jonathan12345

Hey everyone,

Thought I'd start a brief thread and share what I think is the best way to sell mobile apps to small businesses as I see many users here showing interest but not really knowing where to start.

The first thing to really understand is the difference between a mobile app and a mobile website. BOTH are important, but BOTH have different use cases. Mobile apps are great for customer loyalty, commerce, scheduling, and communication with push notifications, Mobile websites are great for simple content display.

If you create mobile apps that simply display content, you leave zero value for the customer to use the app which then leaves the small business owner little value to keep paying you for the app. You want features that will be used more than once by a customer and often built into your apps.

So by explaining this fundamental difference between apps and mobile websites I've had a lot of traction landing new clients for my business. You need to stress how features only an app can provide will BENEFIT the business and help them grow. Not just list features and expect them to figure all of this out on their own.

Here is a scenario on how I usually land a deal, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't but this is how it typically goes...

1. I cold call into a business owner asking a few questions about what they're doing for mobile marketing, my only goal is to a) get them to talk about their business then b) get their email to send more information c) and then get a specific follow up time on my email.

2. I email them information regarding specific stats on how a mobile app can benefit their business with examples of other businesses with apps like theirs.

3. I then call again at the time set for the follow up asking if they had received my information and gone over it. Typically, I hear they say no ... they haven't had a chance... this is where I'll usually recommend that we both save each other time and meet up if they're local for a small presentation or if they're out of state we do a screen share using join.me to show a quickly created version of their app for them.

4. From there, I work to see what sorts of concerns they have with making this work and getting them to see value. "Do you see how adding a loyalty program would benefit your customers" -- they say yes. "Can your business benefit from increasing repeat business by engaging your customers more?" -- they also say yes... getting you closer to the sale. These are preclose questions

5. Then I just ask if they're willing to give this a shot, let me design their app and all I ask for is the set up fee to start. If all goes well I add in the monthly hosting fee at the end.

This is a short version of my strategy but I'd love to hear how others are selling apps. Or if you're selling mobile websites, how are you selling those? I think the process is the same but it all comes down to selling BENEFITS not FEATURES!

Cheers to everyone selling mobile marketing!

I resell mobile apps for a company called Bizness Apps. Not affiliated at all, just a fan and supporter.

mobilemarketer2012

Hi Jonathan;

I agree that you need to explain why the features are of benefit to them. However, I think you know that all those features you listed above you can do with mobile sites/web apps now. Push notifications are the one thing you can't do with mobile sites but you can accomplish communication with text or email. I know that you are a Biznessapps reseller and a big fan of apps and that is fine. The debate over apps vs. mobile sites has been going on here for years. I agree that you absolutely have to have something on the app to repeatedly engage the customer and the features you mentioned are god ones. Even with those features, I'd be curious to know how many people on this forum have multiple apps on their phones from local businesses they frequent. But let's take this one further. Will the mobile wallet be the death of mobile apps? I've kind of hijacked your thread here so I am going to start a new thread with this question.

Best Regards,

jonathan12345

I think the better question is how many local businesses that you frequent offer useful and functional mobile apps? Probably not many.

I resell mobile apps for a company called Bizness Apps. Not affiliated at all, just a fan and supporter.

mcfcok

How many apps do you sell per week and at what price points?

jonathan12345

Honestly it depends -- great weeks I've closed 2-3 deals, then spend the next week servicing those new clients. Some weeks no sales.

But I'd say at least 1 new sale is coming per week when everything is averaged out. The main thing is just staying on top of talking to new businesses and making new presentations every week -- at least spending 50% of your time doing this.

I price my apps around $800-$1500 design / set up fee and then $50-$100/month depending on the level of service I provide after the app is live. Typically it is $100/month as I try to position myself as their "go to guy" for anything related to their mobile marketing. I will make revisions, I will schedule their push notes, I will update their app design, I will walk them through how to use the app dashboard and check analytics, edit their apps content, send push notes on their own, how to create new coupons, etc.

My pricing is flexible though to allow for discounts as sometimes businesses need to feel like they're getting a deal in order to move forward. So I work with their budget when I need to.

However, it all comes down to how many presentations you can set with businesses. I typically try to set at LEAST 1 solid presentation per day through cold emailing / cold calling / following up and then I usually will see 1/4 of those presentations turn into a sale.

So if you set 5 demos per week you should expect around 1-2 sales per week.

Hope this helps!

I resell mobile apps for a company called Bizness Apps. Not affiliated at all, just a fan and supporter.

mcfcok

Sounds like you doing ok for yourself. Fulfilling the service is holding you back from being in on the road selling. Have you considered working with someone to build while you sell and look after the client?

What is the client retention like? One thing that slightly puts me off selling apps is keeping clients long term.

Regards

Dave

jonathan12345

I actually do that now. The app builder I use (Bizness Apps, surprise!) has a pretty nice design service and they're pretty damn good. For a hundred bucks they'll build an app that looks like it's nearly custom.

So I sell now, they do the app design, and then I handle the small edits.

But at first I did everything which I would HIGHLY recommend for people starting out so you really learn the product.

When you do a presentation, what really gets people excited is when you understand how everything works, you understand how Apple approvals work, you walk them through how to send a push notifications, you show them how easy it is to make edits to their app, you go over their analytics, and this all reinforces the monthly fee question -- why do I have to pay a monthly hosting fee??

Well, because of this awesome dashboard that comes with your app! And this handles this objection before it's usually brought up but it is almost always asked. And to learn all this I had to build the apps myself at first so now it's like second nature.

As for retention, I've had some clients cancel but when they do I'll ask for a cancellation call. I'll go over what's not working, usually they will say no one is using the app, then I ask how they've been marketing the app... they typically say they haven't been (duh). So from there I've had situations where I help them easily market their app to customers through social media sharing and simple print outs placed in their place of business and if all of that doesn't work out I offer a reduced price... but yeah some have cancelled.

I'd say 90%+ of my clients have stayed with me. If the app is built for a quality business, with features that make sense, and it is marketed correctly... I've never had a cancellation. Only for businesses that are really small (like a taco truck) and could never really get traction with the app. Once customers start using the app retention is very high in my experience.

I resell mobile apps for a company called Bizness Apps. Not affiliated at all, just a fan and supporter.