How Do You Sell AI to Local Businesses?

James Dickerson says the pitch to a local company is booked jobs and more phone calls, not AI automation and not agents. Customers care about revenue and return on investment. Leading with "I am implementing AI into your company" makes eyes glaze over.

A $5 million plumbing company is probably spending $150,000 to $250,000 a year on marketing, and leaks cost real money. Scroll the site and the owner can see when there is no way to book. The gap is visual and easy to understand. On X, inside an AI bubble, people talk about starting an AI automation agency or an AI services agency, or about selling AI agents. Customers do not care about any of that. Many owners do not know what an AI agent is and picture a real estate agent. A lot of owners are from a generation that is probably not adopting the tools, and the market sophistication is not there for the majority of local service companies.

A lot of people do not like AI. Most of mainstream America has a sour taste about AI, and data centers are part of the reason. He tested an AI receptionist on his own trades business and got voicemails from callers who asked if it was a dumb AI thing and hung up. They could tell it was AI and wanted a person. A pitch that sounds good to people already excited about AI can still miss how these businesses work.