How to deal with question sucking (potential) clients on Skype

soma56

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I don't know about you guys but my time is valuable. Some people like to 'try' and take advantage of it. I finally I blew up at this guy who just wouldn't stop. Here's a transcript of what I sent him on Skype as I thought you guys at BHW would be interested in it:

Don, I don't see this ending anytime time soon. I don't think this product is for you. I can't offer it to you at $150 anyways. I'm not sure what I was thinking. And given that you're very paranoid about getting screwed, inching up at $5 increments and have asked more questions in two days then others have had since I've known them I don't see this being a healthy relationship between us. I'm not sure what you've purchased in the past to make you so paranoid, however, all I can say is that in the future when you deal with programmers and software you have to have some faith in their abilities to deliver. Is there a lot of garbage out there? Sure. Should you ask questions? Sure, but when it reaches a point where I can answer more and more and more of Don's questions who has yet to give me a dime OR make money - money is what's calling me.

Having been in this business a long time you start to notice patterns and I can already tell moving forward that you aren't the ideal client for this course or my scraper. If and when you get over your paranoid behavior I'd be happy to answer questions, however, when it starts taking up a lot of time (as you have so far) I have to gracefully decline as my time is extremely important. So, that's why I'm ending this tap dance. Best of luck.

Having given this a little more thought I can confidently say that if you do make it in this business you will be reached daily by any number of people that want advice. Perhaps then you will have an understanding of where I'm coming from. With all due respect you are the type that can never be satisfied. You will alwasy continue to cosume time through endless questions. It's an endless game that I'd like to end right now.
 
Say your clients right at the start - that you only accept 10 questions and after that it's 5$/question.
Simple.
 
why not remove your skype ID from your profile also dont accept random guys with improper skype requests...
 
hey man,
you wrote 3 paragraphs to explain to the guy why you won't do business with him? and you are saying your time is valuable?

I wouldn't bother explaining that shit. You have to recognize who is wasting your time early on and cut off contact. I am still learning this but usually people who ask too many questions are not serious. keep your answers short, if a yes or no would suffice, dont write 2 paragraphs. if it sounds like they are wasting your time, delete them from your skype and move on. I am still learning to spot who is fishing for answers and who is serious, it's an art and it takes practice to learn.
 
Yeah I would remove your skype and also tell them right off the bat that you charge for consultation time. I had them same problem with people blowing me up with questions and once I told them they would have to pay it filtered out all those "time wasters" and now I get people that are comfortable with paying a fee for a consultation session.
 
Say your clients right at the start - that you only accept 10 questions and after that it's 5$/question.
Simple.

Ahh, nice one.

why not remove your skype ID from your profile also dont accept random guys with improper skype requests...

Can't do that. I like to keep my door open as 90% of people are cool.

hey man,
you wrote 3 paragraphs to explain to the guy why you won't do business with him? and you are saying your time is valuable?

I wouldn't bother explaining that shit. You have to recognize who is wasting your time early on and cut off contact. I am still learning this but usually people who ask too many questions are not serious. keep your answers short, if a yes or no would suffice, dont write 2 paragraphs. if it sounds like they are wasting your time, delete them from your skype and move on. I am still learning to spot who is fishing for answers and who is serious, it's an art and it takes practice to learn.

Perhaps my large response to him should give you an inclination of how much larger our discussions were. In spite of it being long, I have to admit, it was nice to blow sh@#$ all over his face with my long response.

I don't mind helping people out here or there but when it starts to turn into your morning job you have to end the tap dance.
 
I always tell my potential clients that we do not use Skype for business. Last month we lost a potential client that was ready to order content for around $6K-$7K (don't remember exact figure) just because we didn;t want to meet him on Skype. But there are always more clients that decide to continue to keep the communication via Email as per our request.
Some people like wasting their time on SKype, I hate it.

I don;t know what is the price of your product ($150?) but who cares about that dude, fuck him.
 
Posting a long response does not help anything in the end. You're demeaning to him and it doesn't make you look any better.

The best option is just to simply say, "Don, I'm sorry, we won't be able to work together on this project."

"Why not?" he'll undoubtedly ask. "I'm too busy with other clients and won't be able to devote the time necessary."

Simple and sweet. You don't burn any bridges and stay professional.

Firing bad clients before you ever get started is absolutely necessary.
 
Firing bad clients before you ever get started is absolutely necessary.

100%. I just wasted 10 min on the phone with a plastic surgeon that was so fucking clueless about marketing. He was paying a company $3k a month for SEO and 'call tracking" but never got a call. This has been going on for 2 years...24 freaking months and $72k later. I looked and his site has 17 links - all internal. I kept trying to explain that if he continues his path his is going to keep pissing $3k down the drain, yet all he would say is "yeah but I have infusionsoft" lol...before beating my head int the wall anymore I said "you know what, this won't be a good fit...have a great day and I wish you the best of luck"
 
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I always tell my potential clients that we do not use Skype for business.

^This, fuck Skype its too time consuming and leaves room for too many time wasters with back and forth crap, serious people won't mind writing out a proper email to you and waiting for a reply.
 
Know the feeling I hate people who just waste your time with redundancy over and over again.
I have thought about going to a complete email support system.

-RK
 
Know the feeling I hate people who just waste your time with redundancy over and over again.
I have thought about going to a complete email support system.

-RK


Support ticket systems are better if you are trying to get into a support system. You avoid interaction with the user via email and interact with the user/buyer via the support system. It's very useful if you are very busy you can manage all tickets in a timely manner.
 
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