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First prospect pitch...didn't go very well....how would you handle this?

by rossi303
11 replies
Hi everyone,

I recently pitched my first prospect and I suspected it might be a dud right from the get go. Here's what happened.

I'm a newbie, with no clients yet. I answered an add on CL, someone was looking for a student to help optimize their site. The ad was a few weeks old but I responded anyway, ya never know right?

Basically I told the person that I am a recent grad and am starting my own consultant biz. I would optimize his site for free in exchange for business referrals. (Don't hate too much....need some practice, need a confidence boost!)

Guy wrote back and it ends up that he owns a family owned car repair/maintenance shop with 3 locations. His rankings are terrible and he's been using some web designers with no luck of getting rankings. I get the sites and they need to be totally optimized.

I ran some keyword and ranking reports, put them in a pdf file and sent it off to him. I pitched him this --> I would optimize one site for free in exchange for 5 solid business leads. After his ranking went up and he started getting more traffic, if he liked his results then we can talk further about optimizing his other sites and setting up some systems to gain new customers, make more sales, and over all improve his bottom line.

Never heard back. I'm going with the He's a Cheap *ss route....if you have 3 locations and don't want to spend money on a good seo person (hence the college student), then you're cheap and I don't want your business. It would have been nice to have though....oh well.

So I told him that I am not a designer or a technical charge-by-the-hour person. I would not touch the web pages or the code, just optimize them for this first venture. (Tried to show value over being a worker bee.) I would get him results and new customers, engage past customers as well. Told him to keep his web designer around b/c they'll be busy.

How do you handle telling a client that you don't do any coding or designing? Have you experienced any pushback on this aspect? How do they react to having to pay the web guy and the IM guy?
#handle #pitchdidnt #prospect #wellhow
  • Profile picture of the author Mar
    In the days when I used to work in an employment agency, we used to call clients and potential clients once a month. Basically, it was a numbers game - if you made 100 phone calls, you got 10 job vacancies. (OK, this was back in the days when there were jobs a plenty!)

    Prospecting is about putting yourself in front of clients; you can't judge anything on approaching just one potential business. Good on you for taking the initiative and contacting them. You've broken the ice - now just go for it!

    It's all great experience and you'll find what works best for you if you keep on tackling this head on.

    Mar
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
    ...your perception that the proposal was a dud is baseless. All you know is that the prospect didn't respond.

    Could be he is out for a free education. Could be he's too busy and it's a low priority for him. Could be he was overwhelmed by the technical side and got scared. You simply don't know, and won't until you get some feedback. Which may or may not be forthcoming.

    Stop telling people that you are a recent grad. That = no experience, so in their mind how can you possibly help?

    Don't tell any prospect that you are looking for your first client. Same issue.

    You are financially independent and don't need the business; that's your attitude.

    So you have some choices now:

    1) you can chase the guy, hoping that he'll talk to you by phone or email. Then you can ask him about his reaction.

    2) you can forget about this prospect, and go look for new business.
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  • Profile picture of the author linebelowdigital
    You've gotta follow up with him for sure. But, you also definitely need to be searching for other clients. If you're still looking for your first client, you should be at the very least making a few calls everyday, responding to CL ads, and even posting some ads of your own.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jeff Chandler
      I generally look for other consultants in the area that don't compete with services I offer. Approach them and tell them what you're doing. If you run into a client requesting services you don't offer, you can simply tell them it's not something you do but you have someone you work with who can take care of it for them. Hopefully, they'll reciprocate some of their clients to you.
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  • Profile picture of the author SoCalMarketing
    Originally Posted by rossi303 View Post

    Hi everyone,


    So I told him that I am not a designer or a technical charge-by-the-hour person. I would not touch the web pages or the code, just optimize them for this first venture. (Tried to show value over being a worker bee.) I would get him results and new customers, engage past customers as well. Told him to keep his web designer around b/c they'll be busy.

    How do you handle telling a client that you don't do any coding or designing? Have you experienced any pushback on this aspect? How do they react to having to pay the web guy and the IM guy?
    Best approach on this is to outsource this part through alliances with other warriors here on the forum. I have successfully done that. I offer a one stop shop, yet I know very little about some aspects of it but have formed alliances with top notch providers who will do part of the project. I sub it out, and present to the client a finished product. Especially for busy people (and who doesn't claim to be), they will not want to be dealing with multiple people where they do the interaction with each one individually, not only that but they may swipe your client if they do package services and you are a one trick pony :-)

    Odesk, elancer and others have great solutions where you can actually form a full fledged team of people with whom you work regularly and hire very talented people from across the world as well at VERY reasonable fees.
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    • Profile picture of the author Sue Bruce
      Here's your confidence boost. You know SEO. I don't and probably none of the owners you will contact know it either.

