Clients ghosting. How to reduce?

Hey Alexander!

Awesome you're getting interest and referrals!

I had this same issue until I took a sales training course. I'll summarize my key takeaways from the course below (just did the course in Fall 2022 so materials is really fresh):

-Always try to respond to clients within a few hours if possible definitely within a day

-Have a follow up process that is based on last contact instead of every X days (example: first follow up 2 days, second follow up 2 days from first, third follow up 4 days from third etc)

-In sales momentum is very important so being a assertive isn't bad as long as it aligns with helping the client achieve their goals (though different people do require slightly different sales tones)

For Client A I'd send 10-20 follow ups before ending the connection (this could happen over 2-3 months). Make sure each is personal and asks for a specific call to action (meeting, etc)

For Client B I'd add pressure by aligning their goals to a time-based event like "Hey, Our talk the other week was great! I was wondering if everything's ok? I noticed you haven't filled out the form so we could start our work. Please let me know if you have any questions." (maybe go even more personal if needed)

For Client C I'd do a combination of tactics from A and B

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Based on what you're saying I'd recommend taking a solid look at your sales pipeline.

There may be a point in your pipeline that's causing an issue like:
How you ask for payment
What work you require from clients to get started
What you talk about with clients during the qualifying/sales calls
Maybe the 3-4 day lapse in communication makes you look less professional than someone who responds quicker

It's important to make sure that you discover their problem, align your solution as being THE solution to their problem, then show them there's little risk to working with you (this seems easy but lots of factors can influence how a person feels)

Hope this helps! :)

Sorry to hear about your clients ghosting you. That is the worst. Ghosting is definitely a struggle for many of us these days. A couple things I've found helpful:

1. Try contacting your clients in an omnichannel way. People don't want to talk on the phone much these days, so text messaging can be incredibly helpful. Email is also preferred by some clients. You can also bring in Linkedin messages or Instagram DMs.
2. Send 30+ messages. Unfortunately, even when clients want something, it can take 30+ contact points before you hear back.
3. A suggestion from a great book Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss is to ask “Have you given up on this project?” It plays on peoples’ natural loss aversion.
4. Check out the Gain and Retain podcast on reducing churn. Maybe there are some examples with ghosting that would be helpful. Otherwise I'm sure they'd like for you to speak about it on there - https://www.indiehackers.com/post/churnkey-ceo-nick-fogle-the-holy-grail-of-saas-is-negative-churn-72e9e6102a

Hoping for you that you hear back soon!