Let's assume a travel-based company wants to improve its 3 year old website, which has become a little tired, been overtaken by some of the competition, is now expensive and slow to maintain, and is receiving mixed feedback from users who are sometimes faced with out of date information.

What's the next step ?  A one-line email to a number of web development firms asking "Please quote for a new website for our business" ?  (surprisingly, that's what many business owners do at this point!)

No, its not that simple, and fortunately so, because you should make sure your chosen supplier is intimately familiar with your needs as a client. 

Potential customers often indicate it's too difficult to put pen to paper, or to find time to develop a description of their needs.  Without exception, this effort is some of the most valuable time you'll spend on your new web development.

If someone insists we are asking for too much information, I always draw on the analogy of buying a second hand car.  If I call a car yard and say "How much for a new car ?" would I be happy to accept a quote, send them the money, and eagerly await arrival of the car in my driveway ? If I settle on $30,000 for a car, and the vehicle that arrives is an exotic red ferrari, I'll be very pleased (but let's face it, why would the car yard send me something worth much more than I spent?). If it arrives as a ten year old Hyundai Excel I might be less pleased, but realistically I will have got something consistent with the effort I put into my research. I should have told the salesman my requirements, eg. colour, safety rating, brand, age, kilometres travelled, transmission, service history, warranty etc. Then the vehicle which arrives is far less likely to be a surprise. If you reach an agreement to build your new website based on a cursory ""How much for a new website?", you should set your web expectations at the '10-year-old-Hyundai-Excel' level.

So, strange carsales comparisons aside, it is essential you develop a web strategy, however basic, if you expect accurate quotations for a site that will deliver your objectives. The strategy for the above challenge might occupy 2-3 A4 pages and following in the next section is an example of what it might contain.