This is a bit of a strange article. I see where they're coming from, but a number of things that come to mind as I read through this: - Competing against Yell

This is a bit of a strange article. I see where they're coming from, but a number of things that come to mind as I read through this: - Competing against Yell, Yelp, Google...etc. for local reviews and listings isn't exactly going to be easy. I'm not sure how prevalent all those local services were in 2010, but even if it had gained traction, it likely wouldn't have lasted long (or perhaps if they're lucky, been bought out). - Did they only try cold calling? If so, that's ridiculous. Did they attempt multiple marketing methods? Did they try to educate the market before trying to get a meeting/sale? Did they run group sales events? They really didn't seem to know what they were doing at all, so how is this enlightening to people reading? Maybe learn sales and marketing before trying to actually build a business... - Local businesses often aren't very good at running a business. It's that simple. Some survive through luck (and referrals). They're often disorganized, and so busy dealing with clients they can't even think about sales and marketing. And often even if you can outline a very clear ROI, they won't go for it since small businesses are often more of the consumer mindset (emotion driven) rather than bigger business mindset (ROI driven). - And also, as another comment mentions, a lot of small businesses don't want to really grow. If they're earning enough to cover their bills, they're happy. The stress of managing employees is often more of a deterrent than the benefit of earning more. - A $50k solution to a local business? That's a ridiculous price and expectation. At least have multiple service levels, and a free version is a great starting point too. - At least they understand that there's often massive resistance to changing how they do things, especially if some members of staff aren't comfortable with technology (as many people aren't). I'm just slightly shocked that they had to learn such fundamental truths about business, in such a hard way. Did they consider hiring a sales/marketing consultant? Did they test other selling approaches? With great sales and marketing, you can sell a poor quality product. Not recommended of course, so if your product's good you have happy customers and also referrals. They had the product-part right, but didn't seem to have a clear product-market fit, and certainly hadn't found a dependable sales/marketing approach that allowed them to grow.