Originally aired Thursday, February 5, 2026. Businessing is now a weekly show with a new episode every Monday.
Short answer: If prospects ghost you after a proposal, qualify them better before you send it. Ask about budget, what they've tried before and what success looks like. Get the proposal out fast while they're excited, then keep following up until you get a yes or a no. Two tries isn't ghosting. Plan on eight or nine touches.
Today I shared SBA numbers that should make you proud. Small businesses are 99.9% of all US businesses, so why do we feel so alone? Then we compared how people say they feel about the economy with what they actually buy. Either way, keep selling bagels. My lead story was hyper-personalization, from obvious fill-in-the-blank DMs to outreach built on what people actually care about. In the Idea Slam I answered two questions. What do I do about a nightmare client when I need the money? And why do prospects ghost me after I send a proposal? I closed with two clever marketing ideas worth stealing.
Businessing is the weekly show where small business owners figure out what to do next, with a new episode every Monday. Hosted by Pat Miller, founder of the Small Business Owners Community: owners only, nobody pitching, $19 a month.
Key takeaways
- Don't take on a client just because you need the money, since desperation makes everyone look like a good fit.
- Put the exact scope, deliverables and dates in a signed contract so clients can't assume you'll do more.
- Before sending a proposal, ask about budget, what they've tried before and what success would look like.
- Send your proposal the same day the prospect is excited, not next week.
- Plan on eight or nine follow-up touches, and keep going until you get a clear yes or no.
Questions this episode answers
Why do clients ghost me after I send a proposal?
Often because the price surprised them. If you only talk about results and never qualify budget, any number can feel too high. It can also be that you were too slow or stopped following up too soon. Qualify first, send fast, and follow up until you get an answer.
How do I deal with a difficult client who questions my expertise?
Look at how they came on. Many nightmare clients get signed when the owner needs money, without clear discovery or a contract. Define the scope in writing, including what you won't do. Also check your rates, because the lowest-paying clients tend to be the biggest pains.
How many times should I follow up with a prospect?
Far more than most owners do. Two calls or one unanswered email isn't ghosting. Plan on eight or nine touches, and keep following up until you get a yes or a no.
What questions should I ask a prospect before sending a quote?
Ask what their budget is, what they've tried before that didn't work, and what success would look like to them. Those answers tell you whether they can pay and what they expect before you ever send a number.
Worth quoting
when you need the money, that is the worst time to bring out a client. 'cause if you need the money, everybody looks like a great partner.
Pat Miller on Businessing
If you don't define those things in advance, they will assume that you will do them.
Pat Miller on Businessing
You've got a hook, a fish on the hook they wanna buy. Everything stops till that proposal gets out.
Pat Miller on Businessing
You follow up until you get a yes or a no. That's how it goes.
Pat Miller on Businessing
On the show
- Idea Slam question: Two listener questions: I have a nightmare client who drains my energy and questions my expertise but I need the money; and I keep getting ghosted after sending proposals.
In this episode
- Show open
- Small businesses are 99.9% of US businesses
- What customers say vs what they buy
- Small business trends and hyper-personalization
- Idea Slam: the nightmare client
- Idea Slam: ghosted after the proposal
- Two clever marketing ideas to steal
Watch, listen and join
- Watch this episode on YouTube
- Apple Podcasts
- Listen anywhere
- Small Business Owners Community
- The Small Business Library (add it to your AI tool)
More on this topic: Getting clients answers from the Small Business Owners Community
Full transcript
Good morning. It is Thursday, February 5th, the last day of the work week. If your Fridays off, of course we are Businessing. This is Small Business' weekly show. I'm your host, pat Miller, founder of the small business owners community, sponsored this morning by Gen Head and Enji.
Love you guys. Thanks for your support. So today we're gonna do some like businessy, almost political stuff. Some days the show is kind of like fun and goofy and today's like real stuff. So the SBAs frequently asked question survey was just released, and the numbers for small businesses, they're eye popping, absolutely eye popping.
I'll share those with you. Also, the economic sentiment isn't matching economic behavior. So there's a new survey out that ask people how, how do you feel about the economy? And then you look at what they're doing in the economy and those two things don't align at all. So we'll try and square those up.
Two idea slam questions on the show today. I have a nightmare client who drains my energy and questions my expertise. Oh, I hate when they do that, but I kind of need the money. So what should I do? So how do you handle a nightmare client? And the other question is, I keep getting ghosted after sending proposals, had these bang up conversations, I send the quote and then crickets.
