Local SEO & Rent a Site Expert - How do you answer this objection?

Why would you want to offer rent-a-site services to businesses? Why not simply offer website creation & SEO service?

They would want to rent your site as it would cost more to get their site on page one and it's already there. Why not offer to sell it to them so they can own two positions on page one like I did with a wedding photographer?

"So you're saying you *wouldn't like* the additional traffic, bringing many more opportunities to you? How many qualified leads does your website bring in now? And so if I were able to give you a website that brings in that many again or more leads, how many would *that* be in a month? What would that mean in terms of additional revenue dollars for you?"

Make sure you get the prospect to do the math, not you. If they say it, it's true.

I'd say the focus needs to be on leads. Will they get good leads and make money by renting your site if so it's great.

Is there a way to have them pay per lead. If you are sending them good leads this may in fact make you more money.

The key is how much can they make renting your site vs how much it costs.

If you charge $500 a month and they will get 10 leads worth $50 bucks it doesn't make sense. But 10 leads worth $200 is a no brainer. And when I say worth I mean profit. If they have a service that charges the customer $500 bucks but only have a profit of $25 bucks the customer is worth $25 bucks. Remember it is the profit vs. cost that matters.

Also if you are ranked number 1 and they are ranked number 3 I doubt they will see the value unless they are afraid a competitor will rent your spot. Just because you are number one doesn't always mean more people will click on yours vs number 2 and number 3. Also if they do ppc you have to show you would be a better value than PPC.

The objections they are giving you is not their real objections. The real objection is "I don't see the value in this". Have them do the math of what a new customer is worth and based on your traffic numbers give them an idea of how many potential customers they could be getting from your site.

Can't remember which thread, but he said don't "rent or lease websites",
sell "Exclusive advertising".

The reason I use the Rent-A-Site model is the residual income.

Hugh

Another thing that may help you is to not pitch to businesses already on page one. Go to page 2 or 3 -- those people CLEARLY need help gaining visibility and customers, especially since it's their competitors taking up the first 2 pages. What business can argue with that?

Cool thread...I'm getting ready to deal with same objections. I like having the numbers all laid out and ready for them to "realize" for themselves.

I think you should focus on marketing to people that aren't already on page one results. Find people desperate to be on page one and then show them your solution.

If their site is already on page one then they don't need your rental site. (Why would you be offering to page 1 sites anyway? Or page 2 or 3 for that matter) But if their site is buried in the serps then they can save a lot of time and money and be on page 1 immediately (assuming your rental site is already on page 1). The only other way to get page 1 that quick is adwords and that ain't cheap either.

I say to them....

"Fated I know you're a dang good plumber and I get that. But this is what I do, this is all I do. When you do business with me, you can rest assured that I will never stop working for you. I'll test and tweak and do everything in my power to make you a lot more money than you will ever pay me. The thing is fated, I'm fiercely competitive and I never lose. In five years I've never failed to get the #1 spot. Not first page, not top of the page but the #1 position.... every.... single.... time. No matter what the field I've always won. And even that is not enough for me and my team, we test and tweak to not only get the most traffic but also to convert that traffic into a stream of customers that are begging to give you money. There is no one who will make you more money than me fated."

And like others said I don't rent/lead-gen to first page customers.

HTH,

Marcos

I personally do not rent sites... to me it is less lucrative.

Although, it is logical to want a top position website since that will get more traffic and more leads. That is what would make the most sense... I would take a site ranked #1 over a site 6-10

If he is not serious about his business then he may ask such questions

Its simple, if he is serious he will love to have

more traffic >> more leads >> more clients >> more money

simple common sense, its good to have two websites on first page instead of only one

Sorry to say but your questions reminded me of this
"common sense is not very common"

He can build his site all he wants. It will STILL not generate leads like your site. The truth is that almost every small business website should use direct response principles to generate leads and sales--principles that have been proven over 100 years with billions of dollars worth of advertising.

The reality is that almost no business website does this. Their conversions are terrible. More than likely they are wasting the traffic they have.

