Your first sales

Klaudius builds the sites, sends the pitches and carries on the conversation with you: it drafts each reply from the whole thread for your go-ahead and makes any changes the owner asks for. This is practical advice for the stretch between your first pitches and your first yes. Every market and owner is different, and nothing here guarantees a sale.

Keep follow-ups running every day

Plenty of replies come from a follow-up rather than the first message. Each business gets your pitch, then up to four follow-ups on days 3, 7, 14 and 21; the last tells them the site is still live if they change their mind.

A follow-up round checks every conversation for replies, works out who's due, and drafts each message for you to approve. Switch on Daily follow-ups in Settings and pick a time, and the app prepares a round each day at that time, with the drafts waiting in the Follow-ups tab of your Inbox. On a day without a round, nobody due hears from you until the next one. See Daily follow-ups.

If you pitch by email, make sure it lands

If your emails land in spam, nobody can reply. Ask Klaudius to check your email deliverability: it sends a test message, reads how the receiving service treated it, and tells you what to fix. Do it once now, and again if replies dry up. Visit alerts can warn you sooner: if the businesses you've pitched stay at Not yet in the Seen column in Pipeline, your emails may not be reaching them. See Check your mail lands.

Reply fast, and keep it personal

When someone answers, reply quickly. Run Warm leads from the Runs page each morning for who's waiting on you and who's due a nudge. Ask Klaudius to reply, or press Draft a reply in the Inbox: it drafts from the whole thread, and you check it before it goes. See Warm leads.

Some owners look you up before they reply, so build your own website before your first sale. With no client work to show yet, it leads with your offer and with you. See Your own agency website.

Answering common objections

• "I can't update it myself." Offer the editor: the owner signs in, clicks the text or photos on their pages to change them, and publishes. See Let clients edit their site.
• "I already pay for booking software." Offer the booking add-on: bookings on their own site, with confirmation emails, a staff dashboard, reminders and no per-booking fees. See Booking system.
• "I don't need a website." No need to argue; the site already exists, so ask them to take a look. Visit alerts tell you when a business opens its site and how many times. Your follow-ups never mention the visit.
• "Can I have that in writing?" Send a quote: a PDF of what's included, the price and how long the offer stands. See Invoices and quotes.

The editor and booking add-ons need the site to be hosted on Vercel.

Offer to handle the domain

Most owners haven't thought about a domain when they reply. Ask Klaudius to suggest domains for the business: it comes up with names that suit the business name and trade, checks which are available, and gives you a shortlist of the best two or three. Send them to the owner, and offer to register their pick. It takes a decision off their plate while they're deciding whether to go ahead. See Domains.

Pick a niche and a region you can talk about

You'll sound more convincing to an owner whose trade or town you know. Point Klaudius at one town, or one trade in a town ("plumbers in Leeds"), and it works that brief fully before reporting the town finished. Left to choose, it favours trades with high job values and urgent customers, such as plumbers, electricians and roofers, and works suburbs and smaller towns before city centres. See Choose who to target.

Once a trade starts replying, consider staying with it for a while: your pitches and answers get sharper with every conversation in it.

Read more on the blog: What to do when a business replies.