what do I do in this situation?

by man5
25 replies
I am calling around businesses in my city to sell them websites/mobile websites. From what I have gathered so far, 99.9% of them are already working with another company to design mobile websites and do their marketing.

Then again I've only been calling medium size to big size companies. I think the only chance I have of getting a sale is if i go after smaller businesses. But I don't feel like whoring myself out to that level. Cheap clients are not worth it.

I haven't called all the big businesses in my city yet, so you never know what might come through.

But have you gone through something like this?

Discuss.
#situation
  • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
    Small businesses still have money to spend. If you can't get results for a small business, you aren't ready for the bigger businesses.
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  • Profile picture of the author Aaron Doud
    You are not whoring yourself out if you charge what you are worth. Though they may need less work and thus cheaper websites.
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    • Profile picture of the author David Miller
      First of all, 99.9% of all the people you are calling are NOT already doing business with someone else. They just aren't doing business with you. Clearly you need to refine what ever you are doing when you speak with them.

      Are you improvising with each call? If you are, you don't have a chance with any size business.

      Are you really calling as many businesses as you say you are?

      Your remark about whoring yourself out to smaller business is a little strange. It seems you have a little attitude that they can't afford you but you no real way to know that. But right now, according to you, you have .1% of your market still available. Time to change your approach.
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      • Profile picture of the author somacorellc
        First of all this quote is gold...

        Originally Posted by David Miller View Post

        ...99.9% of all the people you are calling are NOT already doing business with someone else. They just aren't doing business with you.
        Secondly, I only work with small to medium sized businesses and have closed three deals this week that are all monthly recurring clients in the hundreds of dollars. What industries you ask?

        Sewer pump repair
        Lawn care
        Roofer

        Not the most prestigious lines of work, but they all have one thing in common - the money to spend on the value I give.
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        • Profile picture of the author Deidra Renee
          Originally Posted by somacorellc View Post

          First of all this quote is gold...



          Secondly, I only work with small to medium sized businesses and have closed three deals this week that are all monthly recurring clients in the hundreds of dollars. What industries you ask?

          Sewer pump repair
          Lawn care
          Roofer

          Not the most prestigious lines of work, but they all have one thing in common - the money to spend on the value I give.
          That is the million dollar statement! I don't care how big or small you are, if you want my services and can pay me then we can work something out.

          But as you said you haven't gone through all of the businesses that you can yet, so you have to just keep trying. I would recommend you start with the smaller businesses. Almost all of my clients are contractors (as far as the web design services) and the majority of them have never complained about pricing or tried to give me all kinds of crazy demands.

          You need to let them know from the beginning how many updates you're willing to do for free, what your *maintenance* entails, etc..If they start demanding things, that's when prices start going up!
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      • Profile picture of the author man5
        Originally Posted by David Miller View Post

        First of all, 99.9% of all the people you are calling are NOT already doing business with someone else. They just aren't doing business with you. Clearly you need to refine what ever you are doing when you speak with them.

        Are you improvising with each call? If you are, you don't have a chance with any size business.

        Are you really calling as many businesses as you say you are?

        Your remark about whoring yourself out to smaller business is a little strange. It seems you have a little attitude that they can't afford you but you no real way to know that. But right now, according to you, you have .1% of your market still available. Time to change your approach.

        Yes they are already in business with someone else. They already have main website and I know which company created it. When I offer them mobile version, they say they are already working on it. Not surprising since they are big business and they know the value of keeping with new technology. It has nothing to do with me. Simply put, someone else got to them before I could get to them.

        Having said that, I have done my fair share of business with small local businesses when i first started out. It was nothing but pain in the butt to work with them. Too much hassle and too little money. Nice people, but not really good for a business relationship.

        I can not do a website for $200 or $500. That is slave wage. That seems to be the general price what most of you here are charging.
        And I have seen many other designers charging that kind of price or lower. It's almost as if they are begging for clients...judging by the ads they post.

        And no I have not called all the businesses in my city yet. I have many many more to go. All I am doing is sharing my experience with you so far. Mobile website is a big market, but your not the only one after the ball.
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        • Profile picture of the author David Miller
          Originally Posted by man5 View Post

          It has nothing to do with me. Simply put, someone else got to them before I could get to them.
          OK....if you really believe that, the only thing you should do is find another line of work.

          I was going to suggest hiring a salesperson but since it's not you, it wouldn't be him or her either.

          Just to add to this:

          You open a thread posing the question: what should i do in this situation? You end with a request to "discuss" and that's fine. But you don't seem open to any legitimate discussion. You will not consider that your assertion that everyone is doing business with someone already has no merit in any business model.

          Yes, they are doing business with someone else, perhaps. There are people in this thread who are working with clients that were doing business with someone else before they spoke with them.

