Web Design

How to Sell Websites to Businesses

Most web designers spend the majority of their time worrying about how to find and attract new leads. While knowing how to get web design clients is important, it won’t mean much if you don’t know how to close profitable deals.

In other words, you need to know how to sell websites to businesses. And that means learning how to have sales conversations with potential clients. 

A successful sales conversation is what bridges the gap between bringing in a new lead and getting paid to start a project.

If you know how to run one, you'll never struggle to make a living as a web designer.

You can think of this post as a “master guide” on selling websites. You’ll learn: 

  • The biggest mistake web designers make when trying to sell websites
  • How to prepare for a web design sales call
  • The six steps you should follow if you want to consistently close deals

At the end of this post, I’ll also share helpful video resources including real-life examples of successful sales calls, a complete list of sales questions, and several lessons on mastering the mental side of selling. 

If you’re ready to start closing more deals at higher prices, let’s dive in. 

Avoid This Beginner Mistake When Selling Websites

Before I actually show you how to sell, I want to cover a common mistake that a lot of new web designers make when trying to sell their services. 

It might seem like a small detail, but doing this will ruin your sales pitch from the very start. 

What’s the mistake?

Focusing on features instead of outcomes in your sales pitch. 

When speaking to a business owner, many web designers spend too much time talking about specifics like how many pages will be on the site, the design tools they’ll use to build it, and all the different plugins and widgets that may be involved. 

It makes sense to want to focus on that stuff–that’s what you’re most comfortable speaking about, especially as a beginner. 

But here’s the problem with that approach: 

Business owners don’t care about any of that stuff. They care about the outcomes a website will bring them. That’s what determines their initial decision to buy. 

Even worse, talking about features instead of outcomes makes the person you’re selling to focus on price. They think to themselves, “Wow…that’s a lot of stuff. How much is this all going to cost me?”

A better approach is to get the business owner thinking about the value a new website will bring them. 

When you focus on what problems the website will help them solve or what outcomes it will help them achieve, they’re going to be much less sensitive to spending money on your solution. 

So far we’ve only been talking about theory. The rest of this post will show you how to put this focus on outcomes into action in your sale conversations. 

Preparing For a Web Design Sales Call

The key to any successful sales call is your preparation. 

In this section, I’m going to walk you through the two-stage process I use to prepare for all of my sales calls. 

While you don’t want to spend too much time on this process, doing this basic work upfront will give you the best chances of closing a profitable deal. 

Stage One: Research

The first part of the preparation process is doing your research. I typically look at four things during this phase. 

1. Previous Communications

Start by looking at all the previous communications you’ve had with this particular person.

This can be text messages, emails, phone calls, and even social media messages–anything leading up to them agreeing to have a sales conversation. 

The goal is to figure out why they were motivated to get on a call with you in the first place. 

2. What Do They Have Online Already?

Go through their website, social media pages, and any other marketing assets they have to get a feel for:

  • What they do
  • How they do it
  • Who they serve
  • How they serve those people
  • What kind of results they’re trying to achieve

You’re not focusing so much on the design or visual aspects, but on what they’re trying to accomplish with their online presence. 

3. How Do They Sell & Attract Clients?

Once you get a feel for their general business, you want to focus on their sales system. This means stepping into the perspective of a potential client and asking questions like: 

  • How are people finding this business online?
  • What might they be searching for?
  • What benefits do they want from the business?
  • What is the experience like when people land on the website?
  • What actions do they want visitors to take and how are they motivating them?

You want to get a feel of their overall sales process and see if there are opportunities for you to help them improve it. 

I recommend spending more time on this part of the research than any of the others. 

4. Their Industry & Niche

The final thing you should research is the business’s overall niche and industry. 

You can look at things like competitors’ websites, customer feedback, and even popular articles or videos about their products and services. 

This type of information can be very useful in a sales conversation because it gives you a lot of context for asking the right questions and identifying potential solutions. 

Stage Two: Prepare Useful Notes & Questions

How to sell websites to businesses – a one-page sheet with notes for a sales call
(Keeping your notes to one page will keep you from getting overwhelmed)

Now that you’ve done your research, it’s time to create a simple one-page “cheat sheet” that you can refer to during your conversation. 