What am I doing wrong? We'll do those two idea slam questions and I'll let you in on a little secret or maybe a habit of mine. I am a clever collector. When I see something really clever or really good, I write it down and I make a note. And this morning I saw two things just this morning that were so smart they have to come on the show because it's just, that is good and the world needs to know how clever you are.
So we will talk about two really clever things that frankly you can just steal if you want, for your small business will do that. If you're tuned in this morning across LinkedIn or X, or Facebook or Twitch or your toaster, wherever you're streaming the show, drop your name and your business link in the chat.
I would love to feature you on the show and say, good morning, because this is. Small business's daily habit and I'm really glad that you're here. Let's start with the headlines, shall we? So the SBA released its small business FAQ. Basically, the questions they get asked all the time, and I think as small business owners, it's something we should be proud of.
Here's the big headline just released. 99.9% of businesses are small. That's a hell of a stat. Think about that. 99.9 of businesses in the US are small businesses, and there are 36,200,000 small businesses in the United States. Think about that. There are 36 million of us walking around right now. How come we feel so alone?
You ever wonder that? Every time you flip on the TV or you open your internet feed, all you hear about are all of these big name companies. You never hear about any of us ever, and we're 99.9% of all the businesses. It's just my pet peeve. Absolute pet peeve. The other thing they found out is that US small business employs 45.9% of all private sector workers.
We're 99.9% of all the businesses and we almost employ half of all private sector workers. Not bad work. What do you think? Does that make you proud to know that you're a part of that? It makes me proud. It makes me feel like we're doing something good and we're doing something that's needed. If you're out there building your business, you know you're not alone.
'cause you've got the small business owners community. You've got this show, you've got others in the feed. We're here for one another. But I come back to the question overall, how can we feel so disconnected? Something I'm trying to fix. Hopefully something that's coming through in the show and something that you know about the community, you don't have to grow it alone.
That's why we're here. Good morning, Rebecca. It is lovely to see you. Thanks for tuning in again this morning and Rebecca is doing it right. Be like Rebecca, tell us that you're here and of course share your link so we can give you some free on Air Pub Next news story, and this is important now this is just important.
Context is important, and I want you to open both of your ear holes before you hear me tell you this story or you're gonna misinterpret it and get all mad. 'cause you think I'm making a political statement, I'm not okay. Ear hole check, open ear holes open. Are you ready to be an adult? And here's statistics and not think I'm being political.
Are you ready? It won't work. Why am I even saying that? The people that are gonna overreact, they're gonna think I'm being pol. Whatever. Go further if you're an adult and you can actually listen with your ears open. Here's the question, do you believe what people say or do you believe what people do? And if you've been in business long enough, you know the only thing that really pays is what people do because we all have friends and family members and leads that say, oh yeah, yeah, I'll book.
Okay, well did you book yet? Did you buy the product? Did you book the service? Oh, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna do it. Until they do it, it doesn't matter. So do you believe what they say or do you believe what they do? We kind of believe what they do. At least that's how I look at it. So here's the part that may be political ear holes open.
There's a new report from an organization called Retail Brew that says consumer confidence is down 10 points in a recent survey. The consumer confidence from this survey is the lowest they've measured. I think they said since 2014. It's lower than even during COVID. It's not great, but retail spending is up 10% and luxury spending is up 15%.
And then inside the data they shared that strong performance was, uh, observed with the iPhone in particular. What does that mean People say? If they have no confidence in the economy, but what people are doing is something completely different because we're emotional creatures. If you ask our opinion, we're gonna give it to you.
But right now, and this is the part, your hole's open right now, there's a big portion of the country that doesn't like the way that it's going. That's obvious. And if you ask everyone about the economy, how do you feel? Their confidence isn't gonna be really high, but. You're watching what they're doing.
They're buying stuff. This part of the country that thinks everything sucks right now is still buying stuff. That new iPhone, that's pretty nice. Oh yeah, the administration sucks, but that iPhone is nice. Those people exist and that's what the economy is apparently doing. So we're living in a world where people are saying things are bad, but behaving in a way that they aren't so bad.
At least in the economy. So what does that mean for you as an entrepreneur? It means that you can see people mad at the administration, but still wanting to do business with you, still carrying on the way that they need to carry on to take care of their business and their family. So as an entrepreneur, we need to make sure that we are not confusing the two.
Your customers are still spending money and they still want to do business. It's right there in the numbers. And their opinions may be bad, and they may think that things are going terrible and they're not happy. Okay, but here's my bagel. Don't you want a bagel? Yes, I'd like a bagel. Cool. Sell 'em bagels.