      The fact that his designer guy didn't optimize the site is a result of the guy not understanding how the whole process works.

      It's worth a follow up call from you, even if it's just for the experience. Someone sold him on a web site and overlooked the SEO part (of course, that's not their specialty.)

      2011 happened and he's not seeing ROI on his site. So you can help solve that problem for him by getting his site further up the rankings.

      It would be great to have a partnership with design guys but he's missing the point. He already has spent the money on the site. He needs customers to find him.

      I would be a one stop shop for businesses in the same situation. It's actually a good one because many times I don't hear that. You can team up with designers coders and mark up their charge to you so you make money on that service as well.

      I know, you have to be all things to all people! Just a learning experience.
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  • Profile picture of the author somacorellc
    I'm confused. Like, you don't do ANY coding? How are you planning on optimizing the site? You're just going to tell the web guy what to do, or...?

    It's one thing to have an outsourcer do the work, in which case you would tell the guy that you can get it done. It's another thing to tell the guy basically "I don't do anything."

    I think that may have been your downfall on this one, dude.

    Originally Posted by rossi303 View Post

    How do you handle telling a client that you don't do any coding or designing? Have you experienced any pushback on this aspect? How do they react to having to pay the web guy and the IM guy?
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  • Profile picture of the author Eddie Spangler
    If you are unsure of yourself and just need to get your feet wet then offer on a pay MONEY after rankings basis.

    Curious though- you say yourself hes a cheapo an you dont want his business BUT you are still offering basically FREE work to him anyway.
    On top of that his original ad means he is expecting to pay, even if cheap, so why offer him freebies.

    YOur whole approach makes no sense.
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  • Profile picture of the author madison_avenue
    The web design part can be outsourced. I would find some reliable out sourcers and include the web design in a higher price. Get it done in WordPress so it's easy to add content. If he asks whether you do web design you can say, "yes we can do this", rather than "Yes I can do this".

    When you do the SEO, you might find the existing site ineffective in converting customers, and he may need a better website, or a landing page to target customers.

    An optimised website for converting customers, can be as important as the SEO part. The SEO part. is in some ways harder to sell, because it is less tangible, whereas he will immediately see the new website and any landing page you do for him.

    Of course the entry barrier is higher if design is offered, but sometimes it makes the sale easier and it makes you look more powerful too! And it can be outsourced.
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  • Profile picture of the author BarbaraP
    1. You took action. So many of us waste hours on here and the day flies by and we've missed opportunities. Like the ones I missed today. Get off the Warrior Forum for a few days to improve your self-confidence and write down your business.
    2. Look at your self in the mirror and say: "I have more knowledge about Internet Marketing for local business than anyone I talk with today. Every local business owner I meet needs more leads and customers. They need the phone to ring. I help make that happen."
    3. Write down your target market. Not "local businesses." Auto Repair, Tire Stores, whatever niche you are working on FIRST.
    4. Write down the problem they have that you can solve, and on the opposite column the benefit you deliver. You will never talk to them about the techie side of SEO, NEVER. They just want their phone to ring after people land on their website, see a video, Google page or whatever. You will get them seen by the 85% searching for local sources of products and services they are ready to buy. When you pitch, Remind them they are invisible to these buyers and how many more leads can they afford to lose? You will fix that for them.
    5. Write down the exact service you will provide and the price. Don't tell them you will do anything free and do not offer a big When you ask them for referrals, they hear "you will have to spend time you don't have." You are part of the largest Internet Marketing group of experts in the world. Yes, that's the Warrior Forum. "We get local business owners new customers and more sales every day."
    If you cannot physically produce the solution you sell, someone on here will do it for it @ a price that you can put in a profit margin.
    6. Practice your sales pitch in the mirror, smile when you are on the phone, write down exactly what you are charging. And,
    Ask for the Business.
    Congrats to you for graduating and taking action to make money and work for yourself. That is fantastic.
    Happy New Year and Cheers to Your Success!
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  • Profile picture of the author Deidra Renee
    Find an outsourcer that does coding and all the other things that you don't do FIRST..before speaking to potential clients, that way you know that you have someone to do the work that you don't know how to do.

    You are supposed to sound like you know what you're doing. If you tell them *I can optimize your site, but keep your web guy around* then what is he supposed to be paying you for? Just make sure you have a RELIABLE outsourcer available, that way you can sell pretty much anything without knowing how to do it. Just make sure you know how to explain it and you shouldn't have anymore problems.

    Everything is a learning experience, you're not going to get EVERY sale. Even when you think you got it in the bag, some people just don't want to spend their money at the time they talk to you, so just learn from this and move on...and get it right the next time
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