How To Close Clients for Local Lead Generation Websites? | 8 Steps To Consistently Add Recurring Income Channels
To close clients for local lead generation websites:
- Perform local lead generation niche research to find markets where there are sufficient business owners
- Look for markets where there are businesses with poor local lead generation channels
- Generate leads in advance with your local lead generation website and other digital marketing channels
- Qualify local lead generation prospects with strategic questions
- Offer a free trial of your local lead generation website
- Follow up and pitch a long-term partnership for your local lead generation website
- Handle objections of the local lead generation prospect
- Close the local lead generation client
The first step is to search Google for your target keyword niche and city combination to make sure there are enough business owners with poor digital marketing to pitch. Then, generate leads for those business owners using a local lead generation website, Google Business Profile, or Google Ads and let the business owners test the leads for free. These early actions set you up for a higher close rate during the sales process.
I’ve been closing clients for local lead generation websites for over a decade now. I close clients for my own local lead generation websites and also close clients for some of my students. In the following article, I walk you through my process for closing local lead generation clients with ease.
1. Perform local lead generation niche research to find markets where there are sufficient business owners
Search Google to see the number of businesses serving your target niche in your target city. Enter your target niche and keyword variation to see how many businesses are serving an area by looking at Google Maps. For example, “asphalt paving Atlanta”.
Look beyond Google Maps to see if there are businesses that aren’t appearing in Google Maps but are appearing elsewhere for the target keyword. These additional places include Google’s organic rankings, Google AdWords, and local directories like Angi’s, Yelp, and Thumbtack.
Like sales in general, closing local lead generation clients really is a numbers game. If you choose a market where not enough business owners are operating, your chances of closing a client are lower because there are less opportunities. Average conversion rates for cold calling hover around 5%, according to Ruler Analytics. That means if you call 20 local lead generation prospects, you can expect to close just one of them.
2. Look for markets where there are businesses with poor local lead generation channels
Once you find a market with adequate businesses to sell leads to, create a list of businesses within that market who would be most interested in buying leads. Start with businesses that aren’t one of three featured in the Google Local Pack, aren’t ranked on the first page in the organic section, and those that are paying for Google Ads.
Click on “More businesses” to see which businesses have Google Business Profiles (GBPs) optimized for the target keyword beyond the three ranking in the Google Local Pack.
Navigate to the 2nd and 3rd pages of Google to see other business websites trying to rank for the target keyword. Look at the top of Google SERPs for links that say “Ad” or “Sponsored” to spot businesses paying for Google Ads.
Find additional businesses to pitch by searching for businesses that don’t have online visibility for the keyword through Google but do appear for the service in the target city in local directories.
Businesses that are struggling to generate leads through digital channels are most likely to be interested in your lead generation services. It’s important to verify that enough of these businesses exist ahead of time so that your chances of landing a paying client are higher.
3. Generate leads in advance with your local lead generation website and other digital marketing channels
Create a website, set up a GBP, or initiate a Google Ads campaign to generate leads for your target keyword.
Build a local lead generation website efficiently and affordably by leveraging an AI website builder like Snapps . You can rank a website on the first page of Google for a local keyword in a few weeks to a few months typically.
Create a Google Business Profile to appear in Google Maps. You can get a GBP live and generate leads within a few days of getting it approved.
Pay to run Google Ads for the target keyword to appear at the top of the Google search engine. Although SEO is the preferred marketing channel for local lead generation because it produces long-term results, Google Ads can enable you to generate leads right away if you don’t want to wait to pitch clients.
Purchase a virtual call tracking phone number from CallSling to put on your lead generation assets and capture phone call leads.
Generating leads in advance allows you to provide something of value upfront when pitching a business owner your local lead generation website.
4. Qualify local lead generation prospects with strategic questions
Reach business owners from your prospect list through phone calls, emails, or direct messaging on social media. Ask questions to validate that the business owner is a good fit for your lead generation services. You want to find a business that is prepared to handle your leads effectively.
Some common questions to qualify local lead generation prospects include:
- Do you service x city? Or x region? (the location your website is targeting)
- How quickly can you provide the service? (faster service means they can service more leads)
- How much is the service? (you can estimate their profit margin based on industry standards)
- What complimentary services do you offer? (discover potential up-sells and cross-sells)
Qualifying leads allows you to use your resources efficiently. Instead of wasting time on prospects that are likely to be poor clients, you can focus on landing the ones that meet your criteria. Companies that prioritize qualified leads experience an increase in ROI by up to 5 times compared to those that skip this step, according to Magic Pitch.
5. Offer a free trial of your local lead generation website
Send your qualified prospect some free leads so they can test the quality of your leads and you can analyze their ability to close those leads. Make sure the business owner knows you will only send them free leads temporarily so they can expect a conversation later.
