Learn how to appropriately communicate with a new potential customer
If you work as an SEO specialist or web developer, you are always looking to get more customers and get new sign-ups for new contracts. To do this, there are a variety of ways and suggestions; from marketing strategies to different ideas to attract a customer’s opinion, etc. But sometimes it’s forgotten that when a new customer contact with your company, how on earth are you going to communicate with that customer?
A new customer is not a potential customer! A potential customer sends an email address or contacts you with a form about their expectations, budget, and information about their request. A new customer is a person who has passed the initial stages of testing options and evaluating your competitors and is going to seriously enter into negotiations with you and turn into customer.
The first law in companies and service providers in these cases is to respond to customer requests as soon as possible. Before choosing the right option for cooperation, the customer will send a request to other companies to compare the features and advantages of each. But usually, in 70%, they choose the company that responded to their request sooner than the rest.
there are different softwares that you can use to help send an email automatically when the customer sends an email, for example, if you use using Gmail, you can use the Gmail’s Canned Responses tool. However always remember to at least include the following items, always, in your email:
- Reply as fast as possible, and thank them for contacting you.
- Approve the project they are looking for.
- Specify the time to chat (the sooner the better).
Many companies send multi-page forms to them before they speak to a new customer. To get things done faster, do not do this. The customer may go to a rival who has responded after you. Do not give them extra work and do not bother them as much as you can.
Also, refrain from defining yourself and how many brands you helped. When they call you, they are of interest to you, do not doubt them. So the ultimate goal of the first email response is to get them to contact you!
What to ask the customer first?
By following the above, you need to coordinate as soon as possible! The time to conduct a telephone conversation with the customer is always the ultimate goal, however, if that doesn’t work the second best option is live chat. Put an estimated time lenght on the call, 30 minoutes is usually ideal becuase:
- you can understand what they expect from their project.
- If you do not want the project, you will not be wasteing much time.
If unsuitable customers call you and waste time, you may want to bother with the customers. Do not forget that quality is more important than quantity. You need to know exactly who is a serious customer and why you have chosen to work with that customer.
After completing the telephone conversation, if you do not see the right co-operation, simply appulogize and leave. But if you find that they have the potential to become a good customer, follow up on the next steps of sales (review summary of speeches and a second call).
In the initial telephone call, they should talk to them about all of the following to see if they are the right option to work with:
- What are their business models? You will understand whether they are profitable or not.
- Looking at what kind of project? Strategy or service or a combination of both.
- How are they organized by their team and what’s their knowledge of the marketing channel that they are in contact with you?
- Is the other party the decision maker and the owner of the company, or that the individual is only contacting for information and is not the final decision maker.
- What is their budget?
- when do they want to start?
After answering the above questions, thank them for contacting you and tell them that they will be contacted for farther inquiries. Now the acutual work starts here!
Second call with the new customer
If the first phone call was successful and you feel that they are a good customer, you need to continue to track the program so that they don’t leave. This section is important. Immediately after the initial call, contact the customer by email and review what you talked about and talk about the continuation of the work.
After the first contact with the customer, email the project description to them again. Then briefly review the things you talked to during the initial phone call. To do this, write down the notes that were mentioned in the initial call and summarize them. For your convenience, set up CRM so that it can directly access customer email. You can use the following format for your answer:
Hello (customer name)
Thank you for the conversation we have had today. We love everything about your business and we would like to how can we help you?
According to our conversations, your company (company name) is looking for help with (project name). (Write the project summary here)
By understanding the type of your business and how we will be able to raise the value of your business, we will contact you within 48 hours with information about the next step.
Thanks (Dear customer name).
(Responsible name)
After that, check the website and measure its figures to see if it is worth it. Then see if the requested project is in line with the budget. After doing this, see if the project is worth doing, or you need to refer it to someone else.
Deciding on a customer website design project or SEO
Successful sales are done at the right time! You will certainly be able to identify the ideal customer according to the budget, the project they are looking for (strategy, service or combination of two), and the marketing channels that they are using. When you identify the ideal customer from inappropriate clients, then you can think more about the project.
Based on the experience and hundreds of projects that we have successfully accomplished, there are five factors that should be discussed with the customer in the next call, which will ultimately help you decide on the project. In case of dealing with any of the following, do not take the project:
- Unrealistic expectations and timetables
- Lack of funding
- Lack of resources to work on
- Collaborated customer failures with previous agencies
- The shaky business situation
Do not accept customers who are not profitable for you. So be careful! You are not supposed to accept any project that is being offered to you. If the proposed project does not comply with the approved budget or contradicts your business values, you should disregard the project. Let’s explain more.
If the customer is in your expectations and you accepted the project, you will waste both sides time and money. First of all, you waste your time by making the proposal and planning for the project, and also wasting the time of the customer by placing a contract that will not be signed.
As a result, you will spend time on a project that will have little profit. Instead of doing this, you could make a great profit with another client and accept the appropriate project. When a customer is in the expected business plan and allocates a decent budget for the project, then you will realize that the project is very important for them and they are ready to spend that time and money in the end.
Clearly determine your expectations and regulations and try not to give in to inappropriate clients, otherwise the project will be out of control!
The most important points in the correct interaction with a new client
We hope this article will help you choose the most suitable and most profitable customer. To do this, do not forget the following:
- Speed is an important factor: you need to imagine that the customer is looking for the best website design company! But according to their experience, they will choose a company that will respond promptly to their request.
- Talk to the client, preferably via phone, at the earliest time. Instead of sending multiple emails, get 30 minutes of their time for more information at the shortest time instead. People are having trouble getting caught up with emails and talking to them on the phone is very ideal.
- After speaking on the phone, send a phone call summary: after hours of telephone conversation and thank you for your choice, write down what you talked about and write down the next steps and when they will be contacted.
- Finally, decide on a project: Do not accept projects that are too small for your business or out of your framework.
Share your experiences with new customers and the best way to turn them into real customers. In your opinion, what factors affect your choices for customers?
