Lots of people think there’s no way they could enroll clients over Messenger without talking to them voice-to-voice on a phone call.
When I press them as to why they think they couldn’t do this, I usually get something like:
“Well, I just need to talk them to get a sense of their vibe and see what kind of person they are and see if I could envision us working together.”
This is, of course, understandable – yet the way it’s worded is vague.
It doesn’t explain exactly what they mean by “vibe” or exactly what they look/listen for on a call to determine what kind of person this is and whether they could work with them.
And I believe that’s exactly the problem. If you knew exactly what you were looking/listening for, and could articulate it, I believe you could also look/listen for it when chatting with someone over Messenger.
Try this on for size:
I’ve enrolled more than 140 clients now over Messenger for high-ticket programs without having a call first, and I’m thrilled to say that I’ve never once had a “misfire” – not one person turned out to be a poor fit, someone I couldn’t help, or even someone I didn’t enjoy as a person.
Once again: I think a major reason people feel scared and unsure about enrolling over Messenger is that they can’t actually ARTICULATE what makes someone a good fit for their work.
They might know it when they see it – they get a “gut feeling” when talking to someone as to whether they’re an ideal client or not – but they can’t put WORDS to it.
When I help people put words to it, that’s when they realize that they can, in fact, enroll over Messenger if they ask some very precise questions of the person they’re chatting with.
I remember a client I worked with last year. She served coaches and consultants, and she told me that the reason she couldn’t enroll over Messenger was that she needed to “get a sense” of whether or not her prospect was “serious about their business” and “good at what they do.”
If those are your criteria, then I see why you’d think you need to have a long phone conversation with someone to see if they’re a fit.
Because – when you ask someone “are you serious about your business?” or “are you good at what you do?” they’ll probably say something like, “Yes.” Or “Well, I’m pretty sure I am.”
And what does that tell you, really?
You’ll feel uneasy because you don’t feel like that gives you much information. So you’ll probably say something like, “Well, tell me more.”
And the conversation will go on and on as they try to “tell you more” (which is another very vague question).
We can shorten this whole conversation to a few exchanges back and forth if we put actual specific objective observable CRITERIA to “serious about their business” and “good at what they do.”
After a lengthy conversation with my client and going through my Ideal Client and Outcome assignment, we realized that the people she could best help were 1) making $100K/year or more in their businesses and 2) had already sold a high-ticket offer of $5K or more at least 10 times.
Those clear, objective criteria were proxies for the much vaguer criteria of “serious about their business” and “good at what they do.”
They’re not PERFECT criteria – as in, someone who’s not serious or good at what they do could theoretically meet them – but they’re far, far better than just asking people the vague questions.
After going through this exercise, my client realized that she could indeed gauge potential clients very quickly over Messenger by asking them how much they were earning and what their offer was and how many times they had sold it.
She was even more delighted to realize that if she started including those criteria in her POSTS, people would start coming to her already knowing they met the criteria, and in their very first message to her they would let her know how much they were earning and how many times they had sold their offer – and ask if SHE would accept THEM.
This is just one example of how this works. I’ve had clients in non-business niches also tell me excitedly that they’ve started to do Messenger sales with ease and confidence after never feeling like they could before. (If any of y’all are reading this, feel free to comment here and let us all know what your process of switching to Messenger was like!)
I’ll also add that I’ve had zero problems with clients having a good attitude or doing the work or showing up on time for calls or any of the other things that are important to all of us in our clients.
If someone is willing to pay a high-ticket fee without speaking to you – and without you applying any scarcity or deadlines whatsoever to “help” them decide – that speaks volumes about how good a client they’ll be.
So, since switching to this way of enrolling, I haven’t needed to worry about clients’ attitudes and willingness to work. The Messenger process, precisely because it is so laissez-faire and hands-off with the ball in the prospect’s court, automatically screens for only the most committed people.
I can’t overstate how important the Messenger sales process has been to my ability to scale to 300k/year without overcomplicating my business or working overtime (or even full-time) or hiring salespeople.
There’s no way I would be able to take the number of clients that I take now and still work part-time if I did sales calls – there simply wouldn’t be enough hours in the day to meet with both prospects and paying clients.
Messenger sales are a life-changer. Consider doing them, even if – ESPECIALLY if – you think you’re the ONE person for whom they wouldn’t work. 😉
Important note: Messenger sales only work the way I describe if you write your content in a way that puts your expertise, personality, and values on full display.
I believe my content is a major reason why my clients consistently end up being people who think the way I think, value what I value, understand the way I explain things, etc. (they even tell me that based on my content, they knew I was “their kind of person”!).
All of that precedes the part where you use the precise questions to qualify the people who come to you via Messenger interested in working with you.
It all works together in one beautiful system. 🙂
If you want my help to implement this system, that’s what I do in my 30-day 1-on-1 intensive.
Specifically, I help you with:
–articulating your offer, outcomes, and ideal client (even fine-tuning them and making decisions about them, in some cases);
–pitching all of the above in my unique 500-word “direct offer post” framework;
–writing detailed value posts that put your expertise and process on display and help readers to understand the depth and scope of your work and what problems it solves;
–customizing the questions you’ll ask to determine if the people who message you (after being enthralled by your content 😉 ) are a good fit – and creating the rest of your sales process
–if needed – creating a plan to grow your friends list, FB group, and email list through friend-requesting and writing simple posts on your profile
This program is the best fit for coaches and experts who have 5-10 years of experience doing what they do, are pretty sure of who their ideal client is and what results they can help them to get, and already get about six figures worth of clients per year – and now would like to add at least six figures more to their bottom line and cut their work hours down to less than full-time.
We can achieve that “more money/less time” equation by working with clients who are a more precise fit – because they tend to pay more, need less of your time to get results, and know you’re the one for them without having to take up an hour or two of your time on a sales call.
All of which are the outcomes that my work is aimed at. 🙂
More information about the 30-day program, including pricing, is available here.
If you’re interested, the next step is to send me a DM on Facebook… and we will chat (over Messenger, of course) to see if it’s a good fit!