The product is a very specialized SaaS for B2B/B2C "pro" users.
Since the product is quite pricy (~$200/mo), my initial plan was to onboard customers directly via zoom call. My motivation is to make sure I understand their need well and can prioritize features, as well as to provide some guidance over the product.
I got 100+ people singed up for waitlist. The problem is, it's quite challenging to convert those people to a call. People happy to answer a few questions over email, but once I mention having to schedule a call, they drop-off. I was inspired by Superhuman et. al, but now I'm not sure direct onboarding will work for me.
For those who implemented "waitlist" prelaunch, how did you run it? What was working, and what wasn't?
If someone is going to pay $200/pm for a service, it does sound odd that they would be falling off at the point on suggesting an onboarding call.
I would try onboard a few without a call, assuming that's possible with your service, and see if that improves the conversion ratio - Perhaps also try this with a few of the ones that you've lost so far.
If you see the same conversion issue without a call, then I think you may need to re-think are them 100 people really going to buy, or are they perhaps just signed up thinking it was a generic mailing list for example.