Doesn't matter what their opinion is. If your bagels are delicious, people are gonna buy them because who doesn't like a delicious bagel? I do. Be aware of what's going on and check your political feelings at the door because you may have political feelings one way or the other. All the people that hate Trump, they're crazy.
Or the people that like Trump, what planet are they on? Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. We got bagels to sell and the news this morning is showing me, okay, opinions are out there and people don't feel so confident, but the behavior is something different. They're still spending money, so don't let up. Don't let up, and don't fall into that thing that you hear all the time. Oh, you know the way the economy's going by the numbers. The economy seems to be going just fine. People are mad at the administration and feel like things are going bad, and they may have a point. I'm not even arguing with them. Again, ears open not being political, but they're still spending money, so don't stop offering them delicious bagels to eat.
In other uplifting news, the Washington Post was completely gutted. Their newsroom was just ripped apart. Sports books, their foreign coverage, all of it was taken out because they're gonna save $50 million by doing so. Now, my first life was in the legacy media. I was in broadcasting. I was a radio guy, and I lived the life of watching Legacy Media fall apart.
And how news is being covered. It's gotta change because newspapers, which were great, just absolute war horses, when it came to finding out what's going on in the world, their business model was really hurting. And I've been in the business so long, I mean, they were talking about this in the nineties, what are we gonna do to keep this going?
'cause the Facebook came and changed everything and then paywalls went up. Remember that? And that's the, the physical subscription started to go down. Just thinking at 30,000 feet, just you and me talking here, I'm kind of concerned how are we gonna cover boring? But unimportant news, newspapers were great at that.
They had people at council meetings and they had people looking up, um, government contracts to see if the money was spent the right way, and who got that board seat. And why did they do this? Like they were snooping, they were investigating 'cause they had the manpower to do it. The readers of the newspapers wanted it, questioning, authority and investigation.
That is a public service, and it's something that's really important. And if the newspapers go away, it's not gonna be TV and radio. They don't have the money. I'll tell you that right now. They do not have the money to do that investigative journalism. So this is a problem that needs to be solved and. I'm worried to be honest about how we're gonna cover all the stuff that needs to be covered.
John Cornell is weighing in on the story we just covered about do you believe what they say or what they do? Actions speak louder than words. If the economy is good, they'll spend, first of all, awesome to see you, John Cornell. And secondly, I agree with you a hundred percent. The economy seems to be going okay.
You know this way better than I do, but their actions are speaking a little louder than words. So thank you, John. Appreciate you tuning in. Let's talk about our lead story today, another survey that came out, and this one is from Upwork. Do you know Upwork? It's the contractor VA website where I need someone to do a task for me.
You can go to Upwork and find someone who can remotely work and do it for you. It's a great site. I've used it several times. Uh, it's really helped me out in different places. They've released trends for small businesses in 2026, and they listed a whole bunch of trends and of course, AI and automation, which I've covered to death on this show, especially this week because I'm obsessed with Claude Cowork and aside this morning chat, GPT released Frontier, I think they called it, which is essentially AI agents for enterprise companies.
So it won't be long until Frontier from AI is now a part of our normal person chat, GPT. So Claude Cowork doing AI Agents for Anyone Chat, GPT Releasing Frontier for enterprise level. Coming to a computer screen near you real soon, I promise it. So I've been talking all about AI installation and agents, and they say that's one of the big trends that's going to be happening in small business in 2026.
Another thing they say, and we kind of know this, those of us that are paying attention, we know this, that short form video and social media continues to crush, and micro influencers are the rage right now. Those of you that have a really tight knit, maybe smaller but tight knit audience. You are talking about this particular product and everyone wants to hear your opinion of it.
Micro influencers, they're a big deal right now and marketers are on the hunt to try and find them. And then they also talked about subscription models continuing to be an effective way to drive your money. But there's one thing that stuck out that I wanna dive deeper on, and it is hyper personalization.
Making sure that your communication with your customers is hyper personalized, and I think we can draw a distinction between personalized and hyper personalized really easy. If I give you an example, and the example is direct mail. 10 years ago, direct mail started to get personalized. It's common, and 10 years ago it started to become common to get messages in the mail that says, sounded like this.
Hey, pat Miller. This is Bob and I've been impressed with your work at Businessing with Pat Miller. We here at Bob's funding share your passion for Businessing with Pat Miller. Right? We've seen that. We're seeing it in LinkedIn DMS all the time. This attempt to personalize, which I first noticed in the direct mail campaigns from 10 years ago.
Now it's all over our LinkedIn dms. People are trying to personalize, but it's so blatantly obvious. That it's just filling a script and it's like a giant turnoff. I mean, you get those dms when people do that, and it's just, come on, dude, like, I might even be interested in your product, but it's so square, peg, round hole.