I like to separate my page into three different sections: 

1. Facts

These are the key pieces of raw information you've gathered during the research process. Details like how many years they’ve been in business, what they sell, the names of their products and services, how many staff they have, etc.

You want to keep this basic information in mind during your call so you can guide the conversation and only ask relevant questions. 

It also shows the business owner that you’re prepared and professional. 

2. Sales System

For this section, you want to map out their overall sales system. 

How people are getting onto the website, what actions they’re being pushed to take once they're on it, and where they’re being sent after they take those actions. 

You may not know all the specific details at this point, but having even a general understanding of what’s going on (and demonstrating it on the call) will give you an advantage during the sales conversation. 

3. Questions

This section will take up most of the sheet. 

I usually write down 10-15 questions and separate them into three categories: General Questions, Problem Questions, and Results Questions. 

I’ll cover the specific questions you should ask in the next two sections, but for now just know that you should start with general questions and get more specific as the conversation progresses. 

The Six Steps of a Web Design Sales Call (and What to Say in Each)

Now that you’ve done your prep work, it’s time to get into the specifics of running a web design sales call. 

I’m going to show you a six-step process that both my students and I have used to consistently sell profitable website projects. Here’s a quick overview of the steps:

  1. Open
  2. Frame
  3. Questions
  4. Review
  5. Budget
  6. Plan

Understanding these steps will give you a logical framework that you can follow to ensure a smooth and productive sales conversation every time. 

*A quick note on the flow of the conversation: 

While the steps I outline in this section should act as a guide, knowing “what to say” is a lot different than knowing “how to say it.” 

That’s why I recommend watching the video above along with reading the steps. This will give you a better idea of how the conversation should flow. 

With that out of the way, let’s get into the steps…

Before the Call - The Presell

Every sales conversation starts with a “presell’. 

Many web designers make the mistake of trying to sell the first time they speak to a potential client. But you can’t just call up a business owner out of nowhere and expect to have a 30-60 minute sales call. 

Instead, you need to “sell them” on having a longer sales conversation in the first place. 

How you do this will depend on where your leads are coming from, but the main idea is to let them know that you need to have a more in-depth conversation before you can give them a quote or propose a solution. 

This will ensure they’re in the right state of mind when you're actually trying to sell.

Step One: Open

Once you get on the call, the first step is to open up the conversation in a friendly but professional way. 

This shouldn’t take more than 30 seconds to a minute. If you can build some rapport in that time then great, but you want to move on to the next step as quickly as possible. 

Examples of What to Say:

(You shouldn’t copy these word for word. Open in a way that fits the context of your conversation.)

“Hey, how’s it going?”

“It’s great to have this talk…”

“It’s good that Dave put us in touch. I enjoyed working with him and we got some great results. Let’s see if we can do the same for you.”

Step Two: Frame

The frame is the context of the situation. 

Just like a doctor lets you know what to expect when you come in for an appointment (I’m going to run these tests, check your blood pressure, etc.), you want to let the other person know what they should expect during the conversation. 

Doing this properly is the difference between conversations that run smoothly and ones that go off the rails. 

So what frame do you want to set?

That you’re not just a web designer who builds random websites that look good. You’re an expert that can help their business.

Another reason you want to set the frame at this stage of the call is that it makes it easier for you to start asking questions in the next step. If you immediately start asking questions after opening the conversation, the business owner will likely be confused and hesitant to answer. 

Example of What to Say:

“The best way to have this conversation is for me to ask you a couple of questions so I can understand your business. Once I understand your business, we can look at potential ways that I can help you. Then we can get into the budget, how I work, etc…Does that sound good to you?”

Step Three: Questions

The questions you ask during your sales calls are critical. They allow you to propose the right solution and get the business owner in the right state of mind to buy from you. 

As I mentioned in the preparation section, you typically want to start with more general questions about their business and then gradually move into more specific questions. 

To make this easier for you, here are the four categories of questions I typically move through:

1. Context Questions

You want to start with questions about the business’s current situation. These kinds of questions show you what’s relevant to the business owner and allow you to start digging for potential problems you can solve. 

Examples:

“Can you give me a quick overview of the business?”

