Relentless Proposal Requests from Unqualified Prospects
While the internet has given small businesses access to a vast number of potential customers it has also made it tougher to respond to the influx of quote proposal requests. Many business owners are ecstatic when their web marketing efforts begin generating traffic on their website. The unexpected burden comes when prospects begin requesting more information, often detailed in nature.
I met with a client last week that provides a one-stop shop for business infrastructure services; phone, web, accounting and such. He was complaining that his website was working too well! His creative copy and well-designed site was capturing the interest of many people; so much that many of them were requesting specific pricing for certain services. His days were being spent responding to all sorts of proposal requests that relentlessly come in day and night. Admittedly he was only getting back to a small percentage of the requestors and even then it was hours or days later. His problem, as he saw it, was that every customer needed a custom price proposal based on their individual needs and in order to get that information he needed to contact the prospect and ask them several questions.
