If you’ve been online for any length of time, chances are you’ve been pitched through a direct message (DM) from a complete stranger. I get hit up through DM at least once a day from people who say stuff like:
“Are you open-minded to opportunity?”
“Would you like to make more money?”
Or my favorite…
“Have you ever heard of [insert company]? Oh, you haven’t? Well, let me tell you about it.”
Just because we’re living in a world where everything is at the touch of our fingers doesn’t mean we should cut corners when connecting with people.
Social media is “social” for a reason… And if you don’t agree, you should just go join LinkedIn like the rest of the “buy my stuff” spam DMers.
What would you rather do? Send 100 DMs and get 10 responses? Or send 20 DMs and get 5 clients?
Here’s how non-spamy DM prospecting works…
You want to start by doing something called “Social Recon.” Social Recon is where you take time to go check out a potential prospect’s social media profile. Look at the last 3-5 posts they’ve made, choose one that you can genuinely engage with, then like or comment on it.
Now before you get trigger happy, don’t go to DM yet… You’ll end up looking like the “thirsty” guy or gal at the bar who talks to anyone who shows the slightest amount of interest…
Instead, continue to engage with their posts for at least 2 weeks. This builds common ground and starts the process of developing “know, like and trust”.
After you have spent time engaging in their posts, you can then send a DM using one of their posts as a starting point to create a dialogue.
i.e.: “Hey Susan, I saw your last post about X. I just recently X! How’s your week going?”
Here’s the secret to making this work…
Are you ready?
You actually have to be GENUINE when starting DM conversations for this to work. If you’re using DM as a way to push a “buy my stuff” message, prospects will smell it a mile away.
If you’re genuine, you’ll start a conversation. Use that conversation to ask questions and find out more about them.
When you ask enough about other people they will ALWAYS ask about you and what you do.
That will give you the opportunity to share what you do and who you do it for. From there, you can make an offer to help them if you see an opening. Worse case, they now know what you do and will see your posts in their feed, which should lead them to your offer 😉.
Now it’s only a matter of time before they do business with you.
If you’re an online or aspiring online Fit Pro, learn how to add at least 5-10 new clients every month without guesswork or wasting time.
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