If you were to start from the beginning using cold calling as the primary way to sell a website, what would your offer be and how would you turn that into a retainer?

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If you were to start from the beginning using cold calling as the primary way to sell a website, what would your offer be and how would you turn that into a retainer?

Don’t sell vague websites; instead frame your offer as an ROI proposition. If the prospect has no website at all, the ROI is clear—adding a site could bring in two or three extra clients per year for an HVAC business, translating to $20‑30 K annually. When a website already exists, shift to selling conversion‑rate‑optimization: audit their landing pages, propose to make them better, and charge a fixed fee backed by a performance guarantee (e.g., you’ll lift the conversion rate by 0.5 % or you don’t get paid). This approach targets B2B advertisers who are already spending money on ads, making the conversation about improving existing spend rather than selling a generic product.

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Related answers

youtube ↗Sales

Does selling AI websites via cold calling still work?

Yeah, I'd say it can work. Most of these approaches are still technically feasible, but that specific approach is less effective because it's been squeezed out. You'd likely get 1.5 to 2× ROI per unit time by reaching out with a Loom video instead of a cold call, delivering the same message. If you refine your wording, add follow‑up sequences, and optimize the approach, you could see two to three times the ROI, since cold calling introduces inefficiencies. Outbound calling still works, but it's not as good as those alternatives.

cold callingai websitessalesroi

youtube ↗Cold Email

What's the difference between your cold email system and a paid ads campaign with a full funnel in terms of ROI? Do you get better outcomes with cold email, and is that why you recommend it? What are the best outbound strategies to get clients based on your experience? Could you give an example with a $100/month budget?

I bootstrap the vast majority of my business using cold email, which is why I encourage everyone I know to use it. The cost per acquisition (CPA) with cold email is significantly lower than with paid ads—in 99% of cases it's not even funny how much lower it is. With cold email, you trade the inherent scalability and automation of ad platforms (like Google and Facebook's automated tweaking and tripwire offers) for the time you or a salesperson spend communicating one‑on‑one with prospects. Because you're investing that time, the CPA drops dramatically—for example, you might spend around $5 to acquire a $5,000 product, whereas with ads you could spend $350 or more for the same lifetime value. Even with a $100‑per‑month budget, you can't realistically run an ad campaign; the time, energy, and money required to set up and optimize the ads would be prohibitive. Cold email lets you use that budget effectively by focusing on direct outreach.

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youtube ↗Cold Email

For a low‑ticket SaaS that offers a free site generator with a $10 /mo or $49 /yr plan, should I focus on cold outreach or continue with paid ads, and what strategy would you recommend?

You’re running a low‑ticket, low‑touch SaaS that’s mostly automated, so you need a lot of volume to make it worthwhile. Cold outreach—especially cold email—usually isn’t profitable for low‑ticket products because the average revenue per user is too low to justify the sales effort required for each lead. A half‑hour sales call for a $49 annual plan simply doesn’t break even. You have a few options: target enterprise customers with larger seat counts, or focus on paid acquisition like PPC. If CPA is high, either lower it with better marketing tactics or raise your price point. Remember, the goal isn’t necessarily a low CPA; it’s to be profitable after a few months. You’ll likely lose money for the first 3‑4 months of a user’s lifecycle, so you need churn under about 20 % monthly to break even. Once churn extends to 6‑12 months, the model becomes sustainable. In short, for a low‑ticket SaaS, prioritize paid ads and consider raising prices or moving upmarket rather than relying on cold outreach. The only real value of a tool today is its distribution channel, so focus on getting it in front of as many eyes as possible.

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youtube ↗Lead Generation

I'm starting a lead‑generation agency focused on home services like HVAC. I’m unsure what to sell, whether to use a pay‑per‑lead model or a high‑ticket retainer, and how to justify a $2‑5k retainer. What should my main selling point be and how can I pitch it?

Don’t lock yourself into a single offer right away. Test three niches with two offers each (six offers total) for 30 days using a high‑volume channel such as cold email or cold DMs, sending hundreds of messages daily. At the end of the test, look at which offer got the highest reply rate—that’s your winning combination. This lets you validate a niche and pricing without guessing. You can charge a high‑ticket retainer by focusing on the outcomes you’ll deliver (e.g., guaranteed lead volume or revenue increase) and back it with a strong guarantee or performance‑based component. The key is to run fast experiments, pick the offer that resonates, and then double down.

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