          I can only assume from the way you approach things that the small businesses that you have done business with didn't have any website at all. If you will not open yourself up to the idea that you may need to improve your sales ability, then there's no need for any more discussion.
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        • Profile picture of the author IvanovaiKai
          Originally Posted by man5 View Post

          Yes they are already in business with someone else. They already have main website and I know which company created it. When I offer them mobile version, they say they are already working on it. Not surprising since they are big business and they know the value of keeping with new technology. It has nothing to do with me. Simply put, someone else got to them before I could get to them.

          Having said that, I have done my fair share of business with small local businesses when i first started out. It was nothing but pain in the butt to work with them. Too much hassle and too little money. Nice people, but not really good for a business relationship.

          I can not do a website for $200 or $500. That is slave wage. That seems to be the general price what most of you here are charging.
          And I have seen many other designers charging that kind of price or lower. It's almost as if they are begging for clients...judging by the ads they post.

          And no I have not called all the businesses in my city yet. I have many many more to go. All I am doing is sharing my experience with you so far. Mobile website is a big market, but your not the only one after the ball.

          Hey Man5

          I dont really post on here much anymore due to workload, but i've been doing Offline consulting for near on 2 years now, Im not a fantastic sales person like some people are on here so im not going to preach what your doing is wrong what i will say is,


          $200 - $500 Is not slave wage, the sites i sell to clients for that price i could get thousands for if im honest i underprice my sites to get my foot in the door... Maybe its because i genuinely like seeing another business succeed aswell but none the less

          Your initial service can be as low as $100, give them a FREE site... Your now there "go to" guy for anything web related, upsell them etc

          I started off like you say you did, selling sites for £100-200 (Im in the UK) but not one of those clients have stopped using me as their consultant, or now paid me over £1000 a year to keep their sites going and SEO (On one i upsold them)

          Especially selling mobile sites LOL what do you think your going to get initially for those ?


          I would also like to add that "We have another company handling this at the moment" is one of the quickest ways to get a salesman off the phone buddy,

          Not being rude but from your post it seems you need to maybe take a step back, change your attitude going into this and consider whatever money you get if any, is a prize.. as this is a pretty competitive market now, and NO wage is slave wage now a days

          Kai
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          • Profile picture of the author RobbieT
            Originally Posted by IvanovaiKai View Post

            Hey Man5

            $200 - $500 Is not slave wage, the sites i sell to clients for that price i could get thousands for if im honest i underprice my sites to get my foot in the door... Maybe its because i genuinely like seeing another business succeed aswell but none the less

            Kai
            Perhaps the bit in bold above is part of the problem. Kai makes it work because he sees it from the point of the business owner, gives them really good service and value and both he and his clients win.

            Put the WIIFM glasses of the owner on and see what you would like to receive if it was your business.

            Take care

            Robbie T
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        • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
          Originally Posted by man5 View Post

          Yes they are already in business with someone else. They already have main website and I know which company created it. When I offer them mobile version, they say they are already working on it. Not surprising since they are big business and they know the value of keeping with new technology. It has nothing to do with me. Simply put, someone else got to them before I could get to them.

          Having said that, I have done my fair share of business with small local businesses when i first started out. It was nothing but pain in the butt to work with them. Too much hassle and too little money. Nice people, but not really good for a business relationship.

          I can not do a website for $200 or $500. That is slave wage. That seems to be the general price what most of you here are charging.
          And I have seen many other designers charging that kind of price or lower. It's almost as if they are begging for clients...judging by the ads they post.

          And no I have not called all the businesses in my city yet. I have many many more to go. All I am doing is sharing my experience with you so far. Mobile website is a big market, but your not the only one after the ball.

          I'm working on being a nicer person, since so many people have requested that, but I'm having difficulties right now. I will fight the urge and see if I can put this in a non offensive way...

          Before you go about saying what a slave wage is, I'd suggest having your own website actually WORK instead of going to a blank page.

          One thing that concerns me about you, is that you have market awareness, you know these companies have another firm working with them, and you know what people on here and other places are charging, yet you say you can't make a site for that amount of money. If that is how you feel, I suggest you go into another line of work.

          You're spending all your time trying to get sales... by the time you get a sale that is adequate for you, it ends up being slave wage anyway. If it takes you 40 hours to get a $1,200 sale you're only making 30/hr without including the work on the website.

          I offer $500 websites all the time... I can make a $500 website in a few hours of my time, or outsource it or have my team work on it. How many people get $500 websites? Not many, usually I upsell them.

