Strategies for converting inquiries into engagements - "start a dialog"
Expectations
The
Zintro model for generating leads works very well, but you have to go
into it with the right expectations. Think about it. For no cost, you
receive leads for projects that range from brief micro-consults
(delivered over the phone) to multi-month projects worth 10s or even
100s of thousands of dollars. These are FREE leads. But given the nature
of these leads, there will not be a high closing rate off of the
initial inquiry. Otherwise, Zintro would cost a lot of money. In the
consulting world, a typical referral fee might be about 10% but Zintro
charges 0% of project fees. Once you make the connection on the
platform, you have no obligation to Zintro. So keep that in mind as you set your strategy.
Which Inquiries should you respond to?
Most
experts receive quite a few inquiries. To convert leads into
engagements requires a systematic approach to pushing them through the
pipeline. First you have to decide which ones are worth pursuing. There
are two schools of thought about this: Some experts employ the
philosophy of "it only takes a few seconds, I'll respond to all or most
inquiries". Others take the approach of "I will only respond to
Inquiries that are exactly on point". There is no right or wrong answer
- experts have been successful using either approach.
It
should also be noted that even though Zintro tries to filter out the
junky inquiries and spam, some "tire-kickers" slip through. Usually you
can detect these by looking at a) the way it is written and b) the
Client's profile.
How to respond to a client inquiry - "start a dialog"
The
purpose of your response should be to try to "start a dialog" (over
Zintro) with the Client by sending a zNote. Once a dialog is
established, your chances of closing a deal increase significantly. Of
course, you are not the only expert trying to do that for a given
inquiry so your closing rate may not be too high. Assume it might take
15 minutes to half an hour a week to respond to incoming inquiries. So
yes, there are some "soft dollar" costs to using Zintro as well as a
very modest hard dollar cost if you choose to upgrade to Premium. But
essentially, Zintro is a "free option".
Zintro really works!
Zintro experts win projects every week. Click here to see some Experts who have successfully turned Zintro Inquiries into engagements.
Hopefully you will secure a project soon. Keep in mind it only takes
one successful outcome for the service to pay for itself many times
over.