Newbie Questions About Sales In General

If this is in the wrong spot, please pardon the intrusion as I'm still feeling my way around Warrior Forum and getting acclimated.

What I'd like to read input on is sales in general....I'm sure you have heard this before, but I have a web design business and have worked with several clients in the past and have great references from those I've worked with....but it's been a struggle to break away from the people who say they are broke, have no money, refuse to talk about budgets or have very low budgets, don't know how to budget for web design, or don't want to pay for professional-level web design. I meet more people who want to try to do it themselves in every aspect, than pay anything for web design. And it doesn't matter what the business is locally, whether lawyer, electrician, yoga studio owner...none of them want to pay for professional-level web design with SEO or eCommerce.

When I talk to business owners about my business and theirs, when I get into what I do, I try to explain to them how most websites out there representing local small business owners have no SEO, no eCommerce to process payments, and could be saving them money with reducing overhead while getting them more exposure online and bringing in more leads and referrals for them daily. I even give examples of local business owners I've worked with and helped and can refer them to those sites. But they don't seem to care whether they have sites or not, whether they work or not. I spoke with a man whose wife is a local chef who sells DVDs and is on local TV. Their site isn't responsive and is broken and the eCommerce portion doesn't work correctly. I explained how I could help them, how the site was losing sales and could also be promoting the chef's appearances more; but all the husband cared about was how cheap he could get the current site fixed or doing it himself.

I spoke with one local competitor who has had lots of big ticket clients, but admitted to me he didn't know anything about SEO or eCommerce and didn't care. He sold them the cheapest templates he could, with no SEO, no eCommerce, not responsive, and then went on to the next buyer. His problem was, he told me after he had had several drinks, was that the market for him was drying up and he was running out of leads in town....which I don't get because there are hundreds of networking groups and new businesses starting every day.

I've been to local Chamber of Commerce meetings and spoken to people who own businesses and they all either say they already "have a site" through Wix, Weebly, or Vistaprint or whatever or have a nephew who's good at Excel and they will get him to do it, or on the flip side, they're terrified of internet marketing and refuse to get anywhere near it.

Is it a matter of numbers? That the more people you talk to the more you meet who value professional-level web design and internet marketing or are most people like this across the board? What are some methods for breaking through to meeting and speaking with people who really want serious internet marketing and break away from the endless army of tire kickers?

I'm wondering if I just need to cut from the grinders as soon as I speak with them or if I should spend more time trying to convince them to invest in web design and internet marketing. It's a problem, since everyone seems to be kicking tires and nobody wants to seem to pay anymore.

I know my work is valuable to people who have real businesses, but I guess I need help in closing the sale, identifying the client who values and wants what I can do for them enough to want to buy, and teaching clients how to value what I can do for them. I am so tired of seeing people at meetup.com groups with broken sites who don't care, or Chamber of Commerce members who have no interest at all, but make good money and just have zero interest.

I appreciate any input anyone might have, as I'm here to sincerely learn and get better at what I'm doing and want to do the best quality work but be able to earn a livable wage.