          If you aren't willing to make changes and adjust in order to take a piece of your market share, start looking for a job or enter another field.
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  • Profile picture of the author PlatinumLady
    Don't discount small businesses because you just never know how successful they could make you become. If you target small businesses and get their custom you could be raking it even with 5% conversion if you are prepared to work hard and get as many as possible to respond to you.
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  • Profile picture of the author ericbryant
    An old trick is to look for ads and media buys, that is, look for companies that are spending money on marketing and advertising already. A lot of the people at the local business meetings are solo-broke-preneurs with no budget at all, or trying 4 diffferent career paths at once. No good. No money there.
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  • Profile picture of the author Aaron Doud
    man5 how many hours do you spend working on a website for a client. The going rate on per hour is $100 to $200/hr. It is what we expect on the other side.

    And a simply website should be a few hours(2 to 5) that is why people charge $300 bucks for them. But you should always be offering more. But making up a simple mobile site and taking 2 hrs to do it should be worth $300 to you. Also if you are just starting you are more likely to score this vs making a website for a large company like Deere. Also the larger the company the more likely they will want their main and mobile sites made by the same company.

    I know our busiiness would never think of using a different web company for the mobile vs main version of our site. And our mobile version cost $300 and it was no extra per month vs what we already pay.
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  • Profile picture of the author opt in
    Just a thought,

    Companies in cities are usually more exposed to marketing calls than the companies outside the city.

    At one point in your business, you could try companies close to rural area or outside cities, they are usually more open to marketing calls.

    Like I said, just a thought, the down side is you will probably have to do more travel to service them.

    Cheers,

    David
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  • Profile picture of the author ubuildawebsite
    Shoot for the small businesses (just not my area)

    I'm a sales professional by day, web marketer by night... I've sold numerous sites to small businesses.

    You may also be going about your calls all wrong.

    Do you have any experience in cold calling, selling or closing? Don't burn up the businesses in split seconds over the phone, you need to get through the screener on the other end and even possibly build a relationship and find out there concerns before just moving on to the next.
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  • Profile picture of the author Seantrepreneur
    Start by trying to build relationships instead of cold calling if you are finding that is not working out for you. There are soooo many networking events going on all the time where you could go and meet business owners. That way you'll be able to speak face to face instead.

    I find that if I come off less like a sales person and more of a person who is passionate in my work that I get more business. People can instantly tell I know what I'm talking about and I love what I'm doing and they like working with that. That's not to brag at all it just works well for me.

    I would also suggest testing different calling scripts. If one thing isn't working it doesn't mean that cold calling won't work all together it just means you need to change something to make it work.

    Hope the helps,

    Sean
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  • Profile picture of the author elitebag
    You can't just spend time on big company or medium company .Small business is also very important .Each big business build from small business.
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  • Profile picture of the author supershoesclub
    I think you should call the medium and big business firstly. If you couldn't get results from them,you should change your way and try the small business.coz small business will not have too many requirements as the big companies.so it is easy to deal with them.
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  • Profile picture of the author cvcena2
    Id hit both big and small businesses... Big businesses are easier to deal than small businesses, but most big businesses already have their own IT guys...
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  • Profile picture of the author purpleman87
    The real money is in being a true M consultant. By selling a service you have lost the potential positioning needed to ask for big money. Services are based on price...always will be.

    Having 5 or 6 or 10 clients paying you $1500 a month to be a trusted advisor is a much easier life than shilling around for a handful of $297 mobile websites.

    PM me and I'll show you exactly how to do it!
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  • Profile picture of the author RichardDin
    It seems you underestimate the small-sized businesses
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  • Profile picture of the author man5
    Sorry for replaying a bit late. I've been a little busy.

    My background is in design. I am not a sales person. However one needs to have sales skills in order to build a company. And so I started researching and calling a little over a week ago. Since then I have learned quite a lot.

    I did call some small local businesses but they just don't see the value in mobile websites. Even their regular website needs work but they are not willing to spend my kind of money on it. Not all small businesses are like this but I really don't see the reward spending so much time on these guys when I could go after the big fish with better payout. To me, it's not about creating websites. It's about building a quality business. I can only do that if I work with quality people that know the value in such things.

    Which brings me my next point. I am gathering a list of big businesses in my city. I have called about 8 of them in the past 2 days. Unfortunately it is not easy getting hold of their marketing directors. Half of them I have to call back on Monday because I did not want to leave a message. One of them gave me a specific time to call because she was in a meeting. And this one company I called is re-evaluating their current website and want to make it mobile friendly. And for that I am creating a proposal, which will be in their hands by Monday morning.

    You may think 8 calls in 2 days is not a lot. Well for one, I need to wake up early to give me more time. But more importantly, I do research on the company before I call. I see what they have, what they don't have and what they need to have.
    Not bad for landing a proposal in 2 days.
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    • Profile picture of the author Eddie Spangler
      Originally Posted by man5 View Post

      Sorry for replaying a bit late. I've been a little busy.

      My background is in design. I am not a sales person. However one needs to have sales skills in order to build a company. And so I started researching and calling a little over a week ago. Since then I have learned quite a lot.

