Livestream.2024.02.09.DM respond
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[00:00:00] Hello everyone. How are you? This is Selena. And today I'm here to talk about what happens when somebody sends you a DM and they say, I really want to work with you. The question that I want to cover today is how do you respond, right? Your instincts are probably thinking like, well, you send them a booking link or something.
[00:00:21] Right. But, uh, recently I encountered the situation where someone had, shared that they got this message saying, I want to work with you, with a specific service offering. And I learned the response that they gave. And honestly, I was a little shocked. I was shocked, not because what they did was bad, but because I think itwent against my instincts as a salesperson, as somebody who understands how people make decisions to hire us.
[00:00:55] And what they did wasn't bad. But I was honestly surprised that I felt like I reacted so largely to the way that they had responded. And so because of this, I wanted to share with you two different Scenarios in terms of how you could respond to someone when they come into your DMS and they're saying, Hey, I want to work with you because that's all we want, right?
[00:01:21] And I want to present these two scenarios you can do a little compare and contrast for yourself and make the best decision for you. I do think that one response is more effective, more likely to get all the way to the signed contract, I guess is what I'm saying.
[00:01:39] Okay. So, before we get started, if you're not already aware, I have created a new membership. It is called connect and it is for solo service providers and consultants. Why did I create this membership? You ask? Well, I have done short term courses, which honestly I love because they really are Quick quick
[00:02:06] here's what you need to know. I really believe in those and I also do one to one executive sales coaching where we get to get really detailed and I get to really support my clients in making decisions about how to move their deals and their relationships forward. But I realized that there was this opportunity to combine the two
[00:02:28] to give people both the training and longer term support to implement the training that they've learned specifically around how to use LinkedIn to generate more sales. And really how do we improve the steps that we take tolet people know
[00:02:50] who we serve and give them the steps to make the decision to hire us. So just to say it's a little bit of training with coaching. And on top of that, I kind of realized. You know, everybody's out there doing their own thing. Everybody's alone in the sales process, right? We're all out there, like trying to problem solve around different sales situations, different prospects, different marketing, different conversations.
[00:03:18] There's so much variability as we, as solo consultant service providers, you know, go to market and when you're in a traditional sales environment, you have a team, you're meeting together at least once a week, your sales manager is bringing some good sales, tip or, concept to train everybody, keep them top of mind in terms of their ability to sell and then everybody's often problem solving together.
[00:03:47] Right. And I built this membership called connect. for that reason as well, which is let's give everybody a chance to do this hard work of, you know, basically marketing and selling our businesses alone, but let's be able to do that together. All right. Enough about that. but I really, invite you to look at that.
[00:04:10] Uh, today is February 9th. The end of the early bird is today. So check that out. now let's get started. Here we go. So imagine this, somebody goes into your DMS and they say this, I want to be kind of specific in this example. They say I'm really interested in coaching. What Does that look like right?
[00:04:32] Someone says I'm really interested in coaching What does that look like? and option A is you respond with the paragraph that says, here's what it is, here's different price points, and here's a link to book. Okay, what are the pros of that? If someone is coming to you and saying, hey, I want to know more, you should give them more, right?
[00:04:52] you should give them information, right? Um, and, and I think that, um, this is our initial instinct. And immediately when someone says that they're interested in working with us, we're like, great. Here it is. Here's here. Here's how to sign up, right? Here's how to take the next step. Now, here's where I think this
[00:05:09] There's a con involved here, okay? Which is when you do that, you're essentially kind of giving them a brochure, And the information that you share there is, likely that could be something that they could find on your website. Or on your LinkedIn profile or on some services page, okay? And so, the reason that I, I think this is a con is that you're really missing an opportunity, okay?
[00:05:42] I cannot say it enough, the direct messages It's for one to one conversation. You're doing the marketing, you're doing the newsletter. That's when you're sharing one message to many people. But the DMs are this lovely little intimate place where you get to have an exchange back and forth. And when someone shows interest in your work and you reply with like four paragraphs, you're missing an opportunity to start a conversation.
[00:06:16] And why is that important? Because you begin to show them what it's like to work with you.
[00:06:26] You begin to,
[00:06:28] see them as an individual and if what you're sending kind of feels copy pasted. That's something that maybe a bot could share. And so I really feel like it's a missed opportunity. Okay. So I just want to say for the record, on many occasions, people, whether it's email or DM, Have sent me messages saying, Hey, I want to work with you.
