How to Avoid “Analysis Paralysis”
Getting ghosted sucks. (In life and in business.)
When it comes to your clients, it usually happens in three different places during the buyer’s journey:
After your initial inquiry response
After you send your proposal
After you send an agreement and deposit request
Which one is the worst?
I think it’s the last because you’ve spent time on the sales process to get them that far - and then crickets.
You also get your hopes up, because they’ve asked for a chance to formalize the relationship with a contract.
Getting ghosted after sending the initial inquiry is like asking someone out and getting no response.
Sharing a proposal is like getting on one knee, but they don’t answer your question.
But getting a yes to the proposal and no response after the agreement goes out is like getting left at the altar.
I haven’t had that happen in real life, but I’ve experienced it many times over my career selling wedding services to couples who commit, then back out or disappear.
It took a lot of years to learn why this happens and, more importantly, how to prevent it in the first place.
Read on if you want to save yourself the heartbreak - and headache - of learning firsthand over the next several years.
Fire marshall v. Firefighter
First things first, you have to stop thinking of yourself as a firefighter in your business, especially in your sales process.
Booking more couples won’t happen a lot more if you get better at follow-ups. I get asked all the time how to follow up with couples who inquire. You could do that, but it’s a lot of work and worry - and doesn’t end up doing much good in the end
Follow-ups are like a sprinkler system for a house that’s on fire. You blew up the sales process early on and there’s not much to do but watch your chances of booking that couple go up in flames.
So start thinking like a fire marshall. If you’ve ever worked with one on set-up, you know they are vigilant about preventing fires from happening in the first place. That’s their job. Make sure you’re following the rules during setup to make it less likely things go wrong in the first place. And if they do, you know what to do, because you’re prepared.
It’s the same for your sales process. Get a plan in place to prevent buyers from flaming out along the way.
I can’t share all the ways to do this in one newsletter. However, if you read the 200+ that I’ve sent out over the past six years, you’d likely paste together most of what you need to know.
What is “analysis paralysis”?
One thing I’ve not written about is “analysis paralysis.” But it’s a big contributor to why you’re getting ghosted, so I want to share some insights - and solutions - with you.
Analysis paralysis occurs when people are:
Overwhelmed
Presented with too many options
Maximizing their choices instead of satisfying the decision
Uncertain
Unsure of the next step
Worried about what others will say
And so many other reasons.
When you design a sales process around the way buyers make decisions, it’s crucial to set up an experience that factors in these emotional responses to a complex purchase like your wedding services.
What’s ironic about analysis paralysis is that it often occurs when the rational part of your thinking process gets involved because the emotional side has been triggered in negative ways.
You get scared or anxious about the future, and your neocortex side steps in to make the best, most logical choice for you.
But in doing so, it slows down the decision-making process as it deliberates the next steps.
Analysis paralysis sets in and the deal you’d been so excited about starts to smolder for days, weeks, or even months.
How do you prevent analysis paralysis?
I know dozens of ways, but I’ll share two with you here:
#1 - Get micro-commitments
Don’t ask couples to do too much at once. Imagine you asked a potential life partner to marry you on the first date. Or you dive right into politics, religion, and how many kids you want to have while sipping that first cup of coffee or glass of wine.
Yikes. It’s a sure way to get ghosted before your second date.
So stop trying to do it all at once when you send over your response to the initial inquiry. Don’t send a 16-page pricing guide. Don’t send long, templated emails. Don’t send them links to 5 full galleries.
Instead, send them a nice little note letting them know you’re not seeing anyone else on that date right now, and that you’d love to get to know them better to see if it’s a good fit.
That’s it. That’s all.
Offer a next step that’s easy to make and they’re more likely to take it because they’re not in their head. When they’re in their head, the deal is dead.
#2 - Present three options on your proposal
Don’t offer your full menu of services when you share your proposal. It’s too many choices, and people get stuck in the decision.
Barry Schwartz calls it the “paradox of choice,” and you can watch his Ted Talk about it here.
Humans want enough choices to feel in control of their outcome and confident they’re making the right decision. But we don’t want so many that we have to spend too much time and energy (literally, too much brain power) computing the pros and cons of each way forward.
Give people three choices to put them in a position of power without bogging them down.
How to sell to Analyzers
Last week, I shared ways to identify and sell to the Relater buyer type on my podcast, Own Your Business. This week’s episode is about Analyzers.
If you work with clients who are in finance, law, IT, engineering, medicine, research, politics, or science, Analyzers are your primary buyer.
And you will learn everything you need to know about how they prefer to communicate - and what you need to do if you want to a) book more of them as clients, and/or b) create a better client experience.