5 Tips To Discourage Tire-Kickers And Attract Serious, Paying Clients
Most company owners will spend the majority of their time trying to drum up business. So how can you discourage tire-kickers and attract serious paying clients?
The answer might be as simple as remembering that anyone who doesn't see the value in your product or service has no place being involved with your business. You might need to go through a long validation process, but you don't have to let unqualified people into your project. It's worth the pain of turning away clients if it means maintaining your critical mass and becoming more profitable.
People who visit your site, leave their contact info and ask for a free price quote are generally looking for a deal. They don't care about your company's long-term goals or how their business will benefit from your offerings. In fact, the only thing they care about is what you're willing to do for them.
Tire-kickers are not motivated by anything other than getting the lowest possible price. The more you cater to these clients, the more you'll have to repeat the process with new potential clients until you either run out of time and money or build up such a large client base that you can't run it by yourself anymore. Neither of those options are appealing.
You'll get a big payoff when you build a good relationship with your paying customers. That relationship is out of the tire-kicker's reach, so it's up to you to make them interested in your product or service. You might know what they need, but they don't. You have to play detective and solve their problems before they become yours.
However, tire-kickers aren't interested in solving their own problems. They want to get their needs met without having to do the work themselves. To them, it's always cheaper to pay someone else. Your job is to make sure no one blows your whistle and the whole team collapses when a tire-kicker beats you down and leaves you for an easier target.
The best way to stop getting clients you don't want is to have a clear set of expectations for both parties at the outset of any business relationship. If someone can't follow an easy set of directions, they will never be able to follow your more complicated project management process.
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