TLMM #012: Text Message A Local Small Business Owner With Nearly 100% Accuracy

Read time: 4 mins

In this week’s issue, I want to talk about how to bypass “The Gatekeeper” with local small businesses and get in contact with the owner.

This method I’m about to walk you through is nearly 100% accurate and will likely produce at least one initial response from the local small business owner about 99% of the time.

You can do this yourself, but should consider hiring a VA to do it for you.

So with that in mind…

Let’s dive in.

 

How To Obtain Local Small Business Information

First things first…

You need some sort of way to gather local small business’ information.

Meaning, you need to manually look up each business’ information through Google or Facebook or use some sort of lead scraping tool to do it automatically.

More specifically, their phone numbers.

BTW, either way will work…

However, I’d rather use a lead scraping tool to save time.

As time is money.

So I suggest you do the same.

 

What To Do With The Local Small Business Information

After you have your list of leads (prospective clients/customers) you want to pitch your product(s)/service(s) to…

You’ll need to use some sort of way to validate each of the local small business’ phone numbers.

Luckily there’s a solution!

It’s called PhoneValidator.com.

It’s a free service that allows you to input any phone number and it will tell you if the phone number is a landline, VOIP, or cell phone.

Plus it will do some other things like check to see if the phone number is fake…

But you will have to pay for those additional services.

 

I’ve Checked The Phone Numbers, Now What?

Once you have run all the phone numbers through some sort of validation, PhoneValidator.com or otherwise…

You will want to highlight the ones that were reported as “cell phones.”

These are the phone numbers we want to focus on.

Why???

Because these are typically the phone numbers that are being answered directly by the local small business owner themselves.

Thus likely bypassing “The Gatekeeper”.

So these phone numbers are the ones that we will be focusing our attention on.

 

Pro Tip: Try sending the initial outreach message outside of normal business hours.  If you get a response then, it’s almost certainly the business owner themselves replying.  Plus you will have their full undivided attention since they won’t be busy working.

 

Text Message Marketing

Now that you have a “good list” of mobile (or cell phone) numbers to work from…

We are going to send them a very simple text message that will do two things…

1. Confirm that we do have a valid phone number
2. And ensure that we are indeed in contact with the right business

This is the message you will want to send…

“Is this the phone number XYZ Business?”

Of course you’re going to replace “XYZ Business” with the actual name of the business. 😉

From there you’ll likely receive a simple response like…

“Yes.” or “Yes. How may I help you?”

You can do this process either manually or automatically through software or a service.

In the very beginning, I suggest just doing it manually until you feel more comfortable with the entire process.

 

The Local Small Business Owner Replied, Now What?

Once they’ve replied and confirmed that they are the correct business…

Then you can follow-up with another message about any product/service you want to pitch to them.

It’s best to try and provide some sort of value first before asking for the sale.

So the trick is to demonstrate your ability and expertise in whatever it is you’re selling to them by actually giving them a “taste” of it in the form of…

• A sample of the work you would provide for them
• Advice of things you would do to improve their marketing efforts

If you can put in this extra effort upfront, it will pay off in the long run.

The reason you want to do this is because the local small business owner doesn’t know you from Adam…

And because of that, they likely won’t give you the time of day unless you can get their attention in a way that separates you from everyone else.

 

A Sample Reply Message With Your “Value Proposition”

Here’s a sample reply message you can model with just about any product or service you want to sell…

“OK, great! Thanks for confirming… 😊

My name is [YOUR NAME] and I help local small businesses just like yours with their digital marketing.  

I noticed you have [SOMETHING POSITIVE] on your [WEBSITE or SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT] which is great! 😊

You could/should be taking advantage of [SOMETHING POSITIVE] in order to get even more leads/clients. 😉

With that being said… I took the liberty of [SAMPLE YOU CREATED or ADVICE YOUR OFFERING pertaining to the SOMETHING POSITIVE] for you.  

I could do this exact same thing for [MORE OF THE SOMETHING POSITIVE].  

If you’re interested in having me do this for you, let me know and I’d be happy to discuss my services further with you. If not, no worries… Please feel free to keep and use these as my way of saying thank you for your time. 😎

Also, I realize you don’t know me from Adam… So I thought I’d send you over my website so you can see I’m not some scammer or somebody posing as someone else. 😉

https://www.YOURDOMAIN.com

Again thank you for your time and consideration. 😊”

 

How To Close The Sale

If you receive a favorable response from your second message you sent out…

Then you can safely assume they were impressed by what you showed them.

From there I would either follow-up with another reply message explaining the product(s)/service(s) you’re selling them…

Or…

I would ask them what day/time would work best for a quick introductory Zoom or in person meeting.

The bottom line is that if they have replied favorably to your second reply message with your “value proposition” in it…

Then the sale is likely a foregone conclusion and you’ll likely just be explaining in detail what you’ll be doing for them and making payment arrangements.

 

What If They’re Not Interested?

If they reply with, “No, thanks!” or “Thank you. Currently not interested.”

Don’t get discouraged…

This is normal and going to happen more times than it won’t.

But you should still feel good about it…

Simply because you did all the right things…

You were directly in touch with the local small business owner (the decision maker).

So you know you weren’t wasting your time with “The Gatekeeper” or worse yet…

Someone who NEVER even saw your message/work to begin with.

Plus you put your best foot forward by providing them with value first…

Which usually results in reciprocity.

So maybe you didn’t get the sale right then and there…

But you’ve planted a seed and hopefully with time that seed will grow and when they need your product or service they’ll think of you first and foremost.

Good luck!