On the other hand, your site is a lead machine. You are delivering traffic that specifically is looking for his service. That's a much different lead than his usual web visitors. Much more valuable.

Not everyone can find such good paid clients. I think that rent a site is a good model of business. If you do not want to rent, you can sell it quilte easy for good money.

It just really depends on who you are talking to.

I never got that objection because I already knew if they would be interested in a lease site, straight SEO, or to have a site created for them.

Then I sold them on what they already wanted.


Actually they were already sold on it, and I just needed to fill that desire.

Sometimes I lease a site, sometimes I sell them. But I always set them up with a monthly recurring service no matter what.

Wondering if you know of any program or system to help me make wordpress websites for local clients?

I am new to wordpress and would like a template like system in order to help me make quick, nice WP websites.

Thanks.

A lot of good points above. One more thing to think about, why not offer both. For some small biz owners, they don't care about being on page 1, they want leads. Why not cater to your customer. Sales is all about meeting your customer's needs. For someone that only cares about getting on p.1 of Google, offer that as a service. If they are more concerned about leads than branding (which is arguably the difference between 'rent-a-site' and their own site) then sell them a lead based solution (performance based in some way) as mentioned earlier.

There are two things you can point out to them:
It's not an either/or proposition (as mentioned before). If their site is #1 and yours is #2, you show them how many more visitors they'd get by leasing your site. Then you run by them the numbers if your site is #1 and theirs is number 2.

You can also point out to them that you're also offering your site for lease to their competitors.

Their objections mean you have not shown them how they benefit.

So show them how much money they will make by leasing your site (or lose by not doing it). Compare compare to how much it costs them to make the same money via other methods, including ranking their site only.

You need to postion your rent a site as a lead generation platform, Also I would not use the term "rent site" to the client, not sure if you are but I wound not.

'why should I spend money on your site instead of spending the money ranking my own site?' they are not spending money on your site, they are spending money to receive leads from a lead generating site on the web for their service with people that are searching for what they are offering, however you can also up sell them on SEO for their site, if they want to spend money on here site :-)

'will I need this if my site is already on page one?' Great, you have a site on page one, now here is your change to dominate the first page, you have you website, and you will also have a lead generating website for users that skip past your site. Instead of your competition getting the lead, the leads site will receive the lead and go to you. I would also check the keywords they are ranking for, if the are not the best keywords then you can point that out and even offer SEO.

The first question is easy, but you'd actually have a site that's already ranking. The answer is simply that you can get them on page 1 today. Whereas it might take weeks or months to rank their own site for that search term.

The 2nd objection can be answered by letting them know that by renting a site that's ranking for an additional search term, they are multiplying the amount of leads that come into their business. It's like putting a billboard on both sides of the highway instead of 1, or 2 different highways completely. More people are exposed to their business because their ranking for multiple search terms and therefore more leads would naturally be coming in.

Here's what i would say:

'why should I spend money on your site instead of spending the money ranking my own site?'

Because we have the experience and expertise for getting your website in front of many viewers in a short period of time.

'will I need this if my site is already on page one?'

You should definitely use it to improve the chances of a visitor clicking on a search result that is related to your business. So this can potentially increase your sales and profits... and we have case studies that prove this scenario.

question for the rent-a-site'ers

I understand your model when the keyword brings up a result with no 'places' results but how do you create a places listing this day in age when google requires post card/phone call confirmations and concrete addresses?

Aren't you worried about google cracking down on fake place listings?

It is for these reasons that the consulting/selling method seems more valuable in the long term to me. When you work for a business you can still secure regular reoccurring payments under the guise of 'maintenance'

The best part about the rent-a-site model though is the ability to already have it ranked number 1 before you sell them... such a strong selling point.

Last time I checked there wasn't anything wrong with having more that one site on the first page...
For every position you occupy there is one less position for your competition.
I would sugguest they keep there site, have another, and get a video optimized as well,
I'm new at this but we have done this for clients.

