Bottom line is you are trying to decide what to sell to a potential client that you do not have any information on. Before you ever call your lead you should have done research on that business and know what service they currently have, what services they need and what type of internet presence they have in comparison to their competition. This way you are offering services that will have a value to the business. Fact is that this business we are in is very profitable so when you have an industry like this one there are going to be 100 other consultants, seos, web designers, and large internet marketing companies, some even using auto-dialers and saying they are actually Google. This is a cutthroat industry And You Have To Set Yourself Apart From Your Competition. Remember these people are called day in and day out regarding their website, lack of website, and "first page of Google" rankings.
How do you set yourself apart from your competition?
The first advantage that you have over 95% of your competition is that you are local and they are not. Use this to your advantage. Let them know that you are local. Phone sales is something that takes a lot of time and practice. If you have not developed a script and have little sales skills odd are that you are not going to get anywhere nor make any sales.
Here is what you need to do.... Create and develop a script that is going to get you an appointment to speak face to face with the person that you are trying to sell. You have to put yourself in your potential clients shoes. They are getting called all day long and bothered when they are trying to run their business. When you call them you are interrupting whatever it was they were doing. Also you are going to be asking to take more of their time to meet face to face. You need to create some sort of incentive for them to meet with you, after all time is money. (If you are serious about doing this and would really like some help PM me and I will send you over a script that will get you at least 5 appointments a day guaranteed.)
Also think about what would be their benefit from working with you over the competition aside from being local (most businesses prefer to deal with someone local). What makes your service better than the next guy? Do you have examples to show the potential client? Offer him something of seemingly great value for free in exchange for about 10 minutes of their time.
If you do not like SEO nor know how to rank clients then I suggest you find a good person or company to outsource the local SEO to. After you do that then you will learn to love SEO and the hefty monthly residual checks it brings in.
Once you get the face to face appointment then you need to demonstrate to the client that you have done your research and know everything there is to know about his/her business, industry, and competition. Build value in the service that you are offer. And the most important thing you can do in your meeting when you first start speaking with the business owner is ask questions(the right ones) about the business and listen. Listen to what the client is saying to you (if you listen close enough they will tell you what they want). Ask them what they are currently doing to build an internet presence online and what they are currently doing to market their business offline and online. What are their goals? Where are their marketing dollars being spent? Do they have a budget? If so what is it? You need to identify their problem(s), every business has one or more... They need more customers, their reputation is bad, they need a website. Then after listening to the person offer the solution(s) to their problem(s).
If I am speaking with a person that has $2k to spend and that is it for the year. Then I am going to tell them, you know what you do not have a website and we could build you one for $2k....but here is the thing once you build that site then you have to get the traffic to it, which equals more money that they do not have. So I would tell them what they can do is put that $2k towards a marketing campaign that is going to provide a ROI for them. For example Google ads and local optimization. With Google finally making the transition to the new Google + Local for business, a business owner can market their business online without needing a website. These business profiles are basically like a mini website directly on Google Search and Google Maps. They can provide all of the information that their customers would be looking for. Business contact info, images, video, about us, unlimited posts about service, specials, etc, and the most important thing reviews!
I am not sure what you are currently telling these people but there is a lot more involved then " I noticed you don't have a website"... "do you want one?"
What I suggest you do is this. Call these business owners and say Hi Bob, my name is John and I am a local web designer here in the area. I am sure you are probably busy so this will only take a second. I am trying to stir up some local business as well as build my portfolio. So what I am willing to do is offer you a completely custom, professional website free of charge! The only thing that I ask is that if you are happy with the website after I create it then you let me use you as a reference. It's a simple as that there are no fees I will never ask for your credit card, bill you, etc.
When you use a pitch like that make sure you speak all the way through and do not let the business owner cut you off. Make sure you have their attention. Call all day, everyday doing this and get 2 or 3 businesses to agree. Build them a website, make it nice and make sure they are happy. Then use these as examples and also ask them for referrals. You will be doing work for free but it will pay off in the long run and your business will grow.
i think you won't have a problem landing clients
