Welcome to the Bea Bold in Business podcast. My name's Samantha Hearn and I'm the host of this amazing channel. I wanted to bring you a place where you hear from myself and other amazing, inspirational business people on their journey to the success they've created. I wanted to bring you the online journeys to the online successes through Seal and Social Media.
I want to create a place where you hear the struggles people have been through, the challenges, the lessons they've learned, the mistakes they've made, so that you know that ordinary people can create extraordinary things every single day and that it's totally possible for you too. The Bea Bold in Business podcast is a place where you are going to hear real, genuine, what's all stories from some of the most exceptional people in business and how they've succeeded anyway. If you are ready to show up in your business, if you are ready to be bold, if you are ready to learn from your mistakes, if you are ready to bounce back and become more resilient, this is a podcast for you. And me, Samantha Hearn, I cannot wait to welcome you, support you, and power and inspire you and share with you the stories that sometimes don't get shared online and give you this real refreshing approach on how building a business sometimes can be hard, sometimes involves failing, sometimes involves struggle, but you can still succeed anyway.
So welcome to the Bea Bold in Business podcast, and I cannot wait for you to take your invitation to be bold in your business too. And Lee leads following up and ghosting. So I really want to speak to you about these topics in a much more in-depth way, hence why we're creating a podcast for it. So whatever your business, if you are focusing on a service-based business, which means you provide a service to a client, you have customers, you have a people-to-people-based business where you are providing some kind of service.
So you could be a graphic designer, photographer, videographer, coach, an energy healer, all of these service-based industries will experience and need support around this area. So how to handle the leads with integrity, how to follow up without seeming pushy or demanding, and what to do and how to handle ghosting. This is something that is experienced by every single person in the online space, sadly, and is something that potentially isn't spoken about enough. So I really want to break this down into four key areas.
The I'll get back to you dilemma, a simple follow-up strategy, ghosting and how to handle it, and identifying your boundaries and expectations when it comes to who you want to work with. And hopefully by the end, you can then come back and listen to this episode whenever you find yourself in a bit of a quandary with a potential client or how they are handling your conversations. So let's start by setting the scene. Before you even look at these four areas, what I really want you to be spending time on is recognizing the type of person that you do want to work with and the type of person that you don't.
And this matters because you spend more time with these people than you do some of your closest and dearest people in your life. And it's important that this is about more than an avatar or an ideal client or a niche evaluator. This is about energy, this is about behaviors, this is about expectations, this is about character traits. It's really become clear on what you are available for and what you are not available for.
So for example, if someone comes into my world and they try to barter with me, personally that's already a red flag. They're focusing on the cost rather than the worth. They're trying to almost devalue where we are in the process and we haven't started working together yet. So it's really important that you as an individual can identify for your business for the way that you work, who you want to work with, and who you do not want to work with.
This is going to allow you to also show up with so much more strength and clarity than your business. You don't want to just work with anyone for the sake of working with people. That is not how you're going to grow a sustainable, successful, profitable business. That's how you're going to end up feeling resentful, spending time with people, and doing services and work that you don't enjoy, resenting your business, and things become flat.
They don't feel fulfilled for you. And that's not what you or your business deserve. So the first one, the I'll get back to you dilemma. Now this is a really important one and it came up with a client recently about the fact that they would take time to make their decisions and they wouldn't necessarily want to convert someone on the phone.
Now here's the thing. There is no one way to do anything and I've been saying this for the last five years now, everything I share with you is done from experience and from what I have seen create great success. But that's not to say that there are other ways that you can do that too. So for me, something I do to avoid the I'll get back to you dilemma and also I encourage my clients to rethink about is what you're doing to frame and set up for that call.
So if you are having calls to discuss working together, packages, programs, where they're in their journey, what service they need, what their expectations are, what's happened before, and you could call these breakthrough calls, clarity calls, discovery calls, connection calls, it's completely up to you. But essentially there is an initial call before they become a client. In that situation, we don't want to be getting on that call with that potential client without them knowing a few fundamental things. One, how much your offer is.
Two, what it is that they are interested in, which service. And three, how it would help them. And this is the first controversial sometimes element. Some people prefer not to share their prices and wait for the call and have a much more sales structured call.
If you prefer that, then of course do that. In my experience and for me, I don't like my calls to be focused on the money. I like my calls to be focused on the transformation, the journey, the connection, the excitement, the energy, and for everything else around the costing, payment plans, numbers to be dealt with before you even have a call. So a way that you can start to think about eliminating this, I'll get back to you dilemma, is really setting yourself up for that success before you even have a call.
