Do not dial a business until you have looked at its website on your own phone. The call works or fails on whether you have one true, specific thing to say in the first ten seconds, and "your website could be better" is neither. "Your call button doesn't work on a phone" is.
This is a script built on one observation you verified, with a 60-second check to find it, an opener that names it, answers to the two replies you will hear most, and the voicemail and email that follow. The goal of the call is small: book a short review of a one-page mockup you will have ready in three days.
A 60-second check before you dial
Imogen is a freelance web designer who calls plumbing, HVAC and landscaping companies in her area. Before every call she runs this check on her phone, on mobile data, and writes the answers on a sticky note. If nothing on the list is wrong, she does not call, because she has nothing true to say.
- Does the site load in under a few seconds? Count while you tap the link (10 seconds).
- Does the phone number work with one tap? Tap it. If it opens the dialer, good. If nothing happens, that is the finding (10 seconds).
- Can you read the text without pinching to zoom? (5 seconds).
- Does the browser say "Not secure" near the address? That warning alone scares some customers (5 seconds).
- Is there a way to ask for a quote on the first screen? A button or a short form. Scrolling to find the phone number counts against it (10 seconds).
- How old does it look? A copyright year from several years ago, or a "coming soon" page, is worth noting (10 seconds).
- Do the Google Maps listing and the site agree? Same phone number and hours (10 seconds).
Take one finding, the clearest one, and ignore the rest. Calling with a list of six problems makes the owner defensive. One precise problem makes them curious. You can also run Google's free PageSpeed Insights on the address if you want a number for slowness, but only quote it if you ran it and wrote down the result.
The opener that names what you found
Hi, is this Carla? This is Imogen, I build websites for local service companies here in town. I pulled up Ferris Plumbing on my phone this morning, and the call button at the top doesn't do anything when I tap it, so I had to copy the number by hand. Have you heard that from customers, or is that news?
It leads with a fact, not a pitch, and ends in a question the owner can answer honestly either way. If Carla says it is news, she is curious. If she says she knows, she is already half sold on fixing it. Then Imogen moves to the offer:
I'd like to show you a fix, not just tell you about it. I can put together a one-page mockup of a version that works on phones, in about three days, and walk you through it for 15 minutes. No charge for that. If you like it, we talk price. If not, you keep the mockup.
The offer is time-boxed and costs the owner nothing. It also costs Imogen three hours, so she makes it only to owners who gave a real answer on the call.
"My nephew built it"
This is common, and it is a relationship before it is a website. Do not say anything unkind about the nephew.
That's great, and I'm not here to replace family. Would it help if I sent you the two things I noticed, in a short note, so he can fix them? If it turns out he's busy, I can still do that mockup and you can compare the two.
If the owner says yes, send the note the same day. You will sometimes get a call back when the nephew gets busy. Meanwhile you have behaved the way you would want a designer to behave.
"Just send me an email"
An owner who says this is often saying "I'm on a job." Take it as a real request, then make the email worth reading by getting one detail first:
Happy to. So the email is useful and not generic, what's the one thing you'd most want the site to do: get more calls, show your prices, or take bookings?
Their answer becomes the subject line of the email.
Subject: The call button on Ferris Plumbing's site
Hi Carla, thanks for taking my call. As I mentioned, the phone number at the top of your site doesn't dial when it's tapped on a phone. Here's a screenshot with the spot circled. A one-page mockup that fixes it and puts a quote request on the first screen would take me about three days. Want me to send it and walk you through it for 15 minutes? Imogen, Imogen Web Studio, 31 Mill St, Columbus OH. Reply "stop" and I won't write again.
Include your business address and a way to opt out; that is what CAN-SPAM requires for commercial email.
Booking the mockup review
Before hanging up, set a time: "Thursday at 4, or Friday at 9?" Put it in a calendar invite with a screen-share link and send it while you are still talking. A mockup review with a date on the calendar happens far more often than one that is "sometime next week."
The voicemail and the follow-up
If you get voicemail, leave 15 seconds: "Hi Carla, Imogen here, I build websites for local plumbers. Your call button isn't working on phones and I wanted to flag it. I'll send you a short note with a screenshot. 555-0114." Then send the email above the same day. Call again in two days, and then stop. The longer system for a first email and the follow-ups after it is in cold email templates for web designers, and the larger picture is in how to get clients as a web designer.
What to log after each call
Name, what you found, what they said, the next step and its date. Two lines. If they said "not now," set a reminder for 60 days. If they said "we just redid it," note when, and call again in a year. Sales-call habits that apply to any trade are in sales call script for a local business owner and how to get past the gatekeeper when cold calling, and the version for a different buyer, cold call script for B2B, covers owners, managers and assistants separately. Check the telemarketing rules that apply to you, including the Do Not Call Registry, before you start. This is general information, not legal advice.
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