Nearly half of small businesses don’t have a website because they think it’s not relevant to their business or that it’s too expensive.

Your pitch should passionately address these objections and more, preferably before they’re brought up.

Let’s go over small business owners most frequently asked questions and objections and discuss how to respond to each.

Your knee-jerk response might be to say “of course,” but that’s actually the wrong response.

Small businesses want to make sure that they’re not wasting money on things they don’t need so you must understand and consider the client’s unique scenario in order to show them you’ve carefully evaluated their unique situation.

Here’s how I’d respond to that question.

Not having a website or having a poorly designed website makes you lose credibility in the eyes of consumers.

87% of Americans are online today, and that number is only going to increase.

Millennials (18 to 34) are now the largest consumer group, and they expect businesses to have a website and are more likely to contact them if they do. If a business doesn’t have a website, or their website is ugly then they are unlikely to use that business.

While those between the ages of 35-54 are less critical of businesses without websites, they’re still more likely to contact the business that has a website. This age group also believes that a good website increases a business’ credibility.

Reviews are the be-all-end-all — especially for small businesses.

So if you have a less than four-star rating, best hope it doesn’t come up on the first page of Google. Unfortunately, it likely will though, especially if you don’t have a website.

The best way to combat negative results is to suppress it with positive content that *you* control. The more website SEO pages you have, the more likely you are to bury bad results.

But even if you have a positive online presence, you still need a website… because the majority (37%) of local searchers immediately visit the business’ website upon reading a good review.

It’s also important to note that some local businesses are judged more harshly than others for bad reviews.

If I were you, I’d pay special attention to these categories, and focus on targeting a business from one them. Also, consider seeking out businesses with bad reviews, so you can use this as ammunition for your sales pitch.

It’s likely small businesses have already been hit up by Yelp and the local Chamber of Commerce to get a listing on their directory.

They may not know the difference between a web page on one of these sites and their own website.

If they bring this up, here’s how I’d respond.

That’s great! You should have listings on site directories like these.

However, a website is different from these listings.

First and foremost, you don’t “own” your listing, meaning if you get a bad review, it’s likely going to show up at the top of your page, and the only way to bury it is to pay a recurring monthly fee to Yelp to keep it buried.

Second, these listings lump you into categories, and often, your competitors will be linked to directly on your business page.

95% of people use search engines to find local businesses. If you don’t have a website, it’s likely you’re not showing up, unless you’re on a long list on a directory’s category page, which isn’t so great since it’s listing all of your competitors too.

Third, websites are the second most-used media to find local businesses. Only two forms of media were used by the majority of consumers: search engines and company websites.

And when consumers do find you on places like Yelp, YellowPages.com and Google My Business, they usually click through to the business website.

So these listings should be supplementary to your website. You should be trying to drive traffic away from these listings, to your website.

For example, if someone is searching for a local dry cleaner and finds a few listings near her, that searcher is going to go “one click further” and click on the listing with a website.

When searching, people always want to know more. Your link gives them the option to do just that.

It’s likely a lot of prospects will not be computer savvy. Here’s how to deal with their concerns.

It doesn’t require much effort or resources to maintain a website today. I can easily make updates or changes for you for an affordable price.

Maybe your current customers don’t use the computer that much. I mean, I guess it’s possible, even though 87% of Americans are online today. (Although do you know anyone today who doesn’t have an iPhone or smartphone?)

A much more important concern should be about all the prospects who DO use the computer and aren’t seeing you pop when they conduct local searches.

And just because your customers are older doesn’t mean that they don’t use the computer… or won’t be using it soon.

The fastest growing sector of the American population becoming computer literate is between the ages of 50 and 75.

Couple that with the fact that Millennials (18-34) are now the largest consumer group, and they expect you to have a good website today.

A website is not an advertising investment, but rather is complementary to your advertisements.

Those ads you purchase from Valpak, the Yellow Pages and Yelp are owned by them and are a recurring cost to your business. As soon as you stop paying, your ad disappears.

On the other hand, you own your website, and therefore, can control what users learn about you and your business.

Your website is an asset, like your business phone. You only have to purchase the site once and then just pay the hosting fee each month to use it.

Most small businesses pride themselves on providing amazing customer service, so this might be an important one to them.

Here’s how to address it.

There are three basic costs.

The priciest of these costs is the website design, which is a one-time fee of no more than $1,000, and I design the entire site for you.

Your “online rent” or hosting fee will depend on which hosting provider you choose. This is something I can set up for you as well, if you provide me with a credit card to use to set it up.

You could pay as little as $3.99-$6.99 per month or as much as $29/month, depending on which hosting provider you choose.

The domain name is the least expensive of the bunch, usually ranging between $9 and $12 annually. I can help you choose a domain name if you like.

This is probably the hardest question you’ll have to answer. I have a few different ideas as to how to respond to this.

You’ll have to experiment with which one works the best for you.

Anyway, that’s it for this video.