sales-field-sales

What this skill does

# Hyperlocal Field-Sales Strategy

This skill is tool-agnostic. It covers how to plan, target, pitch, and follow up on door-to-door / territory / route-based outbound to cash-heavy local SMBs — the kind that don't show up in Apollo and don't reply to cold email.

## Step 1 — Gather context

If `references/learnings.md` exists, read it first.

1. **What's the motion?**
   - A) Single-corridor pilot (one street, one neighborhood)
   - B) Multi-corridor in one city
   - C) Multi-city / multi-rep expansion
   - D) Just building the first target list

2. **What's the SMB vertical?** (restaurants, gas stations, convenience stores, salons, gyms, contractors, HVAC, lawn care, mobile detailing, courier — drives the right pitch and objection framework)

3. **What's the local-data source you've tried?** (Google Maps, Yelp, Foursquare, an LLM, paid scrapers, or nothing yet)

4. **Are you the founder doing the canvassing yourself, or building a rep team?** (drives platform selection)

Skip-ahead rule: if the user's prompt already has these details, skip to Step 2.

## Step 2 — Route or answer directly

| If the question is about... | Route to... |
|---|---|
| Database B2B SaaS prospect lists (Apollo, ZoomInfo, Clay) | `/sales-prospect-list [question]` |
| Digital email / LinkedIn / phone sequences | `/sales-cadence [question]` |
| Reviewing a recorded in-person call for coaching | `/sales-siro [question]` |
| Two-sided marketplace GTM (cold-start sequencing, supply recruiting, flywheel) | `/sales-two-sided-marketplace [question]` |
| Local SEO and Google Business Profile for inbound demand | `/sales-seo [question]` |
| Cold email deliverability (when you also have a digital channel) | `/sales-deliverability [question]` |

If the question is genuinely about field-sales execution, continue to Step 3.

## Step 3 — Field-sales platform reference

**Read `references/platforms.md`** for per-platform notes on SalesRabbit, Spotio, Map My Customers, Badger Maps, Outfield, Repsly, Skynamo, and Geopointe — what each is best at, team-size fit, vertical fit, and the rough pricing band.

Answer using only the relevant platform sections. Don't dump the full file.

## Step 4 — Actionable guidance

The hyperlocal field-sales motion has six pillars. Work them in order on a new pilot.

### 4.1 Corridor / territory target-list building

Cash-heavy SMBs aren't on Apollo. The right data sources are local-business APIs and scrapers.

| Source | What it's for | Cost | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Maps Places API | Authoritative business directory + hours + category | Pay-per-request | Any corridor list |
| Yelp Fusion API | Categories + ratings + photo proof | Free tier, then paid | Restaurant / hospitality |
| Foursquare Places API | Foot traffic + category richer than Google | Free tier | Retail-heavy corridors |
| Outscraper | Google Maps / Yelp / Foursquare scraping at scale | $50-200/mo flat | When API rate limits bite |
| Phantombuster | Generic scraping for niche directories | $69/mo+ | Salon / gym / contractor sites |
| Manual + walk-by audit | Validate the scrape against what's actually open | Time only | First corridor only — always do this once |

**Corridor heuristic:** start with a 10-15 stop walking corridor. Density beats sparseness. A 50-stop sparse city beats nothing, but a 15-stop dense walk converts faster per hour.

### 4.2 Route planning and density optimization

- **Walking corridors** (sub-2 miles) — order stops by side-of-street to minimize crossings; plan 8-15 stops per shift.
- **Drive routes** — cluster by drive-time, not distance. A 15-min drive between two stops kills a 4-hour shift. Use Badger / Map My Customers / Spotio's optimizer.
- **Anchor stops** — start each route at a "known yes" or a friendly current customer. Builds momentum and gives a fresh case study to drop in pitch #2.
- **Time-of-day rules:** restaurant pitches before 11am or 2-4pm; gas stations 10am-noon or 2-4pm; salons mornings on Tue-Thu. Avoid lunch rush and weekend nights.

