First when they answer I ask “hey! Is this (business name?)
When they confirm and ask what they can do for me I say “Awesome. Well, my name is ryan. I’m actually a stay at home dad web developer and I found you on yelp but I didn’t see a website so just had to at least call and see if you needed any help with one”
That’s the script that gets the most information to them in the shortest amount of time and they won’t hang up. If they’re interested they’ll ask follow up questions like “alright we’ll what’s it gonna cost me?” And then I tell them my price and what’s included they’re shocked because they think it’s a great value, because it is!. They’ve been quoted double what I’m offering before + $1200 down and my work is a custom coded website. No page builder. It’s fancier and better! Don’t be afraid to talk about yourself and be honest. Some asked me how I found them and I straight up say that I pick a part of the country on a day and search for businesses in a certain category and check them all out and see who needs help and call them up and that when I found them I saw they had great reviews and a great portfolio but no site and you look like someone I’d love to work with and help out. They appreciate the honesty. Be a real person. Not a salesperson.
If they have a website already I tweak my script. I use https://builtwith.com to see what their site was built with and use that in my pitch. I instead say “awesome, My name is ryan and I’m actually a stay at home dad web developer and I found you on yelp and saw you have a pretty basic Wordpress site so I wanted to call and see if I can make you something better”
Be gentle. Many times they made the site themselves and are sensitive to hearing it sucks. Don’t want to inadvertently insult them! When they ask “well what do you do that’s better?” That’s when you go into google core vitals and how important they are in ranking now. Test their site on google page speeds and have that score handy. I’ll tell them that I tested their site and it’s scoring 42/100. It’s not good. And that a site I make will score 99. I explain how mobile first coding works and how I have more control over design and performance with my custom coded sites that you can’t get with a Wordpress drag and drop, mine are more secure, and my design will be better optimized for website conversion funnels. Which are specified content organization patterns that maximize conversions. Explain it all in a way that they can understand. They don’t know code. So how do you teach someone the technicals when they aren’t technical? That’s the hallmark of a great communicator and salesman. You can talk the talk to those who aren’t familiar with the talk. Don’t make them feel stupid. Make them feel more educated. Like they have knowledge other people in their industry don’t have.