My love for networking, both at live events and online, led me to join some Facebook groups that had my tribe in them. Every day (ok, every few hours) I would jump in and see what new conversations were going on.
In actively engaging with those conversations I often found myself being able to read between the lines of the what the person was asking and see through to what they really needed help with.
So, I’d offer some advice in the group. I’d then also offer them a complimentary chat if they needed more assistance.
Some people would take me up on this and some wouldn’t.
For the ones who did reach out, we’d engage in a little back and forward chit chat where I’d find out more about their business pain and what their real struggle was. Quite often, they’d ask if they could chat with me by phone and I was always happy to oblige as it was only ever 10 minutes of my time.
I’d do a quick ‘discovery’ call, offer some quick tips they could implement straight away and while I was there, determine if they were truly ready to shift through this situation and grow their business.
If they were, we could then proceed to a second conversation where I’d let them know if I was the right person to help them, or whether someone else in my network was the best person for them.
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If they were keen to proceed with me I would then ask them a question: ‘How would you like to move forward?’
From here the ball was in their court but I have to say, my conversion rate for people who got to this stage with me after starting with a simple private message conversation? It was close to 100%.
I think the key was that I offered some tangible tips immediately after reaching out to give them a hand.
In other words, it isn’t always about selling, sometimes (most times), it is about helping.
So as simple as this sounds, this strategy has put many zeros into my business and most importantly, helped many entrepreneurs move forward, more confident and equipped to grow to the next step in their businesses.
The next time you see someone struggling in a Facebook group with someone you can help with, try saying ‘PM me’. You might be surprised where that leads!
Have you used Facebook private messages in this way? How has it worked for you?
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