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Repercussions Of Things You Won’t Do

Do more of what works.

By Mark Riffey

If you register a website address these days, you’ll receive plenty of unsolicited email & cold calls from people dying to create your website. While I appreciate the hustle, these messages & calls are the same for everyone (register two domains if you need proof). Is lazy hustle possible? If so, this is it.

Even though most of these contacts are automated (even the calls), that doesn’t mean they have to be bad at generating leads. They’re bad because there are things they won’t do – and that has repercussions, like being ignored.

What’s missing is a lack of effort to find the information that could get you the business. These are the things they either don’t know how to do, or won’t do. Standing on a street corner screaming “I’d like to build your website” is nothing but noise and is ineffective at best. Face-to-face, email, LinkedIn, & phone calls all exhibit this problem when lazy seeps in.

Objections. Always objections

Many of these emails come from firms in countries with an economy that allows them to offer aggressive pricing that’s far less than local firms charge. When their email arrives, your initial objection might be “I don’t want to work with firms from (wherever)“. Your objection might be tempered when see the super-cheap price.

Most out-of-town firms have the expertise to do the work at that tempting price but their emails/calls (even the US-based ones) never address the real problem: How many people have outsourced a project as important as a website to a firm from out of town, much less from another country? Few.

Most small business owners haven’t experienced the joy of managing an outsourced project of *any* kind, much less a website project. We’re not talking about buying parts from a vendor a few states away. We’re talking about custom work that takes weeks/months.

Now you’ve gone from “I don’t want to work with someone from (wherever)” to “I’m not sure how to manage a website development project with so-and-so down the street even though she’ll visit my office. How much harder this will be with someone two states away, much less with someone in another country?

Set the right context

Whether you’re in Pune or Columbia Falls, you have the same problem: Getting over the prospect’s natural desire to avoid working with someone from out of town.

Their out-of-town vendor fears are the same ones they’ll have with someone in town, with some extra concerns sprinkled on top.

For in-town folks wondering why I’m discussing how to make it easier for your out-of-town competition, bear in mind that YOU are the out-of-town competition for every vendor who doesn’t live where you do. In some places, you’re the company from out of town despite being only six miles away.

Of all the “Hey, we can do your website” emails I received in the last year, NOT ONE positioned the conversation in a way other than “we do this, we’re cheap, etc”.

Improving your chances

Someone in Pune might send 30,000 emails daily. They can afford to play a numbers game. You might be reaching out to anyone who registers a domain in your five county corner of the state, or those who leased business space in your county. You can’t afford to waste leads.

In addition to changing the context of how you start the conversation, give yourself a second chance. Remember that the moment someone registers a domain, leases business property, or does what makes you aware of their possible need is not necessarily the moment they need you.

Rather than contacting them to suggest that you are alive, available & cheap, try a different approach. Reach out, make it clear you’re aware of their possible need & offer a legitimate resource to help them in the early going.

Follow up 30 days later, but not simply to repeat that you’re cheap & available. You might even have three buttons in your email: “Check back in 30 days, not ready yet”, “Doing it ourselves”, “Already have a vendor”.

Clicks on those buttons provide info so you can respond intelligently. Maybe in 30 days you ask the “not ready” folks “Figured out a timeline yet?”. For those indicating “DIY” or “have a vendor”, you might wait 60-90 days to ask “Is your project going as planned?

I’m OK with the repercussions, lazy, busy, etc.

Send out half of the emails exactly as you do now. Send the others with a context change. See which works best.

Do more of what works.

Want to learn more about Mark or ask him to write about a strategic, operations or marketing problem? See Mark’s site, contact him on LinkedIn or Twitter, or email him at [email protected].