      I did call some small local businesses but they just don't see the value in mobile websites. Even their regular website needs work but they are not willing to spend my kind of money on it. Not all small businesses are like this but I really don't see the reward spending so much time on these guys when I could go after the big fish with better payout. To me, it's not about creating websites. It's about building a quality business. I can only do that if I work with quality people that know the value in such things.

      Which brings me my next point. I am gathering a list of big businesses in my city. I have called about 8 of them in the past 2 days. Unfortunately it is not easy getting hold of their marketing directors. Half of them I have to call back on Monday because I did not want to leave a message. One of them gave me a specific time to call because she was in a meeting. And this one company I called is re-evaluating their current website and want to make it mobile friendly. And for that I am creating a proposal, which will be in their hands by Monday morning.

      You may think 8 calls in 2 days is not a lot. Well for one, I need to wake up early to give me more time. But more importantly, I do research on the company before I call. I see what they have, what they don't have and what they need to have.
      Not bad for landing a proposal in 2 days.

      So youve talked to 4 people in 2 days and are doing a proposal but you DONT want to whore yourself out for work:confused:

      Not sure your ego will allow you to become successful on this venture.
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    • Profile picture of the author David Miller
      I'm reading your posts and the one thing that comes shining through is that your focus is primarily on YOU. That has as much to do with a lack of sales skills as it has to do with a lack of basic business knowledge.

      "I did call some small local businesses but they just don't see the value in mobile websites"

      You say that the prospect doesn't see the value in a mobile site. It seems that you don't understand that it's your function to show them the value of a mobile site and exactly how you plan to bring that value to them.

      "It's about building a quality business. I can only do that if I work with quality people that know the value in such things."

      Once again, shame on them for not getting you. If your attitude when you speak with prospects is even close to what it is the way you present your case in this forum, I'm surprised someone hasn't punched you in the nose!

      "You may think 8 calls in 2 days is not a lot. Well for one, I need to wake up early to give me more time. But more importantly, I do research on the company before I call."


      You poor thing! You have to wake up early and you have to know something about your prospect! You're kidding, right?

      So if you want to get some value from the time you spend in this thread I suggest that you do the following:

      Share with the people here exactly what you did or said to show the prospect how you can help them.

      With that information, perhaps people here can give you some guidance. But I have a suspicion based on some of your previous responses, that you still may see the problem as being with the prospect and not you. Perhaps you may even see the problem with the very people that you are asking for help from.

      If you are willing to be open to the idea that you need some help, people here will be glad to offer advice and guidance. But coming to this forum with the attitude that the prospect just doesn't get you, is wasting everyone's time and talent.
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      • Profile picture of the author Deidra Renee
        Originally Posted by David Miller View Post

        I'm reading your posts and the one thing that comes shining through is that your focus is primarily on YOU. That has as much to do with a lack of sales skills as it has to do with a lack of basic business knowledge.

        "I did call some small local businesses but they just don't see the value in mobile websites"

        You say that the prospect doesn't see the value in a mobile site. It seems that you don't understand that it's your function to show them the value of a mobile site and exactly how you plan to bring that value to them.

        "It's about building a quality business. I can only do that if I work with quality people that know the value in such things."

        Once again, shame on them for not getting you. If your attitude when you speak with prospects is even close to what it is the way you present your case in this forum, I'm surprised someone hasn't punched you in the nose!

        "You may think 8 calls in 2 days is not a lot. Well for one, I need to wake up early to give me more time. But more importantly, I do research on the company before I call."


        You poor thing! You have to wake up early and you have to know something about your prospect! You're kidding, right?

        So if you want to get some value from the time you spend in this thread I suggest that you do the following:

        Share with the people here exactly what you did or said to show the prospect how you can help them.

        With that information, perhaps people here can give you some guidance. But I have a suspicion based on some of your previous responses, that you still may see the problem as being with the prospect and not you. Perhaps you may even see the problem with the very people that you are asking for help from.

        If you are willing to be open to the idea that you need some help, people here will be glad to offer advice and guidance. But coming to this forum with the attitude that the prospect just doesn't get you, is wasting everyone's time and talent.
        I agree with this 100% but would also like to add to the fact that you think the small businesses didn't want a mobile site because they don't see the value in it.

        You are supposed to be the person showing them the value in your product. I don't know why you think that calling bigger businesses is going to make them see the value, it may actually be worse. They could tell you that they're wildly successful without it so what's the point..then what? Are you going to say that they just don't see the value either?

        My point is you are supposed to be showing them the benefit/value of a mobile site. I can't tell you what it is because I don't sell them, but whatever you sell, you should be able to convince someone that it's worth buying.

        As far as you only calling 8 businesses because you were doing *research.* That is completely unacceptable if you want a successful business. You could dedicate a full day to research and then use the rest of the week for calling, 8 calls is going to get you no where fast.
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