“At the moment who is an ideal type of customer for you?
”

“What are the main products/services you offer?
“

“How do you attract and sell to customers at the moment?”

Problem Questions

Once you understand the overall context of the business, you want quickly start identifying problems that may be holding them back from reaching their goals. Solving these problems will become the foundation of your sales pitch at the end of the call. 

Sometimes business owners will immediately mention their problems when talking about their current situation. Other times, you’ll have to dig a little deeper or make some “intelligent guesses” to uncover them. 

Either way, there’s no need to feel awkward or guilty about asking these kinds of questions. 

Everyone loves talking about their problems, and business owners are no exception (as long as they think it will lead to getting them solved). 

Examples:

“Hey Larry, you mentioned that the people you’re selling to don’t understand the value of what you’re offering. Can you tell me more about that?” (This is an example of exploring a problem they already told you about. The rest of the questions are examples of digging deeper to uncover problems.)

“How happy are you with your current sales process?
 Is there anything you wish was more effective or efficient?”

“What are the biggest challenges you’re facing now when it comes to finding new clients?”

“How does your current website connect with your offline sales?
”

“What are your goals for the next 6/12 months? What do you feel is in the way of achieving them?”

Deeper Problem Questions

For every relevant problem you uncover, you should dive deeper into each one. 

You want to find out what’s causing them and all the different ways they’re negatively impacting the business. 

For example, they might tell you a surface-level problem is that their website doesn’t list one or two of their new services. If you dig deeper, you might find out that this is causing them to miss out on sales because website visitors have no idea that the business can help them. 

Examples: 

“How is <the problem> impacting the rest of the business?”

“
How does <that problem> affect your goals for the next 6/12 months?
”

“What else is <that problem> impacting? Your time? Your focus? Your resources? Your staff?
”

“Looking back over that last while, what has <that problem> prevented you from doing?”

Core Results Questions

So far you’ve only focused on the negatives in their business. But once you’ve uncovered the problems that are holding them back, you want to flip the conversation in a more positive direction. 

This means asking questions about the results they want to see, the goals they want to hit, and what their overall vision is for their future. 

Maybe they want more sales, to hit $1M in revenue in a couple of years, or even just to take an extra vacation with their family each year. 

No matter what outcomes they’re looking for, you want to dig into them just like you did with their problems. Uncovering these motivations and desires will help you paint a clear picture of the outcome you can help them achieve by solving their problems.   

Examples:

“What would you like to happen instead of <problem>?”
 

“What is the best result you could hope for with this <problem> fixed?
”

“Can you tell me more about what you would like to see instead? How do you imagine that looking?
”

“How do you think it would feel for you and business to have this fully sorted and on track?”

“What results would you like to see in your business in the next six months? The next year? The next three years?”

“What would getting <result> mean for you and your business?

Step Four: Review

Now that you have all that information, your next step is to review everything with the business owner. You do this by simply recapping the key details they gave you about their business, their problems, and the results they’d like to achieve. 

This does a couple of things: 

  1. It shows that you’re listening and that you’re professional, and
  2. Ensures that you don’t miss anything important before moving on to the next stage

Examples of What to Say: 

(The specifics of what you say should match what you covered in your conversation.)

“So I think I’ve got a good idea of what results you want to achieve and the problems you’re dealing with. Let me just call it back to you and make sure I understand everything at this stage. 

You told me that right now you have a problem with sales….And the problem with sales is [whatever the problem is]... You also mentioned that you have a problem communicating with potential clients. When you go into sales meetings, people don’t really understand or trust what you’re saying because they can’t see it on your website…

You’re telling me that if you can get these problems out of the way, you’re hoping to make $100,000 extra in sales in the next year…You want to open another store…You want to hire those two extra people…You want to be less stressed, less frustrated, etc…

Does that sound accurate? Is there anything that I missed or that we didn’t talk about that’s a problem or goal for you?”

Step Five: Budget

A lot of web designers don’t like talking about budget on sales calls. But if you skip this part of the conversation, you’ll end up guessing on price when you send them a proposal later on. 

Bringing up the budget only needs to be awkward if you make it awkward. 

The key is to view it as finding out what you have to work with in order to solve their problems and help them reach their goals. There’s no point in proposing a $10,000 solution if they only have $5,000 to spend on the project. 

