You have all probably met or even been a flirt at some time in your life.
It can be no big deal if this happens in your social life, but in business it can waste a lot your time and money.
What does a customer flirt typically do? Well, here are are a few examples:
- Show lots of initial interest in your products or services, and then never progress through the buying stages
- Always subscribe to any of your product or service free offer, but never buy anything
- They appear to still be interested when you follow up, but say “I need a little more information”
- They may ask numerous questions but never actually purchase anything
- Keep apologising and ask for more time before making a decision
- Leave encouraging comments on your blog but never click on your business offers
- Get you to do a detailed proposals only to give the project to a competitor
The problem with flirts is that there are not really interested in developing a relationship and will always be on the lookout for the next business to flirt with. If you are lucky they may buy from you once but don’t expect them to be a frequent buyer of your products or services.
When you are trying to attract new customers it is important that you recognise the flirts. The reason is so you can build a solid profile of the type of customers who are looking for a long term relationship.
To help you avoid the flirts:
- You need to have a clear picture of the customers you want to attract (base it on your current loyal customers)
- Take note of the signs they have exhibited verbally and written by those so you can be alert to the signs
- Write down the usual path your customers take when buying your products or services so you can identify when they are not really interested and you can stop wasting your time or money
- Have a clear understanding of the buying behaiour of your potential customers
You work hard to gain customers, so don’t be fooled by the customer flirt.
Over to you, how do you avoid the customer flirt?
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Sometimes flirts can change into the real thing. But I guess you are saying we need to focus on the right people so as to save time, our most valuable asset.
I do agree with that.
Greg,
Thanks for your comment. You are right sometimes they can. I guess the longer we are in business, the easier it is to work out who are really interested in doing business with us.
Yes, and the more willing we are to part from “suspects” and work with real “prospects”!
Thanks for taking the time to respond. I’ll be back!
Hi Greg,
There is alot to be said for experience. Suspects is a good word. In travel we used to call them “lookers” versus ‘bookers”.
I would be interested to know from your experience how do you separate the two.
I just developed a reliable gut feeling about prospects. Didn’t do a lot of analyzing.
Asking a lot of questions is a good thing if they are the RIGHT questions. Some questions are preposterous. That is when the prospect was devalued for me. Also, if their tone was challenging then I put them into the “suspect” box.
Wisdom comes with experience.
Thanks for your information Greg. Working out the right questions to ask is so important as you have said.