Ask the business owner to provide the best phone number and email address so you can forward them the phone call and website form leads that you generate. Set up call forwarding in CallSling so that when leads call your CallSling phone number, they are automatically redirected to your prospect’s phone number. Add a whisper message in CallSling to notify your prospect that the lead came from you.
Pay attention to the leads going to the prospect. Listen to the call audio recordings in CallSling to see how well the business owner handles the leads and converts them into paying customers.
Your chances of closing a client increase substantially when you send them leads in advance to test. In fact, giving prospects a free sample increases conversion rates by up to 30%, according to ShopBooster.
6. Follow up and pitch a long-term partnership for your local lead generation website
Maintain consistent contact with prospects as you send them the free leads. Give them time to close the leads and then reach out to discover whether they converted the lead into a paying customer.
Follow up with the prospect through phone call, email, or text message. Here is one of our students who has a 7% commission deal in place following up on a lead with a business owner through text message.
Pitch the business owner on a long-term partnership to receive and pay you for your leads once they have successfully converted at least one of your free leads into a sale.
Offer them a commission deal to start. Perform market research to understand the typical average profit margin of the niche. Use your findings to pitch a fair commission rate. For example, if the average profit margin of your target niche is 20%, pitch a 10% commission rate so you and the business owner each receive equal portions of the profit.
Following up is one of the most important steps of the sales process because most clients don’t convert on the first point of contact. In fact, 80% of sales require five or more follow-up attempts to close, according to Martal Group. That means you should be prepared to follow-up multiple times if you really want to land a client. Fortunately, the leads in advance strategy generally stimulates enough interest from business owners to land clients faster. Furthermore, structuring the deal to only pay you a commission out of the profit margin makes it easier for the business owner to say yes, because their chance of losing money by working with you is practically zero.
7. Handle objections of the local lead generation prospect
Talk through any doubts or concerns from the business owner that are stopping them from working with you. Listen and empathize with them as a fellow business owner, then address their concerns by showing how your solution directly solves their problem or mitigates their risk.
Some of the most common objections business owners say to local lead generation website owners include:
- “We are already booked out so far in advance.”
- “We don’t have enough staffing to fulfill your jobs.”
- “You are asking for too much money.”
- “We already have enough referrals.”
- “I need to discuss this with my spouse first.”
- “We tried this before and it didn’t work out.”
Understand the situation and perspective of the business owner. For example, maybe you want to charge a 5% commission because the average profit margin of their industry is 10%. However, they object with a 3% commission because their specific profit margin is only 6%. In this scenario, you could either agree to the 3% terms if you want to work with the business or continue looking for another business who can pay you the 5% that you’re looking for.
Properly handling objections leads to more successful conversions during the sales process. In fact, sellers who defend their offer against prospects’ objections can boast a close rate up to 64%, according to HubSpot.
8. Close the local lead generation client
Finalize the terms of the agreement, then set up a secure and convenient payment channel to receive your compensation from the business. Common payment channels for local lead generation include:
- Paypal
- Stripe
- Cash
- Check
Although you’ll incur some fees, digital payment channels like Paypal and Stripe are best. That’s because 69% of people in the US prefer using digital apps to send money, according to a recent survey by Visa.
How do you find clients to close for local lead generation websites?
Find clients to close for local lead generation websites by:
- Performing warm email outreach to friends, family, and ex-coworkers
- Performing cold email outreach to businesses in your target niche and city
- Networking at relevant industry events
- Searching freelance platforms for businesses seeking marketing support
- Implementing a referral system to incentivize current clients to bring you new clients
Sales vs marketing in local lead generation: which matters more for closing clients?
Sales matters more for closing clients when comparing sales and marketing in local lead generation . That’s because getting on the phone to qualify and pitch prospects is part of the sales process, not the marketing process. However, marketing is also important for closing local lead generation clients. You use marketing to generate the leads that you can let a business owner test out before pitching them on a sales call. Therefore, marketing makes it easier to close lead generation clients but sales actually closes the client.
Conclusion: How quickly can you find and close clients for local lead generation websites?
You can find and close clients for local lead generation websites within a week. Performing market research to find the right niche and city opportunity can take a couple of days. Although a local lead generation website requires at least a few weeks to rank, you can generate leads faster by setting up a GBP or running a Google Adwords campaign. Once you have some leads available, just contact your list of prospects and give them a few days to convert those leads into sales before following up to close them.
Starting a local lead generation business isn’t complicated, but there are some best practices you should follow along the way. There are correct ways to set up your Google Business Profile and website so that they remain ranking and generating leads long-term. Join our local lead generation program to learn the exact strategies that myself and thousands of others use to create recurring, passive income online.