What's the Hardest Part of Selling Mobile for You and What Tips Do You Have To Help Others??

I do have a question, and then will post more later.

Since business owners do want to know how whatever we are selling will bring them more business and leads, how do you show them that a mobile website does that?

I know the stats about mobile searches and increased customer satisfaction because of site navigation, but any suggestion on how to show them that part of the value in a mobile site is increased business?

I think it could be a losing battle until these people see that their competition are going mobile.

For instance if you pitch them that people come onto their site but have to scroll and zoom, a quick thinking business owner will probably say, yeah well they have to do that on all of our competitions sites also. Even though they really should, offline business owners may not think that users' online experience counts for much. So long as they have an online presence, then that is fine.

I guess there will always be some people who are reluctant! As you say it's all about coming from an angle whereby you sell the benefits to the business rather than the product itself.

@JToneyUK

I think one way to respond to that kind of objection is to say,

Yes, and that's my point! The business that has the foresight to go mobile now will win - because they will capture that customer. The customer will have no reason to click off to a competitor site - they'll find just what they are looking for in your mobile site. It's a win/win because the customer finds what they are looking for on your site - and you get the customer.

Awesome insight, Jason. Thanks!

I've attended a few conferences in Boston this year and have heard a lot of discussion about mobile and mobile marketing.

As an internet marketer it is hard to sell prospects mobile services when they still need a lot of seo work on their main websites.

Mobile will continue to be a big part of our future but I think your main webpage still needs to be your primary focus.

However, if you are pitching a restaurant or brick and mortar business it makes send to invest heavily on mobile. People are search for food with the intent to find a nice place to sit and get a bite. More often then not, if your site is friendly and has a few good reviews, you well get the business.

I jsut started in mobile, so let me know if I'm doing it the right way.

The biggest objection I'm getting is "I'll have my webmaster do it. Thanks for bringing that to my attention." Got 2 of those this week.

I'm hoping the webmaster can't do it. I'm hoping if I check back next week I'll see it not done so I can contact them again and say something like "I see the webmaster hasn't gotten to it yet. I can get it up for you in less than a week."

Do you think this will work? How should I handle this objection?

In a word...Ignorance.

A lot of time often has to be invested in teaching many Merchants exactly what Mobile is.

Just the other day I was having a conversation with a Business Owner who thought Mobile Marketing was just another word for QR Codes.

Some think its signs on Moving Vehicles.

Will tells it like it is.

I hesitated for a long time before I went out to pitch prospects on my mobile services because I was always afraid of what objection they might throw at me, when in reality most of those things never came up. So I spent too much time worrying in my house when I could have been out selling. Sure there is going to be the ocasional question that may stump you. Do your best, take your time and think through it, answer the question, then next time you'll be more prepared if it ever comes up again. It's part of the growth.

Jason and Will R have flushed out a lot of the key things here.

I would like to add to this by telling you my mistakes and what I did to overcome them. I did like a lot of you have done or are doing. I sat around, bought a bunch of WSOs, theorized, built test sites, built high end demo sites, tried to learn all the facts and figures, and maybe contacted one warm prospect a week.

Prospecting avoidance.

It's not why I was failing just in mobile consulting, it's why I failed as a financial advisor, insurance agent, and now, mobile consultant. I never learned my lesson, after reading books, learning all sorts of stuff, and never learning the true lesson.

It doesn't matter what you say, for the most part. It doesn't matter who you say it to, for the most part. Having a flawless pitch is great, but you can't get until you talk to enough people to really find your "voice", and understand what needs to be in a flawless pitch. And again, it really doesn't matter what happens on any one call (literal call, sales visit, email, whatever).

So, what I did to get over my prospecting avoidance is I found a system that works for me, and I stuck to it. And I don't mean stuck to it by contacting a couple of people a day or a week, I mean doing it day in and day out. It's mostly Will R's system with some things I learned on my own, but I do it all the time.

And it's become kind of fun to see what's going to happen. I used to spend an hour or more finding the perfect prospect, and totally building a perfect mockup site, then never aggressively pursuing them.

Now, it takes me an average of 3 minutes and 14 seconds to find a qualified prospect, build them a custom mobile site that matches the color and feel of their desktop site (non functioning, but I do send a "before and after" pic), and email them a personal email with all this information, plus a decent call to action. It's not the best call to action, but I don't care. I send out as many as I can in a day, and I love the results. I'm not making tens of thousands of dollars a month yet, but I'm on my way.

Because I have a method that works for me, and I do not avoid prospecting.

I know this is getting long, but I want to end with my most recent story. Friday night, I attended a sporting event near me. A BIG sponsor of the event was a local dentist group, which has three dentists in the group. I found out later that manta.com said they have a 1.5 - 2.0 million annual revenue - sweet.

So anyway, this dental clinic had THOUSANDS of nice relevant to the event large cards printed up, with lots of info about their group in great color on the back. Also, they had a booth, with a professional banner, and some other great marketing material. ALSO, they were announced to the whole event of giving away a $5,000 dental makeover to a fan, and before and after pics were shown. Bottom line - these people dropped a LOT of money advertising, and, you guessed it, their website was NOT mobile optimized.

I sent them an email from the even, and will build them out a mockup (fully functioning this time) and QR code, which they could put on their marketing material. I don't know how this will end up, but I feel like I have an obligation to give this dental group the information I have, because they aren't doing what their prospects are begging them to do.

At the event, there were around 15,000 people, and most of them had smartphones. If they had a QR code campaign that got people to opt in to an SMS system, or led them to a mobile website with a call to action, THEN this clinic would be completing their marketing.

Again, I say that I feel it's my obligation to give these people the opportunity to grow their business using what I can help them with.

So, sorry for the long post, but, bottom line, what ended my prospecting avoidance was to get out there and share what I do. I've had some great conversations with some really good people, and yes, I've been turned down, which doesn't bother me.

I just wish I did this six months ago.