Do clients on Facebook Messenger ghost you?

You might resonate with this…I often I hear from trainers that they might get a random enquiry off Facebook, for example, or think of it as an email. It might be asking them for their prices, and then they might have a bit of a conversation back and forward with the person. Once they tell them their prices, all you hear is nothing. You’re ghosted, the person kind of drops you. I’m going to give you the answer and a couple of examples of what to say to actually get that person into a consultation with you, but I also want to frame it with this; I want you to think like real life. I want you to imagine that you’re walking down the street and somebody asks you something, and it’s health and fitness related. As soon as they ask you the question, do you then pull out your brochure and say, “well since you’re fat, I’m a personal trainer. Here are my prices”? Is that how the conversation goes? I doubt it.

I’m actually making fun of us here because clearly, that’s not how the conversation goes and we’ve got to remember that social media is an extension of real life. There can be two problems actually, common things that I see and this is the issue. Sometimes on Facebook Messenger, Facebook decides to automate the questions that come up. Just to have a look at what I’m talking about, go on and have a look at business pages and go to press a message. If you haven’t messaged that person before, it will come up with an automated response of three to five ways to contact that person. One of them might be, “How much are your services?” so I want you to know that people aren’t just messaging you typing in, “How much are your services?”. Don’t get upset that they’re asking you how much your services are, they just don’t know what questions to ask and Facebook has kind of pre-programmed that stuff.

There’s a lot when you aren’t aware of what’s going on the back end that Facebook is doing for you. The same will happen in an email inquiry, people don’t know what actually ask. Let’s take it back to real life. If you were to potentially help that person, you might refer them on, they might not be the right person for you and you really have to ask them a couple of questions. The clue to all of this is actually to start asking them some questions like you would if the person was in front of you.

What do you know about that person?

What have they done before?

What are they interested in?

How many times a week do they want to try?

Do they even know that they want to train?

I’m sure in your range of services, it’s really got nothing to do with, blah there are the prices. Or does it? Because if it does, then you really need to learn how to have a conversation. The people that I’m speaking to are experienced, and they know how to have a conversation.

Building rapport with clients is one of the things that trainers do amazingly. Let yourself build rapport as that’s actually the key. It’s really important to go back and forward with that person a little bit to find out more about them. Then, if you want to proceed asking them questions, get them on a call with you or get them to come in for a quick chat. I do suggest doing a call because it’s very easy. Send them a couple of times that you can do. There’s a whole procedure that I have for this with my girls, because if you don’t do it right, it doesn’t work. But by being aware of the natural situation of face to face versus online it really not that different. Don’t just throw your prices at people; you don’t know if it’s appropriate for them to train, what their goals currently are or do they need an online program because they’re moving to Botswana next week?

You don’t know anything about the person. I’m not saying don’t answer the question. I am saying get a little bit more information and be more detailed in your prescription to the person in how your services could potentially help them and the easiest way to do that is definitely in a conversation. If you’ve asked them a few questions and you think there might be a fit, get them on the phone and you can talk to them further, refer them into someone else, or whatever would fit them best.

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