5 Ways to Stop Scaring Your Clients

Let’s be honest. Your potential clients aren’t ghosting you. You’re scaring them away. Stop making it about them when it’s really about you.

 Buyers tend to leave the sales process at four points in their journey. 

1.    On the website

2.    After the initial inquiry

3.    After you send the proposal

4.    When you want them to sign the agreement and send in the deposit

We don’t have time to go into detail on all four points, so we’re going to focus on the one that’s most common and easiest to fix: after the initial inquiry.

 A key fundamental of any great sales process is to provide the right information at the right time in the right way. Do all three of these things and you’re likely to find success. The reason people don’t stick around through after the initial inquiry is because you’re blowing it in these five ways.

 1. You’re taking too long.

It’s not good enough to get back to prospects in 24 hours. Sorry. You have to be faster than that. EOD isn’t good enough either. Seriously, what’s so important that you can’t spend three minutes responding to a potential new client? You’ve got to be better than 30 minutes when you respond. I make five minutes the target to shoot for.

2. You’re providing too much information.

Stop sending walls of text! Not everyone wants all the info up front. Wedding pros usually do this because they want to make it easy on themselves or because they like to get all the information up front when they are the ones buying something. Try stepping out of your own way by stretching to the buyer’s ways of receiving information. The goal of your initial inquiry response is to get them on the phone, so do what you’ve got to do to make that happen: 100-200 words, short paragraphs, no attachments.

3. You’re sending pricing right away.

Buyer’s need to know what they want and what you offer before they see pricing. Sure, they’re going to ask for it, but it doesn’t mean you have to give it to them. Big purchases require more finesse and a longer purchase process than a dinner out or something you wear. It’s okay to give them starting at prices or ranges, but stay away from the detailed numbers or generic packages.

4. You’re not ending the email response with a question.

The number one goal for your initial inquiry response is to get the prospect on the phone. That’s it. So do what you have to do to make that happen. Tell them you’re available for the date. Let them know you want to learn what’s important to them so you can give accurate pricing. Offer three times/dates to chat. And then end the email by asking them which one works best? It invites a response by the buyer in a simple, subtle way.

5. You’re sending PDFs.

Stop sending these immediately. Seriously. I don’t care how pretty and content-rich it is. It doesn’t work well on the phone and is usually information overload. Attachments tend to be big files that take a while to download, eating up the customer’s data. Remember, the goal is to get them the basics and move them to a phone call so you can start the discovery process.

Do any of these and you’ll start to see more people respond to your initial inquiries. Do them all and you’ll stop scaring away your clients.