Question for everyone in this thread...

Everyone in here is talking about serious money. Like, really serious money, for almost no work.

Just to clarify :

1. Buy an EMD for a regularly searched, but low competition, keyword for a local niche market IE 'Mediumsizedcity Hairsalon'

2. Do some basic SEO (A few hours, or outsource) to outrank all the crappy Google place listings/no backlink local sites.

3. Record traffic and prepare some figures and forecasts.

4. Pitch website rental to local business figuring in their potential profits, sell it well and secure monthly payments simply to have a website at #1.

5. Make $500 a month for simply letting a website sit at the number 1 spot in Google with a maximum of 4-8 hours work.

Really? Can anyone here confirm the above scenario?

Because to be honest, if this is true, this has to be the biggest kept secret in online history. What the hell is the downside?

IFyou offer a refund policy it doesn't seem legit, worth it's value. That right there would put me off as
1.) Your site doesn't work
2.) You will not refund my money
3.) your not 100% confident in yourself, leading back to #1.

B.) Always setup a phone number that you can show how many calls you get in a day/week/month. I never need to tell them numbers as to how many searches just how many calls it gets in a certain time period.

There's another way to pitch your deal.

"Hi, this is Jan, and possibly, but I can't be sure... this might help you. You see I'm getting a lot of phone calls, 58 of them last month... homeowners asking for an emergency plumber.. so possibly these might work for you and Bay City Rooter. But I don't know who to bring this to... could you maybe help me with that?"

"Sure, I'll put you through to Mr XYZ... hold please."

Say the same thing and get a 10 minute appointment for a F2F. Don't explain diddly about what you do or how you do it. Say he can listen in to actual phone calls while you run over the 3 points you have... only takes 10 minutes in his office. "10 minutes. Set aside some private time, no interrruptions, which is better for you morning or afternoon."

Go there. Whereupon you control the conversation and stay on point about nothing but those phone calls and how maybe, he/she can get a steady supply of those homeowners calling in needing a drain expert. Maybe?! Yeah, maybe. Cuz I'm doing a selection process here for my best client, because this is an exclusive deal here for one business, you see. So, maybe this business will qualify, maybe they won't. I'm in control, I own the phone calls. He's got 10 minutes.

I wouldn't talk about leads or websites, I would talk about these are qualified phone calls...people calling who say "Hey, how much to come out an unclogged this toilet?"

In other words, forget the rent, forget the website, don't even talk about how you get these phone calls except to say... "Well, yeah, I'm a lead generation expert, its all I do in fact".

Plop down your $40 digital recorder and hit play... let the guy listen to a few of your recorded phone calls. Whaddaya think? Might get his attention... and he won't be thinking about his own website.

Just negotiate for the flat monthly rate he's willing to pay for "phone calls" from homeowners needing drain service now. They get that, trust me. Since drain guys, and drain girls, average about $200 to $250 per house call, your prospect can do his own math. And help him out by supplying your numbers of phone calls, but nothing else. The ROI math makes your negotiation smooth, your worth is established in currency... no better standard than that. And let him decide on his own math, not yours. Get your worth, or move on.

1) You must have phone tracking in place to prove the calls. He has to get them and know every single one of them come for you, and nowhere else.

2) Oh Yeah, you actually have to be getting real homeowner phone calls... which means you actually have an optimized online funnel with multiple feeders... because you actually are an expert... and these are high-value leads for a competitive niche, and your funnel is matured enough, or ppc-ed enough, to keep up a steady monthly supply. You got all that, right? This means you know what your are doing... and this last step is cake.

3) Flat rate. Month to month. No contract. Let them do their own math.

4) Means he can quit any time, and you can also raise your fee... or quit and move to another drain guy. You control the flow. Mr Myagi say, "Wax on, Wax off."