So someone reaches out to me and wants to find out more about working together. I will, the first thing I will always do is find out more about them, obviously. But then I will ask them if they have seen my offers, my prices and my services and which one they're interested in. And then sometimes they go to me and I never hear from them again.
Sometimes they say, no, can you send it? I send it and then they don't reply. Sometimes they say, yes, I have had a look myself and this is what I'm interested in. And sometimes they come back and say, thanks for sending it.
This is what I'd be interested in. So there's always a lot of variables. But what this means is you're not getting on the phone with someone that isn't ready to move forward, that isn't ready to work with you. And yes, again, there is another argument to say, well, you can have the objections on the call and you can work with them.
Absolutely. But again, for me, I really want my clients to have made those empowered decisions before they come to me. I don't want to be involved in creating that type of phone call and going through that, you know, that energy. Because personally for me, for example, let's take this out of business.
If I had seen a car that I really want and I didn't know the price and I went into the dealership and they told me it was our budget, that's creating a really awkward situation for me. I probably pretend that I'd come back. I'm not going to come back. They know I won't come back so I can do it for long enough.
And it just creates an awkward environment. Whereas if I was able to have a quote emailed to me or I was able to see the price online, I'd be able to go away myself, look at my budget, look at where I am, see if it's something that I really want to be forward with. And then by the time I go into the dealership, I'm basically saying, I'm ready, I want to move forward and this is the car I want. That is such an empowered energy for both of you.
So I like to share the prices. I like to make sure that they know exactly what it is that they would be getting on the call for. So I don't do calls to just offer out free advice. I do calls to speak to potential clients that really want to connect and find out how they can move their businesses forward, how they can take those next steps.
And that's a really empowered energy for me as well because I want to be able to hold space for people that are ready to be held. I want to be surrounded by potential clients that see the value and the worth in this journey before it even begins. So some things that you can do to set yourself up is making sure that before you have the call, you are very clear and they are very clear with the service issue offer, the prices that they are, if there's a payment plan, when you could start working together. And a lot of the time that does mean you have some conversation whether it's voice notes or emails back and forth.
But again, it means by the time you get on the phone, both of you are in a really powerful position. Information is available to both of you. You have everything that you need to be able to make powerful decisions. So then the questions that tend to come to know the call are things more like when you can be start.
Okay, payment plans, what would that look like? How does this work? I've seen all the website and I love this element or that element. Rather than, oh, you know, it's about a budget and maybe I'll come back to you in a few months, et cetera.
Okay. So that's the first thing you can do with the I'll get back to you. You have the call after you've done all of that and you've created that really powerful connection relationship, you can still create an opportunity to follow up then. So if they say, you know, yeah, I'll get back to you.
Okay, perfect. If I haven't heard from you by and then you'd set a time, so I'll have to go over to you tomorrow afternoon, I'll just reach out and see if you want everything. If you've got any further questions for me, just please feel free to send them over. So you can set the scene so that your clients and these potential clients know when you'll follow up with them.
You're not left to be awkward. You're not in a situation where you're like, can I follow up yet? Should I follow up yet? Is it the right time?
You're providing the opportunity from the very, very start. So that would be what you can do in terms of the, I'll get back to you, darling, from it from a starting point. And of course, we can go into each of these strategies in a lot more depth and personalization for your business. And if you'd like to do that, then please reach out and we can talk about that on a one-time basis.
Now, the second strategy I want to talk to you about is the simple follow-up strategy. Now, this works in a number of ways. If people have reached out to you and asked for information or they want to work with you, then they've seen the price and then they've posted, then that's a different follow-up strategy than someone that you've spoken to on the phone had an amazing connection with. And they are getting back to you about taking next steps.
So I would always, if you can, try and make your follow-up as personal as possible, whether that's with voice notes, if you were to use something like Facebook Messenger or Instagram or LinkedIn, if it's an email, then obviously just make sure it's personal as you can possibly make it. But for me, there's a few things that you can do that are really, really simple for your follow-up strategy. So if it is someone that you are yet to seek to on the phone, it could just be, you know, hey, I noticed you haven't got back to me, which is absolutely fine, but I just want to wish you all the best. And, you know, if you've got any further questions in the future, let me know.
