Look, Your Phone is Killing Your Business
I’m going to be blunt. If you’re a tradie in Brissie or you run a small professional service, you’re probably losing money every single day.
Not because you’re bad at your job. Not because your prices are too high.
It’s because you’re busy.
You’re on a roof in Coorparoo, or you’re mid-meeting in the CBD, and your phone rings. You can’t answer it. Or a lead comes through your website at 8:00 PM while you’re finally sitting down to have a beer and watch the footy.
What happens? That potential customer—who is ready to spend money right now—doesn't leave a message. They go back to Google, click the next business on the list, and give their money to your competitor who actually picked up.
It’s brutal. But it’s the truth.
Most small business owners think the answer is hiring a receptionist or an expensive virtual assistant. But for a lot of you, that’s just another overhead that eats your profit.
This is where AI sales assistants come in. And before you roll your eyes thinking this is some sci-fi rubbish, let me tell you: this is the most practical way to make more money in 2024 without working more hours.
What Actually is an AI Sales Assistant?
Forget robots and talking computers.
An AI sales assistant is just a smart bit of software that lives on your website, your Facebook page, or your SMS line. Its only job is to talk to people who want to buy from you and get them to the next step—usually booking a quote or a call.
It doesn't get tired. It doesn't take lunch breaks. It doesn't get grumpy when someone asks the same question for the tenth time today.
Honestly, it’s like having a 24/7 sales rep who knows your business inside out and never asks for a pay rise.
We’ve started implementing marketing automation basics for our clients because the old way of "I'll call them back tomorrow" just doesn't work anymore. People have zero patience. If you don't engage them in the first five minutes, they’re gone.
The Cost of the "Leaky Bucket"
Think about how much you spend on fuel, tools, or even those Google Ads you’re running.
If you spend $1,000 on ads to get 20 people to your site, and 10 of them message you but you only reply to 3 of them fast enough to win the job... you just set $700 on fire.
I see this constantly. Business owners complaining that "ads don't work" when the reality is their follow-up is what’s broken.
An AI assistant plugs that hole. It greets the person instantly. It asks what they need. It qualifies them (so you don't waste time on tyre-kickers). And it puts the appointment straight into your calendar.
Case Study: The Plumber Who Stopped Chasing His Tail
Let’s look at a real-world example. We worked with a local plumbing outfit. Good blokes, great work, but the owner was stressed out of his mind.
He was getting about 15 enquiries a day through his site and Facebook. By the time he got off the tools at 5:00 PM to call them back, half had already booked someone else.
We set up a simple AI sales assistant.
Now, when someone messages his Facebook page asking, "How much to fix a burst pipe?", the AI doesn't just say "We'll get back to you."
It says: "I can help with that! Is it an emergency or can it wait until tomorrow? Also, what suburb are you in?"
If they say it’s an emergency in a suburb they service, the AI asks for a photo of the leak, gets their phone number, and sends a priority alert to the owner’s phone.
If it’s a standard job, it offers them a booking slot for a quote the next morning.
The result? His booking rate went up by 40% in the first month. He didn't spend an extra cent on advertising. He just stopped losing the leads he was already getting.
Why Most Chatbots Are Rubbish (And Why AI is Different)
You’ve probably used those old-school chatbots on big corporate sites. They’re annoying. You click a button, it gives you three options, none of them are what you want, and you end up typing "TALK TO A HUMAN" over and over.
That’s not what we’re talking about here.
Modern AI uses "Natural Language." That’s just a fancy way of saying it understands how people actually talk.
If a customer types, "G'day, need someone to look at my deck, it's rotting away in the corner," the AI knows they want a carpentry quote. It doesn't get confused by the slang. It just handles it.
This is one of the AI tools we use to make sure our clients actually get more customers instead of just more "traffic."
How It Saves You Time (The "Admin Killer")
As a business owner, your time is worth money. If you spend two hours a day answering basic questions like "Do you service Chermside?" or "What are your hourly rates?", that’s ten hours a week wasted.
That’s over 500 hours a year.
What would you do with an extra 500 hours? Spend it with the kids? Get more jobs done? Finally go fishing?
An AI assistant handles the boring stuff. - It checks your service area. - It explains your process. - It takes down the customer's details. - It syncs with your calendar.
You only get involved when there’s a real job ready to go. You can literally automate your sales so you’re only talking to people who are ready to pay you.
"But I Want a Personal Touch"
I hear this a lot. "I don't want my customers talking to a machine. I want them to talk to me."
I get it. Your reputation is everything.
But here’s my honest take: Customers don't care if they’re talking to a human or a bot at 9:00 PM on a Tuesday. They care about getting an answer.
What’s more "personal"? 1. An automated system that gets them an appointment booked in 60 seconds? 2. A voicemail greeting that they never hear back from?
Exactly.
Plus, the AI can be programmed to sound just like you. If you’re a laid-back Aussie business, we make the bot sound like a laid-back Aussie. It doesn't have to sound like a call centre in another country.
What Does This Cost?
Let’s talk brass tacks.
If you hire a part-time admin person in Brisbane, you’re looking at $30-$40 an hour minimum. Plus super. Plus work cover. Plus the headache of managing them.
Setting up a proper AI sales assistant usually has a setup fee (to teach it about your business) and a small monthly cost to keep it running.
Usually, if the bot helps you win just one extra mid-sized job a month, it’s already paid for itself. Everything after that is pure profit.
How Long Until You See Results?
This isn't like SEO where you have to wait six months to see if anything happens.
Once an AI assistant is live on your site or your socials, it starts working instantly. The very next person who messages you will get a reply in seconds.
We usually see clients start booking more appointments within the first week. It’s that fast.
What Should You Do First?
Don't go out and try to build some complex system yourself. You’ve got a business to run.
Start small.
1. Identify your biggest bottleneck. Is it Facebook messages? Website enquiries? Missed calls? 2. Pick one channel. Get an AI assistant set up on that one channel first. 3. Watch the logs. See what people are asking and refine the answers.
Honestly, most of the stuff you read online about AI is overcomplicated. You don't need a "digital transformation strategy." You just need a way to stop missing out on jobs.
My Honest Advice
If you’re still sitting there thinking, "I'll just work harder and answer the phone faster," you’re going to burn out.
The world has changed. Your customers are on their phones, they're impatient, and they want answers now.
An AI sales assistant isn't a luxury anymore. For a small business in a competitive market like Brisbane, it’s becoming a necessity.
It’s the difference between a business that grows and a business that just survives.
If you want to stop chasing admin and start winning more of the leads you’re already getting, we should talk. We help local businesses set this stuff up so it actually works—no jargon, no rubbish, just more bookings.
Drop us a line at Local Marketing Group and let’s see if we can plug those leaks in your business.