January 20, 2017
How to handle multiple prospects simultaneously
Reader Florian M writes in with question about how to handle multiple prospects simultaneously:
Hi Jonathan,
I just finished reading your HBIN book. Loved it.
I was wondering: you write that your quote “is good for 30 days”. What do you do if you have 2 such quotes out and both clients accept it? You probably won’t be able to do 2 projects at the same time. Also, you could wait for 30 days but the client may reject the quote, and you wasted time “waiting”. How do you handle this situation?
Good question! Thanks for writing in :)
The “30 days” duration is just a suggestion. If I was receiving lots of leads (or expecting to receive lot of leads because of increased marketing activities), I’d go with a shorter duration; probably 14 days, but if things were really busy, 7 days.
To answer the reader’s question specifically:
I had to write two quotes, I would:
- Have them expire in 14 days
- Alert both prospects to the fact that I have two quotes out
- Would give Prospect 1 right of first refusal (i.e., if Prospect 2 gives me the green light, I would say “Thanks, Prospect 1 has x more days to get back to me about their project. If I don’t hear from them or they decline, we can get started.”
In a nutshell: I operate on a first come, first served basis; and with as much transparency as possible.
What about more than two?
If a third prospect asked for a quote while the other two were outstanding, I would schedule my sales meeting with Prospect 3 for a date on or after the expiry of the second quote.
If a FOURTH prospect asked for a quote at the same time as the other three, I would double the prices on my website :)
Yours,
—J