I, I just can't even like, just delete. I just can't even, I, I don't even have the energy to report you a spam. Just get outta my face. Like I just, I can't even, so that's what's happening right now. But where is this going? It's starting to emerge that you can go way beyond the plugin first name here and message them and send some spam, because now especially with agents, and this is gonna be way more possible this year, it's getting super easy to collect anyone that has shown engagement with you and your product and your messaging.
You can go find out when John Cornell liked one of my posts and what that topic was. So then you can get a report of who's paying attention to what, and that can happen today inside Claude Cowork. So for the time being. We kind of have to live in this unscalable area where we have the information to do hyper-personalization, but we don't have the technology to automate it all exactly the right way.
So if we know who's observing our stuff, we can start being unscalable and send a personalized video. So if you send a personalized video right now to someone, they're, they're surprised. John, it was so great to see you on the show today. We're way overdue to have some barbecue and a bourbon. Thanks for stopping by.
I hope you're doing great. See you soon. When someone gets a video message like that, I've actually had people come back to me to say, I was expecting ai, I was expecting an automated message. I was, no, it was. It was the unscalable effort of reaching out individually and soon what that's gonna be is using 11 labs and synesthesia to send video messages where I say the exact same thing I just said.
But it's an AI bot doing it, and it's gonna be so realistic. John won't be able to tell some of the technology is so good. You really can't unless you're looking super close. So where does this come into play right now? We're doing the unscalable. Soon we'll be able to do it at scale. How does that play out?
Like, okay, pat, you've got my attention. How does that play out? How do I do it short term in a small way? And how might we do it at scale? Well, imagine you're a realtor and you're staying in touch with your marketplace, and you're noting who is looking at the two bedroom ranches, let's say soon at scale and fully automated, you would be able to send everyone that's ever looked at a two bedroom ranch inside your CRM, an automated virtual message.
Hey Beth. This duplex just came on the market in Waukesha, Wisconsin. I know that you've been thinking about two bedroom branches. Get back to me right away and we'll schedule a showing all of that, automated, all of that at scale, all of that automatically. That's where it's going, and it's gonna be here, I'm telling you, in a matter of weeks.
And yes, you can do that right now with 11 labs and some of the AI tools, but it's gonna continue to get so good that you'll just forget that it's not real. So you'll be personalizing these messages to people at scale. The other thing that you can do, and this is already here, that's a little less creepy, is that the right way to say it?
A little less creepy, is instead of doing outbound messaging with robot voice and robot likeness, you're doing smarter segmentation. So that way you are sending messages to people that show what they're interested in, but you're doing that at scale and you're doing that in text. So let's say I am trying to add more members to the owners, only small business owners community, which you should be a member of because it's awesome. And am I social media and Friday's off newsletter readers? I'm tracking what everyone is interacting with. If I were to host a seminar on burnout for small business owners to introduce people to why the SBOC is awesome, the technology will intelligent re intelligently reach out to the segmented portion of my audience that's paying attention to burnout and overwhelm, and it will invite them by name to attend my event.
It will give them exactly what they're looking for exactly when they need it, because of what I'm doing. This data matching, this personification and personalizing its scale is happening and it's do done by hand. Right now. I'm doing just a little bit of it by hand right now, but as I've explained, this is gonna keep on accelerating as this year goes on.
So out outreach is gonna change and the scale at which we're running is going to change. So as your friendly neighborhood. Podcaster guy or whatever. I am community founder, friend, pal. There is a part of me that struggles with the authenticity of this, and it kind of makes me feel a little, eh, especially the robot AI outreach, but people are going to do it.
I guess I bring it all up because that is a concern and the transformation that we're seeing right now is just warp speed. I can't keep my Twitter feed up fast enough before. Here comes another tool. Here comes another feature. Here comes another way to train, clog, co-work to do something. Here's another way you can personalize.
At scale. Everything is gonna be different. Everything's gonna be different a year from today. We will not recognize the way that we work. We will actually sit on this show a year from today and say, Hey, remember when? And we'll laugh har ha ha. That's me laughing. Ha ha ha. Can you believe the way we used to work?
Ha ha ha. So I want you to start thinking about, okay, when do people need me? And what are the things that people are looking for? That's the trigger for them to work with me. So what is that? When does someone need your service or what happens in their life when they need your service? Start thinking about that and all of these tools will fall into place.
You'll start moving faster, you'll have more leads, and you'll have what I've been having all week and last week, which is, I can't believe it just did that. I can't believe it just did that yesterday. Just, I gotta share, I'm sorry, I gotta share. I'm keeping, I'm keeping a track of all the things it does to blow my mind.
