What to Do When They’re Not Ready To Buy
Credit: Ron Almog
So you met with this wonderful potential client. They “get” what you do and they understand how you could help them. You’ve talked about working together, the number of sessions it’s going to take and the fee for your services.
And then .. NOTHING. Or one of those “it’s not the right time” or “I just don’t have the money” emails.
What do you do when they’re not ready to buy yet?
Remember Your Center
This can be quite hard on your ego. It’s easy to question yourself or the viability of your business. Negative money feelings can creep in. There’s often a vibrational plunge.
(Maybe I’ve been down this path once or twice? ;))
As a person on a conscious path, now is the time to remember that you are more than your ego. And, it’s time to open up your spiritual toolkit, find a centering tool that feels like a good fit and USE it.
Look at Your Follow-up System
After recentering, many clients facing this situation ask: “Should I contact them?”
If you’re asking this question, it probably means you’re not clear about your follow-up system. Give yourself the gift of not having to go through this soul searching ever time someone doesn’t sign up.
Instead, be proactive. For instance, I developed a simple process for my free chats. First, someone contacts me via email with a “short summary” of their situation. If it feels like a potential fit, we set up a chat. If not, I refer them on.
In the free chat, I have several questions I’ve developed that help me quickly get a sense of their situation. Being asked insightful questions also increases the feeling of trust that your potential clients have for you.
Then, within 48 hours after the chat, I send a 2-3 paragraph email that does 3 things:
- Appreciate them for making the time to chat
- Summarize their current situation and what they want to change
- Remind them of specific action I recommend (i.e. sign up for coaching group)
This simple system raised my conversation rate by more than 20%.
Give Them Something to Climb
Lastly, it’s important to recognize that many spiritual entrepreneurs don’t have enough steps between “stranger” and “paying client”.
For instance, imagine a beautiful 2 story office building. On the first floor are a waiting room, some bathrooms and the cafeteria. All the important stuff is on the second floor.
Now imagine there was no elevator or stairs to help someone get from the first floor to the second. In this situation, very few people would get to the good stuff.
Instead, give your prospects enough steps to make getting to the next floor easy. I do this through blogging, my newsletter, social media and free presentations.
Through “try before you buy” strategies like these, you can relax into the knowledge that you will grow the relationships with people who aren’t quite ready to buy yet. Many of these people will become paying clients – if they get a better view of your great offerings.
What have you found to be helpful when someone isn’t ready to buy from you yet? What questions do you still have? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this in the form of a comment below.
I find most coaches don’t have a system. A plan for doing each part of their business:
1. providing value
2. building a list
3. moving people through a sales funnel
4. follow up
5. referral program
When people work a 9 to 5 job, the boss sets up the system. We, as entrepreneurs, need to learn to set up our own systems.
And if we don’t know how to do that, ask someone that does.
Debbie,
I totally agree that these things are helpful and important. Many spiritual people struggle because they don’t have these kind of systems. And, many people set up systems that aren’t heart based. This leads their businesses to feel cold and transactional. That’s a big turn off to the spiritual people I serve.
The trick in my book is to set up systems that feel good. In fact, I do an ongoing exercise with the clients in my Mastermind groups called, “Structures that Feel GOOD!” It’s FUN and it works MUCH better than your typical “moving people through a sales funnel” approach when it comes to attracting spiritual people as clients.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Debbie! I’m really enjoying getting to know you. 😉
Excellent article, Paul!
I believe it’s important to give people OPTIONS. Not every potential client that comes my way wants or needs to work with me 1-on-1 or for a certain period of time.
By diversifying my offerings, even those people who “can’t afford” my services have something of value to start with, even if it’s a free public talk/presentation.
Remember, in order to buy, people need to KNOW you, LIKE you, and TRUST you. Some people just need a bit more time for all of that. And that’s just fine with me.
Hey Sanja!
Thanks for your EXCELLENT points. I agree 100% about people needing to KNOW, LIKE and TRUST you before most will buy. I also love your insights about have a variety of options and being OK with people taking time to get to know you.
No wonder you’ve got a busy EFT practice while so many other EFT practitioners are struggling Sanja.
Thanks for stopping by and for being awesome. 🙂
Great article Paul. I like the way you gently urge the reader to interact with you from the get go. With the ‘what would you do’ questions. I like to constantly be challenged to grow. We learn a lot from these interactions with other like minded individuals. This conversation also sets up a familiarity, a relationship between you & them. Often people will test the waters with several therapists till they find someone interested in helping them with their problem. Your correspondence with them thru social media puts you in the back of their mind for when they do come to the decision ‘to buy’. I never cared for people who have that ‘Sell! sell! sell!’ attitude. It actually comes off as insincere,not genuine. To me the soft sell is the way to go. Back in Massage school, not 1 instructor told us something every potential therapist should know. You could be the best therapist in the world when it comes to the actual massage. If you don’t know how to market yourself, your sunk. As far as what ideas do work. I once heard Dr.Carol Look address this. Being of service, prepare yourself to give away, over & above what’s required. Not just giving value but going beyond that. An example would be her content rich site where she gives away tons of info. Tried & true methods it probably took her decades to acquire. When it comes to abundance it does happen. Once your prepared to give, it comes back to you three-fold. Namaste…EFT4MeDebi
Debi,
Thanks for your comment! I love this statement: “You could be the best therapist in the world when it comes to the actual massage. If you don’t know how to market yourself, your sunk.”
So many alternative helper types – EFT practitioners, massage therapists, coaches and the like – spend all of their time, money and energy learning the modality. They don’t invest resources in letting the world know they exist. Then they wonder why they’re not making enough money to live well. I feel very passionate about helping people find ways to grow their businesses that feel good!