What to say to a business that has no website
The opening line, the four objections you will actually hear, and why leading with the website is the reason most of these calls end politely and immediately.
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You have the list. The businesses on it genuinely have no website. Now comes the part that decides whether the list was worth building, and it is the part almost everyone gets wrong in the first sentence.
Nobody wants a website
This is the thing to internalise before you dial. No business owner has ever woken up wanting a website. They want the phone to ring more. They want to stop quoting jobs that were never going to happen. They want to charge more than the bloke down the road and have that seem reasonable. They want to stop losing the customer who searched, found a competitor, and never knew they existed.
A website is a means to those. When you open with the means, you are asking someone to buy a cost. When you open with the end, you are asking them about a problem they already think about in the van.
Do the ten seconds of homework
Before each call, search their name plus the town, and search their trade plus the town. Note two things: what comes up for them, and who comes up instead of them. That is the whole preparation, and it converts a generic pitch into a specific one.
It also gives you the only credential that matters on a cold call: evidence you have looked at their business rather than bought their number on a list. The difference between “I help local businesses with websites” and “I searched for roofers in Wakefield this morning and you are not on the first two pages” is the difference between being hung up on and being asked a question.
The opening
Short. Specific. Ends with a question they can answer, not a pitch they have to endure.
Say who you are, say the specific thing you noticed, and ask whether it is deliberate. That last part matters more than it looks: it is not a trick, it is genuinely often the case that a business is booked solid and does not want more work. Asking respects that, and it makes the conversation a conversation rather than a recital. Then stop talking. The silence is doing work.
What you are listening for is which of two businesses this is: one that has never thought about it, or one that has and got stuck. They need completely different second sentences, and you cannot know which until you have shut up long enough to find out.
The four objections
“We get all our work by word of mouth”
The most common, and the one people argue with. Do not argue. It is true, and it has kept them trading for eleven years.
Agree, then extend it. Word of mouth ends with someone being given their name and going to look them up, because that is what everyone now does before calling a stranger. What that person finds is a Facebook page last posted to in 2019, or nothing, or a competitor. The website does not replace word of mouth. It catches the part of it that is currently falling on the floor, which is a much smaller, much more believable claim than “you need to be online”.
“We’re too busy / booked up”
Often completely true. The response is not to push volume but quality: being findable does not only mean more calls, it means being able to be choosier about which ones you take, and to put prices somewhere a time-waster will read them before ringing.
If they are genuinely booked twelve months out, thank them and ask if you can call in the spring. Then actually do it. A business that was too busy in August and is quiet in February is a warm lead nobody else is calling.
“We have a Facebook page”
Good. This is the easiest of the four, and it means they have already accepted the premise. They are doing the work weekly. They just do not own the thing they are doing it on.
The points that land: their posts reach a fraction of their followers and they cannot do anything about it; the page is invisible to anyone searching who is not already on the platform; and the account can be lost or locked with no appeal, taking the customer list with it. None of that requires criticising Facebook, which they like. It is about ownership, and small business owners understand ownership better than anyone.
“How much?”
Asked early, this usually means they are not convinced there is a problem yet. Answer briefly and honestly, then return to the problem.
Asked after a real conversation, it is a buying signal. Give one number, not a range, because a range is heard as the top of it and read as uncertainty. Then stop talking again. The person who fills the silence after a price loses it, and it is almost always the seller.
Pricing it
The standard error is pricing against what the build costs you in hours. The owner does not care what it costs you. Price against what its absence costs them: a trade losing two jobs a month to a competitor who is easier to find is losing, annually, several multiples of any reasonable build price. That is the comparison to have in your head. Not so you can recite it at them, but so you do not flinch when you say the number.
Two things worth doing regardless of price: quote a fixed number rather than an hourly rate, because an hourly rate invites a conversation about hours; and put something small and recurring in the offer, whether hosting, updates or a domain renewal, because a client on a monthly arrangement is a client who still knows your name in two years, and referrals come from people who still know your name.
Following up
Most of this business happens in the second and third contact, and most people stop after the first. The reason is not that the prospect was unconvinced. It is that you caught them halfway up a ladder.
Three contacts across a fortnight, each adding something rather than repeating the ask. Then stop, and record the outcome properly: who said no and why, who said not now and when. Then leave them alone. A fourth chase converts nothing and forfeits the right to call in a year, and a year is often exactly how long it takes for a business to acquire the reason it did not have in August.
Keeping that record is the whole difference between working a list once and working a territory for years, which is why marking who you have contacted is a feature of the screener rather than something to keep in your head.
The rate to expect
A rough planning figure for cold outreach to local businesses with no website: around 100 contacts to 20 real conversations to 2 or 3 jobs. It will be worse than that while you are learning, and it gets better in a specific and unglamorous way. Not because your script improves, but because you stop sounding like someone reading a script.
That happens somewhere around call forty, which is the real reason to do them in blocks rather than one a day.
Build the list first, then screen your area and start with the businesses that have the most reviews. They are trading, they are busy, and they have the most to lose by being invisible.
Common questions
What is the single most common mistake?
Opening with the website. The owner does not want a website. Nobody has ever wanted a website. They want more of the right customers, fewer time-wasting phone calls, and to stop losing work to the competitor who is easier to find. Lead with one of those and the website becomes the obvious means to it rather than a cost to be justified.
Should I build a free mockup first?
Usually not, and it is the most seductive bad idea in this business. It costs you hours per prospect, it shifts the conversation to how the design looks rather than what it earns, and it signals that your time is free. The exception is a single prospect you have already spoken to, who has expressed real interest, and where the mockup is the last thing standing between you and a yes.
How do I handle 'we get all our work by word of mouth'?
Agree with it, because it is true and it is how they have survived. Then note the gap: word of mouth means someone recommends them and the person recommended goes to look them up. What that person finds is a Facebook page from 2019 or a competitor. The website is not replacing word of mouth. It is catching the half of it that currently falls on the floor.
When do I mention price?
When they ask, and not before. If they ask early it usually means they are not yet convinced there is a problem, so answer briefly and go back to the problem. Quote one number rather than a range, because a range is heard as the top of it, plus a suspicion that you are guessing.
How many times should I follow up?
Three, spaced over a fortnight, then stop and mark the record. Most of this business is in the second and third contact, because the first one caught them mid-job. But a fourth and fifth chase converts nothing and costs you the option of calling again in a year, which is worth more than you think. Small businesses acquire a reason to want a website eventually.
B2Website, at B2Web.site, screens any area for local businesses that have no website and returns them with rating, review count and phone number. More about B2Website.