Here’s how you might phrase this: 

“Okay Larry, now that we’ve covered everything, let’s talk about what we have to work with in order to fix these sorts of problems. Do you have an amount in mind that you would be happy to invest in me helping you with this right now? Or do you want me to go over some general figures and we can work from there?”

If they say a good amount, you can move straight into the next step. If they say an amount that’s too low or that they don’t have a budget in mind, you may have to do some educating about how much a solution will cost and why.

So let’s say they tell you their budget is only $200. Here’s how I might respond to that (Please don’t copy this word for word. This is just an example): 

“I know right now there’s a lot of information out there that says you can get a website for $200. And you can–you can go on Fiverr or some other site and get someone to make a four-page website for that amount. 

But talking about the problems you have and the goals you want to hit, I think it makes sense for you to invest more. $200 can get you a website that looks good, but we want something that will actually perform well and make a real difference in your business. 

With the problems you talked about, I think a budget that could be better to help you would be closer to [your price]. Now, why would you pay that amount? Basically, that allows me to come at this project with the best possible resources, to get real results…”

Again, this is just an example. How you phrase this will depend on their response and how you’re currently pricing your projects. 

You should also keep in mind that you don’t have to give them an exact quote at this stage. Your goal is to get an idea of their budget, move on to the next step, and then send them something concrete in your proposal. 

(Pricing websites is a pretty in-depth subject. If you want more information on how to do it properly, check out this video: How Much to Charge For a Website - Web Design Pricing)

Step Six: Plan

For this step, it’s important to remember that you aren’t selling web design on the phone. That happens later. 

A better way to end your sales call is to simply outline a plan for what will happen next and say goodbye.

For Example: 

“I’ll go away, review all the information you gave me, and really condense it down to the core things that matter. Over the next few days, I’ll send you an email with the information about the project and what price I think will work best for us to get the best results. 

I’ll create a contract and invoice, and if you’re happy with things we can move forward straight away. If you have any more questions, I can answer them in an email or over the phone.

Does that sound good to you? Is there anything you feel I’ve missed?

Great. Thanks for having this call and I’ll send you over that information soon.”

After the Call - Creating and Sending Your Project Plan

Once you finish the call, it’s time to deliver on what you promised. 

That means putting together a project plan (proposal) and sending it over to the client. 

This falls outside the scope of this post, but you can check out my entire system for writing effective proposals in the following video: The Exact Web Design Proposal I Use ($12,000+ Project)

(Here’s the link to the proposal template that I mention in the video: Template)

Extra Resources for Selling Websites

If you follow the six steps I laid out above in your next sales conversations, I’m confident you’ll start closing profitable deals in no time. 

But just to make sure you feel as prepared as possible, here are a few more resources that can help you master the sales process. 

Real Sales Call Examples

Here are two real-life examples of my own successful web design sales calls. 

I break them down minute by minute, giving you insights into what the business owner is thinking, what I did well, and what I could improve on at each step. 

Note: These are NOT cold calls. I had already spoken to these business owners briefly and they were expecting to get on a longer call with me. 

$7,000 Website Sales Call

Successful $3,000 Website Sales Call

31 Useful Sales Questions to Include in Your Web Design Sales Script

This is a more in-depth video focusing on the different types of questions you can ask during your sales calls and in what order you should ask them.

You can easily take these questions and plug them into the six-step process above. 

Mindset

Selling websites is a mental game more than anything else. The following videos will help you understand what you should be focusing on while selling and how to stay composed when your conversations don’t go as planned. 

How to Overcome Buyer Resistance

How to Control and Close a Web Design Sale

How to Stay Motivated When Learning to Sell Websites

Mastering Sales Takes Practice

I shared a lot of advice and resources on selling websites in this post. At this point, you may be feeling a bit overwhelmed.

But don’t worry…

You don’t need to memorize everything I covered to start closing deals. Even understanding the basic mindset lessons in this post will put you way ahead of most web designers. 

Just keep in mind that the only proven way to get better at selling websites is to go out and practice with real business owners. As long as you have the right framework and you’re willing to learn from every sales call, real-life experience will always be your greatest teacher. 


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