Here’s a true story:

A couple of weeks ago I was looking for a particular local service in my area (which happens to be New York – home of Yodle HQ) so I performed a quick Google search for the service I was looking for “in nyc.” 

After checking out several of the websites that came up, both in the sponsored and organic results, I at last settled on a business that seemed to suite my needs and gave them a call.  Two automated menus and eight minutes of being on hold listening to Pachelbel’s Cannon in D later, I hung up and moved on to the next business that seemed like a fit. 

This time I was greeted by a receptionist who was not only friendly and courteous, but who was also knowledgeable enough to answer all of my questions, AND perhaps most importantly, asked for my business by inquiring as to whether she could go ahead and schedule an appointment.  When I hesitated for a moment, she went back and started to tell me about how great their business was in a persuasive, yet not overly aggressive manner.  Needless to say, I made an appointment.

All this got me to thinking about how, in my experiences both working with local businesses and as a consumer, so few local businesses have someone who really sells for them.  True there are some industries (particularly in some home improvement segments) that have dedicated sales people, but aside from that, most local businesses have phone answerers/ receptionists who, at best, take orders – not sell.

I know we’ve already talked in this blog about the importance of picking up your phone and of having a good receptionist, but I think this goes beyond that.  Local businesses need someone to sell for them.  This doesn’t mean they have to technically be a “sales person” or that they have to be super aggressive all the time. But it does mean that sometimes you and your staff need to “ask for a consumer’s business.”  You can have the best service on the planet…  You can have the slickest, smartest advertising strategy that gets you tons of leads and makes your phone ring off the hook (and hopefully we’ll help you find some of those strategies with this blog!)…  But from my experience it seems that if you’re not asking for a potential customer’s business you are leaving a lot of customers and money on the table.

What do you guys think?  How many local business owners out there who don’t have “sales people” train their staff to sell over the phone?  Maybe my experiences are just exceptions, but it seems like the percent of local service business owners who think about really “selling” is extremely low.