But in the meantime, I take it that for now, this isn't going to be forward and I just want to wish you best. You always close that energy with positivity. And that's important. For me, the reason that's important is I want to acknowledge that I'm aware that someone has ignored me, essentially.
I want to acknowledge that. I acknowledge that I'm still a human, acknowledge the fact that I've not heard back from someone, but I also want to acknowledge that I'm holding space for them and I'm still here whenever they're ready. And I think this is a really adult way and a really nice, constructive, powerful way for you to continue to hold space for yourself as well and respect your own boundaries and your own limits. And by sharing and explaining, you know, I haven't heard back from you, which is fine, but I just want to wish you the best.
You're not only giving them compassion, understanding and empathy, which of course is vital, I think, you know, for me personally. But you're also identifying that you are a person too and having that two-way conversation is important, you know, to have feedback, whether they come back and say, yes, I'm really sorry, this isn't where I'm at right now. I think that's just a really great way to model how you want to do this. If it is someone that you've spoken to, however, then it would be, hey, I'm just following up, like I said, I would, to see if you've got any further questions or any thoughts about things so that we can move forward.
That's it. That's it. Based on step one, your step two is your follow-up should be easier because you've already framed it that way. And also because you've already given them everything they need, whether you've spoken to them or not.
So you're not having this constant, oh, you know, I'm really interested, but I'll get back to you. I'm thinking about this, but I'll get back to you. Maybe this and maybe that is very, very clear what the conversation is and how you can help them. You know, that's what you're here for, to be of service and to be able to serve.
Number three, ghosting and how to handle it. Okay. Let's just be really real here. Ghosting happens for a few reasons.
One, because of course, people feel really uncomfortable when it comes to things that are pricing and acknowledging where they are with it or acknowledging their journey or their part to play the situation. And sometimes it just catches people of God and they don't know what to do next or how to move forwards and therefore they just don't do anything. So they freeze, they just freeze in the situation and think, you know, that they'll come back to it or, you know, they don't. Now a lot of the time it's nothing against you.
I would say, you know, 90% of the time it's nothing against you. Someone not getting back to you is on them. It's not on you and you can't take responsibility for that. You know, you can't take responsibility for someone else not continuing to respond or reply whatever it might be.
But there are things that you can do. So if someone has, you know, this happens all the time, you know, this is a really frequent experience when you're dealing with people. If someone reaches out to me and wants to find out about my services, then they get the pricing and then I never hear from them again. I would always just send them one follow up just saying, hey, I know I haven't heard from you, which is absolutely fine.
But I just want to wish you all the best and good luck with reaching your goals and everything we discussed. And I believe at that, hold the energy, hold the space, be open with yourself and just recognise that you've done all that you can. You know, ghosting is something that doesn't have to, doesn't have to be something that you do. It doesn't have to be something that you reciprocate and it definitely doesn't have to be something you take responsibility for.
It's just something that happens that other people experience, other people go through, but it's your opportunity now to just move forward with love and hold that space, you know, you acknowledge where they're at. That's fine. This is how you're going to move forward. And that's really the end of it.
So I think it can become a really difficult tricky situation, but ultimately you can only do your best to communicate effectively. And if someone's not communicating back with you, you can't do anything else about that. And then the final thing is to make sure you really do identify your boundaries and expectations. This is a two way street.
When you are working with clients and you are moving forward with relationships and serving them, you aren't just there to be paid for the service and used. You are also there to enjoy it. You are also there to be able to be utilised to show your strengths, to show up and have fun in your business and with these people. So ensure that you are very clear on your boundaries and expectations when it comes to pricing, when it comes to payment methods, when it comes to deadlines for payments, deadlines for when your clients can reach out to you, when you're available and when you're not, your business hours, all of these things.
And I think it's really important that that is managed because your business and you also deserve to be served and you also deserve to have that space on it. And your ideal clients will respect that. And that's really, really key. That's a really important part of this process.
So these are four things that hopefully will support you when it comes to handling your leads following up and ghosting and those dilemmas. But what I would love for you to really think about now is where you go next, what you do with your business moving forward, what you do to ensure that you are upholding these strategies and methods so that you get the very, very best conversations to have with clients. And if you would like to have access to some free support is going to help you with your business strategies, your business methods and what you can be doing from a marketing, messaging and converting point of view, we have a five day business trends series that will go direct to your inbox. So if you want access to that, just click the link below and you can come and join us in there.
And make sure I will see you back on Instagram and for some more episodes very, very soon.