Most local businesses said my price was too high or they already have all their online prescence

I told some of them a bit about how a lead generation site and an online presence can gain them more customers. I told them how an integrated email capture system and mailing list software can help them resell to their existing customers.

Perhaps I didn't explain it well enough. Perhaps I gave up too easily on the others and should've carried on explaining to them.

I know I need to improve my pitch.

See here: Don't Ask if You May Ask Sales Questions. Just Ask - Smart Calling Blog

If this is the approach you took when you walked into a local business, then I would have to say that you are going to be turned down more often than not...all in your approach.

A few reasons....First off, out of the entire conversation below, you use only 3 words that are helpful to a local business and you ramble a ton about things that they do not care about, do not understand or have an easy out to say no thank you.


Those three words are "Gain More Customers". The rest, like asking if they have an online presense....If they do, then it is a no to you. If they don't then you are stuck explaining an online presense as much as gaining more customers. Social media, business directories, etc the same thing. If they do, they have another out to easily say no or reactively say no. If they don't, now you could be explaining what social media actually means or what a web business directory is all about.

Then asking, "so are you interested?" instead of, "So are we going to work together to get you more customers through your door and drive more sales?"


If you are telling them about your lead generation package after all of this other talk, then the lead gen package is most likely already shut behind the large door of rejection with no hopes of getting out. You should either be selling them on Lead Generation services OR Online Presense Management. Too many service offerings start to confuse business owners and confusion is has a road leading directly to the word NO.

I understand about the phony sales pitches. I do not use tricky or trapping tactics. The thing is, from your original post and this one...your results are right on track for a non-rehearsed, non-confident and severally non-targeted sales pitch. Your sales pitch should be directly to the point of the problem/solution you are trying to help these businesses with...and that should not be getting them on social media. That is not a solution to any real world problem other than the addiction to cat memes.....

You can provide lead generation services. SO walk in and ask if they need more phone calls for their services? Would they like to have 3 more phone calls a month, 10 more calls, 100 more calls? Well you can provide them with that through your exclusive "Direct Customer Calling Platform". What is that, they ask. Well you explain how they sign up for your service and you work diligently on the internet to do all of the technical internet things that as a business owner they do not have time to learn or do. This diligent work results in people calling their business for certain services that they offer and the business owner pays you for these phone calls. ...Then you ask, so would you like to work together in getting you more phone calls next month for services you offer?

This approach weeds out many of the responses you received.

My most common feedback from local business owners was:

1) 'We've already got our online presence sorted'/'We have everything we need'

I highly doubt they will have someone that currently sends targeted leads/phone calls to their business. And I do not know any REAL business owner that would say, "we have all the customer phoning us for services we sell, we do not need any more"

2) 'We already have someone handling our website, social media, etc'

You are not handling their assets, which anybody can do. Even their nephew that is in grade 10 can take care of a local business Facebook account, even if it is not doing it well. But they will most likely NOT have someone sending them more customers every month.

3) 'Your prices are too high for me. £25 a week is over £1000 a year. Spending that kind of money would scare me. Even spending £10 a week is expensive and risky for me' (This was what a pet shop owner said to me)

I love this one since it is directly related to selling THINGS like websites, social media, etc. Business owners will not pay a dime for something that they see no value in but if you tell them that for 4 new calls/customers/potential sales a month on average for $100 bucks a month. And on average each sale is worth $85 bucks, so for $100 a month they can bring in $340 bucks. Not many business owners will say no to that, even the super cheap pet shop owner.

4) 'Who are you/what's your background? I wouldn't be comfortable handing over £50 to someone I don't know'

You background is specializing in generating lead for businesses. If they would like more leads, then they can enter into a contract with you just like any other business.

5) 'Most of my customers are elderly, therefore they don't have the internet, so spending money on internet presence would be a waste of time for me'.

Again with the internet presence...Even if most of their customers are 100 years old...if you can provide them with more phone calls every month, would they be willing to pay for those leads/potential customers/potential sales? If not, then they are not a good business to work with...

6) 'I wouldn't need to pay someone to set me up on social media or in the main business directories because I can do it myself easily for free'.

That is completely try for the commodities you were talking to them about. IF they could get more leads/calls/potential customers from the internet for free themselves, then they would easily be growing their business exponentially month over month. Your specialize service, which they can not do for free since they have no idea as to how you actually generate the leads....comes at a price of X. If they want to keep struggling with the amount of calls they are getting by doing things themselves for "Free". Fine...If they want more calls, they can pay you....

My whole post should give you the notion that it is all in your approach, nothing more and nothing less....Work on that and you will be fine.

None of my stuff is like that; you might want to LOOK first.

Im going a step beyond this and stating that I dont think this guy even has the knowledge or ability to help them.

If you have the skills to deliver "online presence," shop your competition. Go to yodle.com and such sites and have them pitch you. With Yodle, pay attention. They have a much better than you pitch... You might not like the results of their ppc and SEO, but you can skip a few learning levels in the half hour their pitch takes.

As far as your pitch goes... besides what's been said, you make too many assumptions about what words mean. For some people, online presence means that their company name pops up 1st when they Google it. They don't care on whose site. For some, it means having a website. For some, having a Facebook page, etc.

PS Yodle's basic package goes for a bit over $1000 (they'll cut it down to $1000 and change if you object) a month, 3 months minimum commitment.

PPS I know about Yodle because I followed my advice and sat in on a pitch them made a mortgage company.

As a small business owner, I get a lot of calls from telemarketers wanting to sell me all the things you listed in your post and I was not interested.

One day, I got a call from some guy who asked me what i was doing to improve my sales. He told me how bad the economy is and how hard it is for small businesses to grow sales. This is of course my pain point and I was eager to listen for more.
Before I knew it, he was selling me some list, risk free with no money down. All I had to do was pay him after 2 weeks and with a money back guarantee.

I went ahead and signed up thinking that was my lucky break. I got the mailing list in the mail but before I could sit down to implement what he wanted was a month. It took me another 2 months to find out the whole thing was completely useless. I cancelled after month 3.

Just imagine if what he sold me was working, I would purchase even more services and recommend him to other small business owners.

You see, don't sell the means to an end, sell the end. Most small business owners don't really care about online presence per se, all they care about is increased sales and more revenue. That is a huge pain point for a small business owner.

The key is, identify pain points, then position yourself or services to solve these.

Research the industry or business, understand their pain points, then craft your services around those pain points.