Surprise! That wealthy prospect isn’t ignoring you

We call them “Lurkers”.

They’re the folks who follow you on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, your list of subscribers…but they never reach out.

(Want to watch the companion video to today's article? It's here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYTPZN41h_w )

They can make up 99% of your list.

And their silence can be damn discouraging…if you let it.

But don’t.

Your natural instinct is that they aren’t interested in what you offer.

Which isn’t true.

They’re just uncertain.

They’re kind of intrigued by you.?

They like what you’re communicating. But…they aren’t ready to take action. They’re afraid that if they reach out, you’re going to pounce on them and try to sell them a whole lot of stuff.

They’re hesitant, because that’s what’s happened in the past.

So they sit and lurk.

Which ain’t a bad thing.

As long as you don’t get discouraged and quit sending messages to them.

Which is easy to do…given human nature and all that.

But you gotta resist and stay the course.

Lemme tell you a quick story about Mary Ellen Boatright, to illustrate this point.

Back a while ago, I sent out an email. The gist of it was that I was thinking about taking on one new client. We’d work together for a year. I’d do the heavy lifting of developing the marketing strategy, writing the sales copy, the emails, the ads, the tech stuff…all the things that prevent people from actually getting their marketing program up and running.

I charge a retainer of $25K for this, which is credited against an agreed upon percentage of the new business that comes in as a result of us working together.

Which leads me to Mary Ellen Boatright.

She’s cool-got a great business model and there was no doubt in my mind that we were going to make a lot of money together.

But that’s not the reason I’m telling you this story.

Mary Ellen was a Lurker. Sort of the poster child for Luker-dom.

Been on my list for 3 years and 7 months.

Never heard a peep from her.?

Now you know me, I send out something every single day.

That’s a lot of stuff Mary Ellen got.

Did she read everything I sent?

Of course not.

But she read a lot of it.

Day after day…month after month…year after year…nary a squeak was heard from Mary Ellen.

Until she decided that the time was right. And the rest is as they say…history.

So this got me intrigued.

I went back into my archives and looked at who else responded.

13 in total. 9 were buyers of everything I offer. But 4 were very similar to Mary Ellen.

Been on the list for a long time.

Read my stuff.

Finally decided the time was right to take action.

So the point is…don’t give up.

Don’t assume that just because you don’t hear from people, that they’re not interested in what you have to offer.

Sure it can be discouraging. And at times it’s natural to wonder if it’s worth the effort.

But it is.

Stick with it, and your Lurkers are likely to turn into a bunch of Mary Ellens

Onward!

Mark

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