### 4.3 In-person pitch frameworks (60-second clerk encounter)

Most pitches land with a clerk, not the owner. Optimize for the clerk.

**Hook → Proof → Ask → Leave-behind:**

1. **Hook (5 sec):** one-sentence problem-statement in the owner's language. "I clean bathrooms for restaurants so your team can stop doing it."
2. **Proof (15 sec):** one local example. "[Place down the corridor] uses us 3x/week — saves them about 10 hours of staff time."
3. **Ask (10 sec):** ask the clerk what they need to pass it up. "Is the owner usually here mornings? Or is text easier?"
4. **Leave-behind (10 sec):** a card or one-page sheet. The clerk WILL lose it — that's fine. The point is owner sees it.
5. **Capture (10 sec):** owner name, owner phone if clerk volunteers it, best time to come back. Log immediately.

**The clerk-is-not-the-buyer flip:** if the clerk says "I don't mind cleaning the bathrooms," that's a recruiting signal, not a rejection — but route to `/sales-two-sided-marketplace` for the supply-recruiting layer if you're building a marketplace.

### 4.4 Objection handling for cash-heavy SMB owners

Cash-heavy owners have a fundamentally different objection set than SaaS buyers.

- **"Too expensive":** they're picturing cash out of the drawer today, not annual contract value. Reframe as cash-equivalent: "It's $40/visit, you'd be paying staff $25/hour to do 1.5 hours, so net $2-5/visit."
- **"I don't know you":** trust without a brand. Drop a local proof point — name another customer on the same corridor. If you don't have one, offer the first visit free.
- **"Owner's not here":** never push the clerk past "yes, I'll mention it." Get the best time + phone. The follow-up is the actual pitch.
- **"I'll think about it":** that's a no until proven otherwise. Set a specific next step: "Mind if I swing back Thursday morning?"

### 4.5 Light post-visit follow-up

**Do NOT use email cadences.** Owners don't open email. Use this order:

| Touch | Timing | Channel | Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Same day, evening | SMS to owner | "Hey [name], met your clerk [name] today at [place]. Sending the one-pager — let me know if you want to try one visit on us." |
| 2 | Day +4 | Handwritten note dropped at the location | Single sentence + your number. The fact that you came back beats anything you write. |
| 3 | Day +10 | Phone call | "Hey [name], just checking — want to set up that first visit?" |

Stop after 3 touches. If no reply, they're a no for now — circle back in 60-90 days when the corridor matures.

### 4.6 Platform selection

See `references/platforms.md` for full per-platform notes. Quick decision pivot:

- **Solo founder canvassing:** Badger Maps (route opt only, $58/user/mo) or Outfield (canvassing tracking).
- **Small rep team (2-10), HVAC / home services:** SalesRabbit.
- **Rep team (5-20), territory-heavy multichannel:** Spotio.
- **Mobile-first CRM with simpler route planning:** Map My Customers.
- **Retail execution / FMCG (rep visits stores to merchandise):** Repsly.
- **FMCG / distribution with order capture in-shift:** Skynamo.
- **Already on Salesforce:** Geopointe (native).

If you discover something not covered here, append it to `references/learnings.md` with today's date.

## Gotchas

> *Best-effort from research and field experience — verify pricing and feature gates against current vendor pages.*

1. **Treating SMB pitches like SaaS demos kills the close in the first 10 seconds.** Owners don't want a deck. They want to know what it costs and what changes for them. Lead with both.
2. **Email follow-up after an in-person "yes" destroys the deal.** Owners aren't checking email. Switch to SMS or phone the moment the in-person meeting ends.
3. **Single-corridor density beats multi-city sparseness.** Ten doors on one street with a 30% close rate is more revenue than 100 doors across a city with a 3% close rate — and the references compound.
4. **The clerk is not the buyer, but the clerk is the gate.*