Most lost enquiries are lost to unvoiced hesitation rather than to price or competition. Those hesitations are predictable by trade and can be answered on a page before anybody has to ask.

Why they go unsaid

People do not raise the objection that is actually stopping them, for three reasons.

It would reveal ignorance. Somebody who does not know what a term means, or how a process works, will not ask a professional to explain it.

It is about money. Asking whether something is affordable is uncomfortable, so people leave instead.

It sounds unreasonable. Worrying about mess, or about whether they will be judged, or about being pressured, feels like a silly thing to raise.

Which means the objection you hear is frequently a substitute. Somebody who says they need to think about it is rarely thinking about the thing they mentioned.

The recurring ones

Am I going to be judged

Present wherever the customer has neglected something: a dentist they have avoided, a house that is a mess, a system that failed because maintenance was skipped, a garden that got away from them.

Saying plainly that you see this constantly, that nobody comments, and that it is ordinary removes a barrier that stops people for years.

Am I going to be pressured

The reason free consultations and free trials underperform. People decline free things when they suspect a sales process attached.

Stating what happens and whether anybody will follow up is what converts it.

Is this going to be much more than I think

Present everywhere prices are not published. The customer's fear is not the price but the loss of control over it.

Answered by a range, by stating what is included, and by explaining what would change the number.

Am I too small a job

Stops a surprising volume of work. Somebody with a modest job assumes a professional business is not interested, and does not ask.

Saying explicitly that small jobs are welcome, or stating a minimum honestly, resolves it either way.

Will they be difficult if I change my mind

Present wherever a commitment is involved. Answered by publishing cancellation terms plainly rather than after booking.

Do I actually need this

The one customers most suspect you of answering self-servingly, which is why saying when something is not needed is the most credibility-building thing on a site.

Finding your own

Three sources, in order of usefulness.

Ask people who did not proceed. A short message to somebody who enquired and went quiet, asking plainly what put them off, receives an honest answer more often than expected.

Listen to how enquiries begin. The apologetic opening is the signal. Sorry to bother you, this is probably a small job, I know I should have called sooner. Each of those names a hesitation.

Ask whoever answers the phone what people apologise for or seem awkward about.

The apologetic opening is the most reliable indicator available and it is heard every day without being recorded.

Answering them on the page

Not in a defensive section addressing objections, which announces that objections exist.

The answers work best embedded where the concern arises: a line on the pricing page about what small jobs cost, a sentence on the booking page about nobody being pressured, a paragraph on the service page about what you see every week.

A question section is the other natural home, since a question is a comfortable format for something awkward. Including the uncomfortable questions there, rather than only the convenient ones, is what makes it useful.

The tone that works

Matter of fact rather than reassuring.

Telling somebody not to worry draws attention to the worry. Stating the fact plainly does not.

Most of our jobs are half a day or less is better than do not feel your job is too small. The first is information; the second is management.

The same applies to the judgement fear. We see this weekly is better than there is no need to be embarrassed.

The test

Read your site as somebody who is slightly ashamed of the situation that brought them there.

For most trades that person exists in volume: the neglected maintenance, the problem that got worse, the thing they tried to fix themselves.

If nothing on the site acknowledges that this is ordinary, the site is written for a customer who does not need convincing and is losing the one who does, which is the same set of silent eliminations traced in the customer comparing three quotes.

Frequently asked questions

Why do objections go unsaid?

Because raising them would reveal ignorance, involve discussing money, or sound unreasonable. What you hear instead is usually a substitute.

What are the recurring unspoken objections?

Whether they will be judged, whether they will be pressured, whether the cost will run away, whether their job is too small, and whether they actually need the work.

Which one costs the most work?

Am I too small a job. Somebody with a modest job assumes a professional business is not interested and simply does not ask.

How do I find mine?

Ask people who enquired and went quiet what put them off, and listen to apologetic openings on the phone, which name the hesitation directly.

Where should the answers go?

Embedded where the concern arises rather than in a section addressing objections, which announces that objections exist. A question section also works.

What tone works?

Matter of fact rather than reassuring. Most of our jobs are half a day or less beats do not feel your job is too small, because the first is information.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Enquiries that go quiet without explanation?

We identify the hesitations specific to your trade and answer them where the customer meets them, rather than waiting to be asked.

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