A Strange Phenomena (About Closing The Deal)
A guy called me about a classified ad I had posted online. He tells me he 'wants to get serious about his website' and had been looking through my clients sites and wanted to do the online marketing thing etc
Everything I said, he praised and he couldn't contain his enthusiasm. 'Let's do it' and 'I can pay using paypal' and all the rest of it.
This is where I believe I drop the ball. I established he was in front of a computer. I established he was super keen.
But I figured I had to send him at LEAST an email to cover what we talked about, before I sent the invoice. I figured it would seem 'suspicious' to just send an invoice demanding full payment upfront, without going into detail about the services being performed.
So I ended our phone conversation with "OK, I will send through the email covering everything, if you can give me a ring later tonite and confirm, I will send the invoice". He said "OK, I will call you later tonite". He didn't call later tonite.
I kind of had a 'face palm' moment. Sure, he might call tommorow and confirm. But this has happened before. Super keen prospects call ME, tell me they NEED my services, but I don't close them on the spot, so they 'cool off'.
This is the phenomena. The 'cooling off' after a lengthy discussion. I believe their doubt creeps in. They ask themselves questions. Do I really need this right now? Can it wait until I have x/y/z? He isn't really local and I thought he was. Bla bla bla.
So what do you guys think? I figure I should have sent him the invoice right then and walked him through online payment right there. Why didn't I?
Probably just fear. Fear to 100% commit to the sale and ask him to commit so quickly.
Anyone experienced this? Any stories?
QUICK UPDATE 5/14 : (for anyone who cares) I ended up calling this guy back today and found he had called a competitor directly after our call and found very similar rates, packages etc.
So I asked him what it would take and he gave me a bit of a wishy washy "I'm not sure who to go with" answer...THEN TOLD ME HE WOULD CALL BACK AGAIN! And I let him off the hook, because he actually said 'I will probably go with you...but I will let you know by lunctime!'
Of course, lunch rolls around and no phone call. So I said '@!#! it!!' and called him back again and tried AGAIN to find out what would push him over the edge. You know what it was?
The goddamn video I had on my website that I got made on Fiverr. He told me how amazingly brilliant it was...I instantly said 'You know what, I will throw in one for your website' and he said 'SOLD! Done! Let's do it!' and THIS time I sent the details and he made payment with Paypal.
A $2000+$500 per month deal decided over a Fiverr video that cost me like $60 to get done.
The lesson? QUALIFY what your customer wants. You need to get to the CORE things they want. This guy wanted a video. But I had to prod and poke him to finally get it out, the key was to keep poking until he finally gave away his sticking point.
"If you think you're the smartest person in the room, then you're probably in the wrong room."
What if they're not stars? What if they are holes poked in the top of a container so we can breath?
What if they're not stars? What if they are holes poked in the top of a container so we can breath?
"Money grows on the tree of persistence"
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What if they're not stars? What if they are holes poked in the top of a container so we can breath?
What if they're not stars? What if they are holes poked in the top of a container so we can breath?