«I liked everything, but I couldn't see how to message you, so I messaged someone else.» The client was already yours, and you lost them in the final stretch, the contact one. The one almost nobody looks at. Let's audit it.
A client told me exactly this, and it stuck with me: «I found you, I liked everything you did… but I couldn't see clearly how to get in touch, I couldn't be bothered and I messaged the next one». Just imagine: you'd done the hard part (getting found and getting liked) and you lost it on the easy part.
If what you're after is the full map (from where people come from to when they pay), I break that down in «Where your clients slip away». Here I get into the final stretch, the contact one, because it's the one that hurts most: this is where you lose people who'd already said yes on the inside.
I call that final stretch «the 3 clicks». It's the path someone travels from landing on your website to messaging you. And every extra click, every second of hesitation, is a sale going cold. I'm not talking theory: I'm talking about people with their wallet already half out who leave because you put one step too many in the way.
When someone lands on your website, their brain asks a single question in the first few seconds: «is this what I'm looking for, yes or no?». If they're not clear within three seconds, they won't stay to investigate. They close it. You have about as long as a traffic light.
The test is brutally simple: show your website to someone who doesn't know what you do, for three seconds, then take it away. Ask them what they think you sell and who for. If they hesitate, that's your click 1 broken. And it isn't fixed with more text: it's fixed with a clear sentence right at the top saying what you do, who for and where.
You have about as long as a traffic light. Three seconds to say what you do and who for.
Right, they now know you're what they're looking for. Now they want to act. Where's the button? And here's something absurd I see all the time: the contact button hidden right at the bottom, or lost in a menu, or disguised as a grey «Contact» that catches no one's eye.
Remember: most of your visitors come from mobile, roughly 7 out of 10. On mobile there's no patience for searching: either the button is right under their nose, or it doesn't exist.
This is the one that bleeds most. The person wants to message you… and finds a fourteen-field form asking for their first name, surname, second surname, phone, email, company, job title, message and blood type. And they leave. You wanted a client and you set them a tax return.
The mental rule for the whole stretch: count the clicks from when someone arrives to when they message you, and remove the ones you don't need. Every one you cut is people who used to drop off and now get through. It's not magic: it's clearing stones off the path.
Open your website on your phone, as if you were a client who doesn't know you. Time yourself. Within three seconds, is it clear what you do? Do you see the button without scrolling? Can you get in touch in one tap? Wherever you hesitate, that's your leak. And usually just fixing one of the three things is enough to notice the difference in messages coming in.
Because the most expensive client isn't the one who never found you. It's the one who found you, wanted you, and you let slip in the final metre.
Send us the link and we'll tell you which of the three is losing you people. It's one of the first things we look at.
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