At Collective Agency, when someone comes by, if they are interested, then I express my interest in them signing up and show them how to do that. I often sign people up when they come in, or when they call on the phone before coming in. I've found the experience is better and people seem happier overall, and the community here is better, when I do that.
Don't be pushy or aggressive ever. Instead, I like people being assertive -- expressing what they want to happen, if they can ask for one thing, what is it. There's a model I like for interaction styles which groups people into 4 types: driver, expressive, amiable, analytical. My natural style is analytical: I like time to think about things. People who are drivers are more likely to want to sign up upon walking in. To bring in revenue and community, my style is driver. I've found that talking about why we exist and why I'm happy here, from a personal perspective, is most important to get people to join. I like a high-expectations, responsive style of leadership (democratic style) and people see that in talking from me, and we attract people who like that. (The typical coworking style is not that.) Alex -- Alex Linsker | Business Owner Collective Agency <http://collectiveagency.co/> (503) 517-6900 office | (503) 369-9174 mobile 322 NW Sixth Ave, Suite 200 | Portland, Oregon 97209 On Thursday, June 18, 2015 at 8:13:54 AM UTC-7, Glen Ferguson wrote: > > My two cents: If that happened to me during a tour, I'd look around > wondering if I had mistakenly wandered into a vacation timeshare sales > pitch. Then I'd run for the door. > > Web CTAs at their best are a mechanism to take the one-way communication > (website to visitor) and engage them to turn it into a two-way > communication that leads to building a relationship. At their worst they're > a sales pitch. > > You had the tour with the prospective member. I'm sure there's been a back > and forth discussion to find out how they heard about you, why they might > want to become a member, what kind of work they do, etc. You already have > the interaction going. > > You're building a relationship. If you were dating and on the first date > the person proposed marriage, what would your reaction be? Or, what about > the well-meaning friend that is on some great diet (for them) and they > insist it will do wonders for you and you should get on it too? Either > situation is uncomfortable. > > I'd rather get a member that will be a part of our community instead of > one that joins, never shows up and then leaves after a couple months. How > we've been doing it is to have several small, qualifying hurdles: > > - Take a tour. My stats show that people who join without having set > foot inside our space rarely show up at all and don't stay members more > than 1-2 months. > - Do a test drive (daypass). It's pretty rare to find someone that > will buy a car without doing a test drive first. Again, my stats show if > they've never worked in a coworking community for even a day, they leave > after 2-4 months. If they try us out with a daypass first, retention is > much higher. > - A couple days after the tour, our reservation system sends out a > follow up email. I ask what they thought of our community and space, any > likes/dislikes they have and any suggestions for improvements. I also > invite them to come back for that test drive. > > I'd rather give the tour and make them feel welcome whenever they're > ready, rather than push to close the deal and risk alienating them along > with whoever else they share their story of the "pushy salesperson". That's > not a reputation I want to start. > > *Glen Ferguson* > Phone: 301-732-5165 > Email: gl...@coworkfrederick.com <javascript:> > Website: http://coworkfrederick.com > Address: 122 E Patrick St, Frederick, MD 21701 > > On Wed, Jun 17, 2015 at 9:18 PM, oren.s...@gmail.com <javascript:> < > oren.s...@gmail.com <javascript:>> wrote: > >> Hi all, >> >> This is just a general question regarding your protocols and processes >> during tours, specifically whether or not you include a conversion >> opportunity. >> >> In other words, do you offer or suggest the touring guest an opportunity >> to sign up on the spot? Do you follow up after the fact? >> >> Our registration is currently done on the website here via a Paypal >> subscription: www.dallasfortwork.com/#joinUp >> >> The reason I ask is that one of my staff suggested that we push this >> conversion point harder during tours and directly suggest they sign up on >> the spot by loading the page and putting it in front of them while they're >> still in the space. >> >> To me this seems like a bit of a pressure sale, but at the same time, >> every web designer will tell you how important call-to-action's and driving >> conversion is on the web, so why behave different in person? >> >> I see the logic of his argument, but can't quite come up with a welcoming >> way to pull it off. >> >> Any thoughts on this process in your own spaces are most welcome. >> >> Thank you, >> Oren >> >> -- >> Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com >> --- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Coworking" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to coworking+...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > > -- Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. 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