Jon asked me for the best way to convert time wasters into clients. Here’s what I told him.
Time wasters are unaware that they’re time wasters
They’ll ask you for a quote. They’ll email you for more information about your services. And so long as you give them what they want they will take action. However, it’s very seldom possible to give them what they want. That’s unless you can 100% eliminate the fear that controls their lives.
Time wasters are extremely risk averse
They live in constant fear. Especially fear of loss. [Read this] What makes time wasters such a drain on your business, is that they will take every free sample, every bit of free advice and subscribe to every free service. They will ask you for a free quote, ask you to email them a proposal… they’ll happily waste hours of your time, as you try to silence their fears.
However, as soon as they encounter risk, they disappear. As soon as they are asked to make a commitment, they panic and vanish.
I suggested that Jon shouldn’t try to convert time wasters. A far more profitable approach, is to learn how to identify time wasters and then avoid them. It takes time, but you can learn to spot time wasters with a very high degree of accuracy. It will never be 100% perfect. However, you can get it pretty darn close with experience. And this will give you massively more time to spend on high value client enquiries.
In short, focus your time and energy on genuine enquiries. You will get a far better return on your time investment, than you will chasing time wasters.