Why do people say they're interested but don't buy?

If leads go quiet the moment they hear the price, it's usually not the pitch. Their budget isn't aligned with what you sell. I did lots of freelance work and had the same problem: the smaller the budget, the bigger the headache.

Two fixes. First, qualify earlier. Ask about budget and timing on the first call, before the demo, so you stop chasing people who can't buy. Second, change who you target, and with it the messaging and positioning. One tier above very small businesses is franchises or multi-location businesses. A friend signed a local windows and doors company. Looks like a small shop, makes millions.

It's impossible, literally impossible from a marketing point of view, to generate need. You can channel somebody's need, but you cannot generate it.

Let's say you have 1000 T-shirts, one T-shirt per day for the next three years. You made a sacred vow that you're not gonna buy any more T-shirts. Then I come as a seller and say, hey, buy a new T-shirt. I can only channel the need.

I wouldn't go with a push, a webinar, a PDF, whatever that is. I would start by understanding what the customer does before actively looking for the solution. The information comes from talking to customers. There's no other way.

They buy things because they've prioritized that this part of the business needs to improve. Just because you have a service doesn't mean it's even within the realm of how they think about solving the problem.

You have to understand how they're solving the problem now, and whether it's even a priority to solve. Or they only have $100 a month to solve this problem, but you're thinking of a service that's $5000. I don't know if that's true.

You need to learn whether your definition of the problem is similar to theirs. It doesn't have to be exact, it just has to be in the same universe.

With self work, it's different from a company hiring a CFO or putting some budget to marketing. Those are things people are firing on all cylinders on. They're like, well, I know I need to do that.

But what you're essentially doing is helping people make the right decision, not wasting any money, not wasting resources. Those are very essential things that someone would think of. I think you could definitely build those benefits into how you explain yourself and your services.

What might really help is using the language your clients use, because they're from the outside and they've experienced your services.

You're not getting any objections. If we don't know what the objections are, you can't prepare for them.

It might be some tweak. Or maybe it's a problem that people just won't pay for. Organizations can have problems, but they stick to spreadsheets because they're married to it.

That's why I think you get some people into a room with the customer who said yes. Have it like: we're going to have a workshop about this kind of technology, and we need your thoughts. So don't even say this is a sale. Have it as a thought challenge meeting.

The average close rate for most things is about 5 to 10%. You can't be mad at yourself, because you haven't had enough calls to have the conversion at 5 to 10%.

You might not be messing up badly at all. It might be a call quantity. If it's 10%, I need 10 calls. If it's 5%, I need 20 calls. We just need to get you more calls.

The very same people that were really excited about AI are becoming over AI and distrustful of AI. If your written delivery is AI generated, that's the objection you're going to have to handle.

After the call, things fall off the plate really quickly. Following up is the most important thing that you have to do.

Say you have a call on Tuesday. You email them on Friday, then give them a call the next Tuesday. I wouldn't be afraid to call people, because they get a million emails. You're not going to call someone every single day. Space everything out by a few days.

If you've done a few and they've not responded, after about maybe four in a row, give it a week or two. Then I would put them on a monthly cadence, maybe just sharing updates about what's happening.

Place yourself in the position of the owner or decision maker at an agency. My people need to have projects, that's one. Two, they need to do their work faster, so I can still charge that same amount of money.

So if you bring your pitch, yes, it's great what it all can do, all the USPs. But you need to tell them: if you use this tool, your people will save this amount of hours.

And this is the number I have in mind that I can save you per month. That's the thing that you bring.

A decision maker just needs to feel really confident about adopting a new software. It can blow up in their face if it doesn't work as expected.

If it's successful, then they get some kudos, but the platform gets most of the kudos. If it's not successful, then it's on them for making a poor decision.

The things I always think about for validation are case studies, reviews and testimonials, and then making the trial period very low barrier to risk. When I ran my agency, we did a pay for performance model. In some cases we would do a small flat fee in exchange for a smaller percentage amount.

If people will jump on a short version but won't commit to the full one, the commitment is a friction point.

When I first graduated from college, I sold gym memberships. The membership cost something like going out to dinner. A woman told me her doctor said she'd die if she didn't join a gym. She said, "I have to think about it."

What's coming through to me is a bit of a trust bridge. I'd give some thought to a starter product, something where people don't have to think. Get them paying you something. I want them asking: now what's the next step?