165 design references

Polcode · lead with the buyer’s outcome

Reel by Andrew Chornyy

Open with the result the buyer came for. A list of programming languages on the first screen tells a non-technical buyer they are in the wrong room.

What to look at

The browser is on polcode.com, with Services, Projects, About, How we work, Blog and more, Careers, and Let's talk across the top. The heading is Custom Software Development Services. The first paragraph names Magento, then Ruby on Rails, Python, Node.js, Golang, and frontend technologies, and a red line is drawn under that list. The next lines are Team Extension, Scope Delivery/Fix Price, a Twilio partnership, an Adobe Bronze partnership, and the Polish Chamber of Healthcare IT. A white caption stays: "Your client doesn't care. Sorry." Yellow words step from the language names to "more sales" and "Show money, not code." The page copy never changes.

The red line stays under Ruby on Rails, Python, Node.js, Golang, and frontend technologies while the yellow line lands on "more sales."
The red line stays under Ruby on Rails, Python, Node.js, Golang, and frontend technologies while the yellow line lands on "more sales."
The address bar reads polcode.com. The annotation tool is open before the red line is finished.
The address bar reads polcode.com. The annotation tool is open before the red line is finished.

Why it works

People scan, so the point has to sit in the first words. Nielsen Norman Group's reading studies say to place information up front, because people pick out what matches the job and skip the rest. The same group separates a feature, what you offer, from a benefit, what the customer wants, and says a long feature list loses them. Ruby on Rails is jargon: meaningful to a developer comparing tools, and low information scent for an owner who came looking for sales. Andrew says that owner wants more sales. The page also names a healthcare IT membership, so sales is not the only job written on this screen. The practical split is progressive disclosure: show the few things most buyers need first, and put the language list one click away, with a label that says what they will find.

Try it

  1. Write the first sentence as a result a buyer can recognize, such as more orders or a system their staff can run, and do not open with language names.
  2. Put that result in the heading or the first words of the paragraph, because scanners read the start and skip the rest.
  3. Move the language list to a page for technical buyers, and link it with words such as "See the tools we build with."
  4. Leave Let's talk on the first screen so a conversation does not depend on reading the stack.
  5. If the person you sell to is a technical lead, say that in the heading, and then the language list can lead.

What it costs

Hiding the stack from a technical buyer is the same mistake in reverse. Nielsen Norman Group says the first screen has to hold what people often need, and the path to the rest has to be obvious. Andrew's "more sales" is his line. A buyer who came because of the healthcare membership may want a compliant system, not a store, and a headline about sales would send them away.

Words worth knowing

Sources