. They've already got a list ready — the pages they think they need, a competitor's site they like, a color they hate. And before any of that, I ask them one thing:
How do you get customers right now?
Not "how do you want to get customers." Not "what's your marketing strategy." How does the phone actually ring, today, in the business as it currently exists.
Often, the answer changes the entire project.
Because the honest answer is often "word of mouth"
Here are some typical answers. Say a contractor gets most of his work from referrals and repeat customers. A therapist gets nearly all of hers from two colleagues who send her overflow. A landscaper's best year came from a truck wrap and a neighborhood Facebook group.
None of those people have a website problem. They have a credibility problem, which is a different thing that happens to have a similar-looking solution.
Here's what's happening to them: a referral gets their name, Googles it, finds a Facebook page last updated in 2021 and a Yelp listing with the wrong hours — and then hesitates. The referral still calls, most of the time. But not always. And "not always" is where the money leaks out.
That business doesn't need a twelve-page site engineered to win search traffic. It needs one clean page that says who they are, what they do, that they're real, and how to reach them. It needs to load fast and look like a business that's still open.
That's an $800 one-page website, not a $1,500 one. And I'd rather tell you that on the first call than let you buy pages you'll never look at again.
The answer also tells me what to actually build
Once I know how the work comes in, the whole design brief writes itself.
"Referrals." Then the site's job is confirmation, not persuasion. The person landing on it already half-trusts you. Photos of real work, real names, a phone number above the fold. Don't sell — reassure.
"Google." Then we're having a very different conversation, one that's mostly about your Google Business Profile and service pages, and the site is one piece of a bigger machine.
"Instagram." Then the site is a landing pad — a place for the link in your bio to go that captures the person before they scroll away. One page. One action. Fast.
"Honestly? We're not really getting any." Then a website is not your first problem, and I'll say so. You can't design your way out of a business that doesn't have a clear offer yet.
Same budget, four completely different sites. If I skip the question and just take the order, I build the same generic four-pager for all of them and three out of four get something that doesn't fit.
What people expect me to ask instead
They expect a scoping questionnaire. How many pages, do you need a blog, do you want a contact form, what's your budget.
Those questions get answered eventually, and they're boring, and none of them tell me anything I can't figure out later. Budget I can ask about in minute twenty. Whether you need a blog is a decision, not a fact, and I'd rather make it once I understand your business than take it as a requirement.
Requirements from a client are almost always solutions in disguise. "I need a blog" usually means "I want to show up on Google." "I need an About page with the team on it" usually means "I want people to trust us." Those are the real problems, and there are often cheaper ways to solve them than the one the client came in asking for.
Why I can afford to ask it
Because I'm one person, and I don't have a sales quota.
An agency salesperson can't tell you that you need less than you asked for. Their number is the number. Mine is just me — so if the honest answer is "spend $800, not $1,500, and put the rest into better photos," I can say that without it costing me anything but a little revenue I was never really owed.
That's the whole trade. Some projects come out smaller than the one the client walked in asking for. I'm fine with that. A smaller project that fits beats a bigger one that doesn't.
It's the first thing I ask, and it's the question I'd keep if I could only ask one.
Want to hear the question in person? Tell me about your business — a free 30-minute call, and I'll tell you straight whether a new site is the right place to spend the money.