Every script we ever tried to write for a contractor made the close rate go down. This is a note about why.
When we started running contractors on the ground, the first instinct was the obvious one — write them a script. Something to say in the doorway. An opener, a pivot, a close line. We were, after all, the people who had thought most about the product; surely we could hand them the words.
It didn't work. Close rate with scripted contractors was roughly [TBD]% lower than with the ones who walked in and improvised. We watched the footage back. And what you see, over and over, in the successful pitches, is that the closer says very little. They hand the phone over. Then they wait.
The shape of a good pitch.
A pitch that ends in signature has a surprisingly consistent rhythm. It goes like this, roughly:
- Zero to five seconds: the closer says one sentence, usually a version of "I built a site for your shop — want to see?"
- Five to twenty-five seconds: the phone is in the owner's hand. Nobody speaks. The owner scrolls.
- Twenty-five to forty seconds: one question from the owner. Usually about price. The closer answers in a sentence.
- Forty to ninety seconds: more scrolling, maybe a second question, maybe a nod.
- Around ninety seconds: the owner looks up. This is the tell.
The closers who close a lot are the ones who can sit through the twenty seconds of silence between "here's the site" and the first question. Scripted closers can't. They fill it.
The product does the talking. Your job is to make sure nothing else is.
What we tell new contractors.
These days our onboarding is close to zero words of script. We tell new contractors three things:
- Open with one sentence. Any version of "I built a site for your shop" works.
- Hand the phone over within ten seconds.
- Don't speak again until the owner does.
That's it. Rules past those three seem to make things worse. The demo is the pitch. The silence is the sell.
What comes next.
We're now running experiments on the shape of the silence — whether there's a difference between the closer standing still, stepping back, or turning slightly toward the shop. [TBD] early signs suggest that stepping back one pace at the moment of hand-over measurably improves close rate.
We'll write that up once we have cleaner numbers. In the meantime: if you're on the patch and you catch yourself filling the silence — stop. It's worth more than anything you were about to say.