People ask what I mean when I say I talk clients out of things, so here are the ones that come up most. None of this is theory. They're conversations I keep having, most weeks.
The rebrand. Most of the time you don't need a new identity. You need to decide what you already are and then be consistent about it for eighteen months, which costs nothing and which is harder than it sounds. Often a rebrand is standing in for a decision the business hasn't made yet.
The ten pages. You've asked for ten and I think you need three. The other seven tend to reassure you more than they help the person who came to buy something. Every page you add is one more place for someone to lose the thread.
The app. You probably don't need one. An app is something a person has to install, keep, and open, and unless you're already part of their day, that's a lot to ask. A fast website usually does the same job for a fraction of the cost.
The everything-at-once. You've got a list of nine things. My guess is two of them will move the needle and the rest won't, and doing all nine at half strength tends to go worse than doing two properly. Let's do the two, see if they work, and come back with the money they earn.
The competitor's website. You've seen something you like and you'd like one of those. But their business isn't yours, their customer isn't yours, and copying the surface of something whose strategy you can't see is how a company ends up looking like everyone else.
And the discount. I usually won't, and that one's as much for you as for me. Work done at a price I resent tends to show it. I'd rather do less for a fair price than more for a bad one.
None of this is generosity. It's mostly what I'd want someone to tell me, so I try to be the person who says it.