You have an ongoing conversation over a period of three weeks about what they can and can\u2019t afford until you both agree that all they can afford is a landing page with an email sign up form that should send an email directly to their inbox because they\u2019ve never heard of MailChimp and they think all email marketing is spam<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nEither way, you\u2019re not getting the job.<\/p>\n
Stranger Than Fiction<\/h2>\n
I imagine all of this because these things have actually happened to me at some stage over the last 5 years. All in equal proportion. It is a waste of everybody\u2019s time. Particularly mine.<\/p>\n
So I have arrived at a point in my career where I am now comfortable enough that the sky will not fall in if I say \u201cNo\u201d to the initial request for meeting. Instead, I explain to my prospect that in order for me to consider whether or not I am able to provide a solution for them, I need to know a little more about their business and what they are trying to achieve.<\/p>\n
The best way to do this is to send the prospect a very simple questionnaire, or website worksheet as I call it, that asks them some fundamental questions about their business, their products, their audience and their budget.<\/p>\n
First of all this helps me decide whether or not I want to do business with them (sorry gambling companies – I don\u2019t do that). Second of all, and more importantly, this helps me establish whether or not they have a realistic budget for what they want to achieve. If they do and the project sounds like fun, I call them up and arrange an initial meeting. If they don\u2019t, or the project sounds like a major pain in the ass, I send them a polite email outlining why I\u2019m not a good fit for them.<\/p>\n
Since I implemented this in my business, I\u2019ve had to argue a lot less on price and I\u2019ve completely eliminated the numerous coffee and lunch dates that amounted to nothing.<\/p>\n
Occasionally a prospect objects to this strategy claiming that they can\u2019t tell me about their new idea because it\u2019s so awesome that I might steal it from them. Sometimes they even ask me to sign an NDA before I meet them! I never do this and I\u2019ll explain why in a future post. The point is, if they want to do business with me, they have to fill out the website worksheet.<\/p>\n
So, I urge you to start qualifying your leads as of now and stop wasting time running off for coffee or lunch everytime someone mumbles \u201cnew website\u201d under their breath. I\u2019ve even posted up my website worksheet for you to get started. No excuses.<\/p>\n
Just tell me where to send it.<\/p>\n