I earned the right to pick my clients
I’ve been doing UX and design work for nearly three decades: agencies first (Sapient, with Sony as a client), then in-house at AOL and Teradata, then consulting for B2B software companies. I built an agency. It earned a perfect five-star Clutch rating. Then I sold it to get back to doing the work myself.
Lee Fuhr on LinkedInThe work stopped surprising me. The problems were the same. The clients wanted the same things. And after a while, I realized that the companies I found most interesting, the ones doing hard, essential work in the physical world, weren’t in my client list at all. They were the ones nobody was taking seriously.
And there was something else. In digital, nothing you build leaves a mark. The product pivots, the company gets acquired, the feature you designed gets sunset before anyone notices it was there. None of it sticks. After enough of that, I started wanting to work with companies that build something real, something you can drive over, walk through, hold in your hand.
So I work with three clients at a time. Take on a fourth and someone gets less than they paid for.
I can count the truly extraordinary designers I’ve had the luck to work with on less than one hand. Lee most certainly makes the cut.”
Theresa O’Connor
Apple
The companies that do real work deserve better marketing than they’ve been getting
The companies I work with now, manufacturers, trades contractors, industrial distributors, have been underserved for years. Your buyers can tell the difference between a site built by someone who’s walked a shop floor and one that wasn’t.
The work these companies do matters. Their websites, more often than not, don’t show it. They’ve usually been in business for decades, built a real reputation, earned every job through referrals. Yet their site looks like someone made it on a free afternoon in 2019.
My theory: the best marketing for a company that builds things is clear, not clever. It says what you do, who you do it for, and why you’re the one to trust, then gets out of the way and lets the work speak. The research backs this up
What changed, in my clients’ words
“Our cost per lead dropped from an average of $100 to about $20… He’s been a game-changer for us.”
Martin Spritzer
iQuoteXpress
“We needed to completely rebuild our outdated product platform. Lee became an integral part of our team, not just a consultant. That close collaboration is what made it work.”
Cindi Karl
eSUB
“Within the first week of the app’s relaunch, approximately 35,000 users updated… We’ve gotten the value of an experienced team.”
Jason Amunwa
Glovebox
Straight answers. You’ll hear what the fix would cost, and if it isn’t worth the money, I’ll say so.
Or write to me: [email protected]
Checks whether your site sounds like everyone else’s. It takes 30 seconds and asks for no email.
What I found on 3,828 manufacturer websites, written up in full.
A suite of small, sharp tools for manufacturers and trades companies, most free to try.
A discovery-call tool with a live fit score, $90 one time.