Selling Websites - Let's brainstorm

Okay guys, let's brainstorm !
I want to sell websites these vacation (holidays), and I have no experience at selling (but I know programming and webdesign), so I need your wisdom.
First, let me tell you that i'm planing to sell in a big town (so competition) and a small one (no competition, but probably just a few request). I have read and learned a lot here about offline marketing and I think I'm going to proceed as follow :
I've created a paper presentation with graphs to explain why they need a website if they want more customers. But the problem is having a meeting to do the presentation.

So here are my questions :
How should I get a meeting and which niche should I go for ?

Here's my ideas :
Getting a Meeting :
- Cold Calling.
- Paper letters.
- Going directly for the meeting.

Niches ideas :
- Restaurants.
- Hotels.
- Doctor.
- Dentist.

What do YOU think my friends ?

I'll come up with ideas for you, but you have to give me 80% of the profit.

VinBed said:

I'll come up with ideas for you, but you have to give me 80% of the profit.

Click to expand...

lol !
Come on a little help to newbies !

I think your on the right track. All of your ideas sound good to me.

As for the niche. Why do you care? Target all potential clients in any business type in these cities. Unless of course you would only be comfortable creating content in certain niches.

As for getting a meeting... all of the above plus don't forget email.

• cold call and ask for a meeting. If declined ask if you could email them a presentation. If so call back and make sure they read your email.
• paper letters.. send the letter including your phone number and meeting request. Give it a week or so and call them and ask same as above
• Walk in.... Go directly to the business and request a meeting, ask if you can send them an email presentation if declined. Call back and do all the above.

I am no salesman nor am I a website designer but I am a brainstormer so here is what comes to mind if I was.

Create a youtube video explaining the benefits of having a website. Dumb it down for the not so tech savvy person and explain how most people use the web instead of the yellow pages to find services in their area now.

Use camtasia or other screen capture software to show examples of how people might search for a service online and explain the benefits of being the first webpage listed. The #1 position gets over 50% of the traffic.

You could be niche specific in these videos and even show a shot of google adwords tool search numbers for the keyword. Of course that wont be for specific localities but they dont know that and a 300,000 monthly search volume should give them a hard-on for your service or at least get you a meeting.

Also you could create sample sites to show them during the meeting. Now this part is a little above my pay-grade as far as the tech stuff goes. But I have played around with it a bit.

Get wampserver or something like it and use it to install wordpress or whatever to your laptop. There you can create an example site with the theme and everything.

You could have several examples and even make changes and design the site right in front of them during the meeting. I think this would be one helluva selling point but as I said I am no salesman.

There is also a way that you can use wamp to host your own site via your computer. At least thats what google says. Now I understand that its not very secure when it comes to hackers so due diligence is required.

But via email you could link to these self hosted sites as examples for selling points if you wish. As I said this is above my pay-grade and there are probably other ways of doing this. Probably even easier but you are the website man so figure that shit out yourself if you like.

If all else fails and they dont want to hire you for the big bucks. Tell them you can set up a simple site in 20 minutes that includes their business name, address, and phone number for 50 or 100 bucks.

Get a commission junction account and make them buy hosting through your hostgator affiliate link. Set up a simple free wordpress theme with all the contact shit and make them write you a check. Tell them if they wanna make changes they can call you and you would be happy to do it. For a fee of course.

You will at least get a check and a sale in cj so at least your time is not wasted and you will make 150 bucks or so.

Well thats all I got for you buddy and I wish you well on your venture.

Edit: BTW it took me 30 minutes to write this post so if you use my ideas and it works you owe me 25 bucks.... just kidding. Good luck!

I have some experience in offline sales and all the methods you mentioned (calling/mail/direct approach) are textbook examples, so you can't go wrong with those!

In my experience, depending which method will work depends on a lot of things, the best approach is also to pick one of the methods and try it out. Depending on the results you can choose to continue improving it or go for another method.

Also the type of niche you should target is hard to say (depends on what clients want and what your competition is doing). So pick a niche and approach a lot of them.

Basically the best advice anyone can give you to start is just pick something, measure the results and change your strategy based on the results. But the most important thing is, JUST DO IT!!! It doesn't really matter what you choose and how you do it, as long you just do it and learn from it!

Good luck with your sales.

My experience with this: Customers won`t buy your product or service - they all want buy some benefits.

So just give them such benefits and SHOW them the benefits. Have this in mind and you can sell your services.

Good luck to you.

Thank you guys, great responses !

All you have to do Look inside the yellow pages and pick a niche to see if they have a website listed. Chances they own a site they'll have it listed if not make note of them and move on to the next company. Once you got a nice list it is time to contact them with your offer. Make sure like noted above that you highlight the benefit of owning a website and how much POTENTIAL business they are losing by NOT owning one and ask if they have time for a meeting. NO SELLING BEFORE THE MEETING. If you can get as much information about the company as you can to take with you on your meeting. It's about creating a plan and executing it to the letter. I hope this helps to give you some ideas.

Its always wise to have a variety of niches in your arsenal instead of a particular niche. I would recommend using text message marketing to the owners' mobile numbers.

I use cold calling, email, referrals, but the single best thing thats helped me sell more sites is a free mock up. None of my competitors offer it and it's my foot in the door. I get lots of email inquiries telling me they chose me because I'm offering them a free mockup before they have to buy.