OP, not sure what your website is actually doing in # of calls, even what the niche is... you didn't say, yet that sure would have helped you get on-point relevant replies here... but the concept I laid out can be applied to a true lead-gen model. That is assuming you are getting qualified traffic and you are getting qualified phone calls. And another thing... if I try to sell "leads" from a single site, that inevitably leads(pun intended) to arguments over what defines a "lead"... save the hassle just go for a flat rate.

Proper tracking/forwarding of phone calls is the key.

Getting a tiny bit of hidden objection resistance at the close, pumpkin? First, is this the company you really want? No worries... just turn on the calls and let him have a taste for a few days. You can prove the phone calls came from you. Then the guy buys... or you move on to the next company.

Maybe he balks even after a 3 day tasting. Still want this guy? And here he is... some unknown reason he's nigglin over the simple decision... no problem. "Hey, we both know the worth of 58 homeowners, don't we? Okay, I must have a minimum of $936 a month to make this work in the first month. My CPA will kill me if I don't, but to remove the last shadow of a doubt, cut me a check right now for 468... I turn on the phone calls so they ring directly to your phone... I'll be back here in exactly 2 weeks. You can have the money back, or write me the other check for 468 to finish out the month. I can hang on another minute or two, where's the john?... while you think about this. I've got to drive all the way over on Sepulveda to see the Rooter Man next."

I have this radical idea about business and marketing... if you do it well, you are creating willing eager buyers... so you don't have to sell.

Hope that helps.

Best regards,
Jan Gregory

P.S. If you are going to reply and say your getting email captures from a webform on your site ( dog training for a dog trainer service, yoga or something), that's another kettle of fish and there's little worth in the marketplace. I don't even look at that as lead-gen. You should only be targeting a local business niche where they live or die on the phone ringing... and there is lots of competition. This is your absolute best bet for the lead-gen game. Leave the rest out on on the playground.

P.P.S. Just 2 more cents, its become very common here on the forum to see Threads requesting some advice, help, or analysis... but the OP leaves out a lot of very relevant and pertinent information for the repliers who bother to reply. I'm calling on all those requesting... to take the danged time to write out a thoughtful well crafted request...
"My website about XXX is getting 21 subscribers to a dog training newsletter... OR "My renta-website for teeth whitening is 4 months old and geared up to capture visitors looking for discounts on a $500 laser whitening procedure in a large metro area... and I have a tracking phone number in place... now I'm ready to monetize the 54 phones calls I'm getting every month for the discount codes... can anyone weigh in with some sales ideas for these "teeth whitening leads"

P.P.P.S Lead-gen experts, they attack an entire local niche with their own assets... multiple sites, PPC, facebook, and more... all leading down my funnel, the one that I own... then you have bigger numbers and one might consider selling each phone call for a flat rate to several businesses. But if you are a real lead-gen expert, its way easier and less hassle to just go to the top dog in town and give him a taste... and who gives a rat's behind what his own website is doing anyway. He/She won't care... the leading business will be eager to talk about your qualified phone calls for much more monthly, and his own stuff has nothing to do with it. He wants the phone to ring. Period.

I would look for people that aren't ranked in page 1 maybe page 3 or further. If you do talk to someone that is already in page one plain and simple you'll have 2 sites in page one taking more spots than your competitors which most likely you'll receive more traffic and leads. And to the question of " Why not do SEO for my own site instead of renting" Well SEO takes time, your page is already in page one so they can be in page one withing hours, with doing SEO for their website they have to wait a few weeks or even months depending on how tough his market is. So the question to them would be do you want to be on page 1 right away or wait a few weeks?

1. You should rent my site because it's ALREADY on page 1! (duh)
... and also because I would charge you a whole lot more to get your site on page 1 since it would be starting from scratch (and be competing with myself)

2. 'will I need this if my site is already on page one?' NO (duh)
So don't pitch businesses already on page 1 of google, pitch the ones starting on page 2

If the customer asks those 2 questions above you are pitching the wrong customers! PLUS, if you have to explain to them the value then they are not a good customer for you and will probably eventually cancel after making you do extra work and threatening to chargeback their c.c.

Hope this helps!
cheers
jason