I get it. I’ve been there. That is until I started setting up systems in my marketing process to weed out duds before I work with them. Heck, I try to weed out duds before I even get a chance to speak to them!
Here are some of the ways I’ve managed to do this. By the way, these are the same strategies I teach my group coaching students. The only difference is I actually walk them through setting everything up.
Be clear in your marketing.
I am currently working with one of my private coaching clients on creating a webinar she will use for her sales funnel. We’ve been working on the emotional part of the outline together – the part where you address the emotional challenges standing in the way of their clients taking action.
In my client’s case, she gets hired to book destination weddings. Two of the emotional obstacles are family members interjecting their opinions and the brides wanting everything to be perfect for Instagram. To address the latter, we created a section that says, “You need to be flexible in order to have a great destination wedding.”
Now, this is controversial territory for a wedding planner. You’re basically telling brides that the idea they have in their head probably won’t work for weddings outside of the country. But, it does its job in one of two ways. Either it helps brides be flexible or it weeds out the ones that won’t.
My client wants to work with the former, not the latter. In other words, by calling it out in her marketing she is able to weed out the duds from the get-go. Or, at the very least, start the process of weeding them out
Have them fill out intake forms before a consult.
Just this week, another private coaching client asked me about how to weed out duds before she wastes her time in a meeting. The answer? Have them fill out an intake form before a consultation call. This will help you accomplish a few things:
- Weed out duds that don’t make the cut.
- Have a better idea of what is going on with prospects.
- Have better direction for consultation and sales calls.
I use this system in my own business and it works like a charm. I simply use a survey service that gives prospects points based on the answers they give on the intake form. If they pass they get a link to schedule a consult. If not, they are redirected to a link to purchase my book as a self-study course.
Final Thoughts
That’s really it. The truth is it doesn’t take much to weed out duds, just some planning ahead of time. These two things have helped me and my coaching clients increase sales and waste less time speaking to prospects that aren’t ready.
