How to avoid tire kickers?

i had this problem myself when i offered free SEO services for a month. i have no problem with clients who decide after the 30-day trial period that they longer want my services as long as it is communicated to me. it's those who suddenly disappear and ignore all my messages that frustrate me.

although i havent found a complete way around it, one solution is to bill them a free 30-day cycle (i use paypal) where after the 30 days, they are automatically charged every month after. they also have the option of canceling the re-occurring billing before the 30 days are up.

i found that although the number of clients who agree to the trial decreases, so do the number of "tire kickers" as you get more serious prospects.

if the clients you are targeting are smart enough, they'll realize how valuable your services are and the ROI you provide for the leads.

best of luck!

Hi there,

Do you ever meet your clients face to face or is your interaction with them all electronic (email, etc)?

Your clients are most likely looking at you like you're a commodity. There's no real relationship base. You're just the fella that forwards them leads.

They might have been too busy to answer the phone that week and lost out on a bunch of leads and so they're thinking in their head "I just wasted X-dollars".

Do you track the answers? using callfire, or some other system? That's going to be vital because you can now see the problem.

If it's not possible for you to meet with them, then it's going to be tougher to establish a relationship with them. By establishing a relationship they become more emotionally invested in you.

If someone avoids you, just move on to one of their competitors and start feeding leads to them. Send your original client and email saying, "Sorry, we're now sending your leads to Acme moving".

Are you sure your leads are good quality leads? That might also be an issue. If you're sending wood, then they're not going to want to continue paying.

All the best,

Sasha

Leadgen is a valuable skill and resource. So I don't believe you should give the leads away for free. No investment = no action taken.

It might be more difficult to get people to sign up, but you'll end up with a better crop of customers.

How are you qualifying your prospects? ("Hey will you take these free leads?")

I agree with Jason. Although I haven't been too successful actually renting my sites or selling the leads directly to a contractor, luckily, I have found other ways of monetizing my work.

Anyway, on the few occasions I've had a contractor actually interested in seeing what I can do, they way I weed them out is to send them over a Lead Generation Agreement. It's simple 1-2 pages, plain English that spells out exactly what my role is and what theirs is.......and I also ask for a deposit. This will cover the cost of 4-5 leads (a minimal commitment for them to have some skin in the game).

If they can't afford to pay for 4-5 leads up front, then they are going to be wasting your time down the road.

....so far, this has weeded out 100% of potential site renters/lead buyers. LOL!

Tire kickers are great. Be glad you found them... and have gotten rid of them.

Tire kickers don't have a business, from my experience. They don't understand marketing. They don't have a business plan. They don't even take their business seriously.

You want to sell those leads? Find the companies doing a TON of marketing in the area of the site. There are probably 2-4 companies that are spending good money on marketing. Those are the companies that have a REAL business and understand marketing.

Moreover, they're not going to leave you after a month. They have employees, they have office space, they have overhead they need to cover each month and they're not going to "HOPE" to make it each month by not generating leads and getting business in each month.

Get rid of the tire kickers. They don't have a real business. They have a hobby.

My clients won't leave.

I find it works better when you contact many people at once and let everyone know you've done so.

It creates a bit of a frenzy if done right.

They won't wanna "miss out", especially if it means their competitors could benefit from it

You only get free after you pay us...meaning, it's a bonus or a thank you, not how we get business. Free attracts tire kickers because they are cheap. You may get a few actual clients, but more often than not you are presenting your services as not something worth paying for.

Also, you can front bill or prepay. Meaning, charge them at the beginning of the week (or whatever your billing cycle is) and once they use x # of leads, then they must re-up their account or no leads. And if they don't use all the balance & want to leave, then you will be happy to refund them their balance.