Getting ghosted as a small business owner is unfortunately pretty common. After years in the business, I’ve learned to not take it personally. That’s a topic for another blog post. In this post, we’re focusing our efforts on preventing getting ghosted. That starts with qualifying our prospects before they fill out the inquiry form. Below are my top 7 tips to avoid getting ghosted by potential clients. The examples I use are from a wedding photographer perspective but the overarching suggestions can be applied to a variety of businesses.

7 Tips to Avoid Getting Ghosted By Clients

List the average price your clients pay or a price range on your website. I do this on my main contact page right above the form. This establishes that your potential clients have some idea of the cost of working with you. We would then assume that by them filling out the contact form, they have the ability to pay for your product or service.
Remember that this is a two-way interview. We don’t want to work with every inquiry, only the people who are the right fit. Ask qualifying questions that help you understand if this is your dream client or not. For example, if you’re a wedding photographer who doesn’t enjoy photographing large weddings, ask the number of attendees in your contact form.
Create a thoughtful email template that you use to reply to inquiries when sending over your pricing brochure. The key here is to infuse your personality and make it conversational. Ask more questions. I keep this email template as a draft in my CRM (I use Honeybook).
Take the email template one step further and before you hit send, take 2 minutes to re-read their contact form responses to personalize your email back to them. Use their names, ask them to tell you more about how they met on vacation, ask them to send a photo of their new puppy. Be genuinely interested in getting to know them.
Send a specific date/time as an option for a discovery call meeting. For example, you could say, “Usually I like to hop on the phone or video chat to introduce myself, get to know you better, and hear more about your wedding day plans. Does Thursday at 1pm work for you?”
Set up an automated response within your CRM (I use Honeybook) if your first email doesn’t generate a reply. This is a friendly nudge sent 3 days after you sent them the brochure. We live in a crazy digital age where emails get buried and to-do lists are miles long. Sometimes it just takes a quick follow up to get top of mind.
Get all decision makers in the room. If the next step after the inquiry is hopping on a discovery call with you, make sure you have the decision maker(s) in the room. For example, as a wedding photographer, I love when both partners are on the discovery call. This allows us to skip the awkward part where one partner tells you they need time to speak with their significant other before making a decision. Check out the discovery call script if you need help with the flow and what to say.

If you’ve done all the qualifying, asked the right questions, and you still heard crickets after sending the brochure or pricing guide, read this blog post for 7 tips on how to not take it personally.