[00:06:53] And in my enthusiasm. I write back and I'm like, okay, great. Here's all the details. And I'm here today to give you option B to consider. Okay. Option B is somebody writes you and they say, I'm really interested in your coaching. What does that look like? Or again, fill in the blank. I'm really interested in your audit.
[00:07:14] I'm really interested in your strategic consulting, whatever. What does that look like? Okay. this is option B. My, suggestion is really kind of three parts. Number one is you say, thank you for your interest. Then you say, I would love, to support you,
[00:07:32] but then instead of going directly into here's everything that's involved in, here's the price point, or even just like, here's a call that's set up. I would suggest asking them a question. asking them a question related to the service that they're inquiring about.
[00:07:48] you can say something like, what are you looking to achieve? Okay, so thank you for your interest. I'd love to support you. What are you looking to achieve with the coaching? just a little bitty question is going to accomplish a couple of things.
[00:08:04] First of all, I do want to say you want to show enthusiasm like you're ready to work with them. But when you ask that question, number one, there feel seen you're asking questions about them. You're building trust. You're building a relationship. They suddenly feel what it's like to have your attention.
[00:08:28] They feel what it's like to work with you. If you are a service provider or a consultant, how you communicate is super important. And by asking them a quick question, they're going to say, Oh, Oh, okay. Let me think about that for a minute. And when you give them an opportunity to think, okay, why is it that I do want this service?
[00:08:54] Why is it that I do want this coaching? Why is it important for this audit? You give them a moment to reflect and share with you what's going on. And that's going to give you an opportunity to, as we say, qualify or for really both of you to assess, is this person right for me? Instead of just jumping to a call, you can just ask a simple question.
[00:09:24] Like, what are you looking to achieve? And then they can get back to you. And if they say something that is completely Not in relationship with what you actually do, which you know, that happens more often then we would like, then you can kind of have a little conversation and you can redirect them, for example, to a free resource you have to another service provider that might help them better.
[00:09:48] Okay, so just having one itty bitty question in response. Before taking it to the next step accomplishes a whole bucket of goodness. and I want to just say that the cons might be that they annoyed that you didn't give them the information right away. Maybe they're real hurried. But I find that if someone's in that much of a hurry to get on a call with you and to solve their problem, they might be in a panic state of their business and they need a quick solution.
[00:10:22] And I, I'm sure you've experienced this where you end up working with someone who's just looking you to save them. So the idea here is that, while giving them that information, Is it necessarily going to just turn them off? I want to be clear about that. I mean, it's not like if you just say like, Hey, this is what it looks like.
[00:10:42] And here's the pricing and here's the call. if you want to have a further discussion, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
[00:10:51] I would just like to suggest two things. If we have a little bit of restraint. I think restraint is the key word here, restraint.
[00:11:06] We have an opportunity to benefit by asking them a question to qualify that it really makes sense And number two, you really start bringing in. your, relationship, trust building, skills to connect with this person so that when they're actually aren't a call they feel like you've already seen them.
[00:11:30] They feel like you've already know and understand them as an individual, even if they're representing a larger company and you're going to hire trust, which is going to mean your call is going to go better, which means they're more likely to sign. Okay. One last thing, one last thing on this, the benefit of asking a question, instead of just saying like, Hey, here's my booking link to set up a call.
[00:11:56] Is this, you're giving them your time.
[00:12:05] You're giving them your time. You're not trying to like rush them off into a call. You're not trying to be productive. You are giving them your time. And I just want to say that if somebody comes to you in a DM and asks about working with you and you start by giving them your time.
[00:12:29] Instead of pushing them already the next step,
[00:12:34] the chances of them becoming a client, you've increased that tenfold.
[00:12:38] All right. So I hope that was helpful for you today. Uh, if this kind of coaching seems helpful to you and you want more of it in your life, there's two ways that you can. get support from me and that is either a one on one executive sales coaching for service providers and consultants, or look into connect this membership where I train and coach and we all learn together sales skills and.
[00:13:08] LinkedIn skills in order to generate more clients and ultimately have more impact in your business.
[00:13:16] So those are two ways that I can support you. And if you're interested in that, DM me or go to joinconnect. co to learn more about Connect.
[00:13:24] I'm here for you. Please feel free to reach out and I will see you next week. Bye.
