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Weeding out time wasting prospects

by rhinocl
3 replies
Recently a by-passer overheard part of a phone call to an SEO client and approached me about building them a web site. Seeing as what he needed was very simple,I quoted a very low price. However now I see that I have sent 24 emails in response to simple questions that all should have been addressed during a single appointment to build his site, and I don't have a sale yet.

During the past few months I have eliminated many time wasters by asking for money earlier in the process, but occasionally I still make that mistake.

I'd like to say that I can always tell time wasters after a few phone calls or e-mails, but I once had 34 conversations with a prospect before making $4000 from her. So what clues do you all use to identify these people and control situations like the one above?
#prospects #time #wasting #weeding
  • Profile picture of the author mojo1
    Read any and everything by this guy over at industrialego.com

    I finally bought his program after being on his list for years.

    Shamus does an excellent job of showing sales professional how not to jump through anyones hoop and how to control your sale from the very beginning by not giving anything away for free without getting some kind of commitment up front.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
    You need to ask better questions.

    This is why email back-and-forth is nowhere near as effective as a live conversation.

    Go through it all. Identify needs, budget, hurdles, how they make their decision.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kung Fu Backlinks
    This is definitely one of the tougher things to get good at when building your SEO / IM business offline. I still fall into the trap of giving up too much time to tire kickers.

    I am always helpful and friendly with the first meeting / phone call. I try my best to convey that I am busy and if we are going to get in depth, we need to book an appointment. During that official meeting, where we're discovering if my services will work for them or not, I try and make sure they have a very clear picture of what the services will look like and what they can expect and when. I never get into nitty gritty about the work, just results and deliverables.

    If they're good with the price, I collect a check and put everything in an email for them to keep. I'm also very proactive with sending out frequent updates. I find this cuts down on the pointless questions. 1/2 the time, you get those questions when people want to feel in the loop and in control of what you're doing for them. Nobody likes to hand over money and wait 2 weeks for information.

    But it sounds like the bulk of your back-and-forth comes before a check is even received. If that's the case, I would agree with the above statement that you may need to be more thorough in your consultation with them. Then again... some people are just indecisive
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