Yesterday my AI agent, uh, synthesized the voice recordings from my last few small business owners community meetings, and I said, what are you hearing that they're saying? What am I missing? Where are they? What do they want? It made a voice of the customer report for me, and it helped me understand what are they consistently asking for that maybe my preconceived notions weren't hearing, and I said, okay, well, with this voice of the customer report, what can we do with it?
Oh, well, I can infuse that into all your social media. I can infuse that into all of our writing that we do for the community. We can use it to plan better events. We can use it for this. We can use it for that. I'm like, oh my gosh. Taco Bell, time to go get Taco Bell. Like, I just got better. I just got better because now it's helping me understand what people want and that's not hyper personalization, but that's definitely personalization.
So that, that's why I bring it up. But this hyper personalization is definitely coming soon in 2026, so get yourself ready for it. Laura Holman's with us this morning. Good morning, Laura Holman, friendly neighborhood business expert. Hi, is that me? Business expert. That sounds weird, but it's lovely to see you.
And by the way, John Cornell and Laura Holleman and anyone else that's watching the show, uh, get in the chat and tell us who you are and what you do. Drop your link, will you? This is some promotion time. Come on, let's, let's run for office here. Let's tell people all about who you are and what you do.
'cause I wanna share and I want your business to grow. We are going to idea slam soon, so stretch out your brain muscles. I've got two questions on the show today. First one is I have a nightmare client who drains my energy and questions my expertise. The only problem is I really need the money, so what should I do?
The other one. Oh, is this common? I keep getting ghosted after sending proposals. What should I do? Does that sound familiar? Of course. That sounds familiar. So we will talk about that in just a moment. But first, businessing sponsored by Gen Head Scale Systems, not Chaos. It's built for early stage businesses.
Gen head systems are designed for founders, solopreneurs, and lean teams. Who need real momentum, not complex tools that require a full-time operator. When we talk about AI agents, they've got 'em. They can make your data work in a streamlined, practical, and easy to act on way. Imagine replacing like five or 10 different pieces of software that are all disconnected with one tool.
Automations, content tools. Follow up your whole CRM all in one place to make it clearer and have better execution. Gen head powers this business, it should power yours as well. Learn more@genhead.com. That's gen head.com. Thank you Gen Head for sponsoring the show and for being the producer of the show.
You see, they're out there telling people about the business and, uh, inviting people to tune in. So I appreciate for you or I appreciate your work. Gen. Let's do the idea slam. Now the idea slam. If this is your first time tuning in, this is your chance to come on the air. And when you come on the air, you get to share what's working in the business.
And when you do, you tell us what your biggest priority is, and then we talk about how we can make it better. So all of us have a project that we're working on, but projects hit roadblocks and things get good until they're not. And if you're a solopreneur working at home, who do you turn to turn to for advice?
Where do you go to get a second opinion? Hi. I'm here every day. 11 o'clock. Come on the idea slam. 'cause I will help you and the people in the chat will help you as well. It is fast, it is fun, and it's a way that we can improve your business. Sign up for a slot for free and come on the idea Slam here on Businessing.
All right. Are you limber? Did you stretch out your brain? Are you ready? Great. Here's the first question. I have a nightmare client who drains my energy and questions my expertise. Why do they do that? I hate when they do that, but I need the money. So what should I do? The first thing I would say is, did you take this client on because you needed the money?
'cause it sure sounds like this client. You are not a fit. And I tell you, when you need the money, that is the worst time to bring out a client. 'cause if you need the money, everybody looks like a great partner. You know, this person kind of drives me crazy and their expectations are a little bit unreasonable, but daddy needs the money.
So you kind of compromise what it takes to be a good client and what it takes to be a good partner. So I would wager that you brought on this client when things weren't that great, but let's go past that. 'cause maybe that's not the case. One thing that definitely happened is you might have a discovery problem.
That when you qualified the client and you talked about what the working relationship was going to be like, it wasn't super crystal clear. We're gonna fix these things, we're gonna fix some of those things, and we might even do these things. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. What do you need fixed? When do you need them fixed?
I'm gonna do A, B, and C by these dates and establish a really clear working relationship of when things go well. This is what it looks like. Because if you go back to the question, they're draining your energy and probably nagging you for stuff because they think, well, your work is kind of open-ended.
You're my marketing person. This is a marketing question. Why aren't you doing it? No, that's not what was in the scope of work. I never said anything about TikTok. I'm gonna handle your Facebook and Instagram. Why are we talking about TikTok? If you don't define those things in advance, they will assume that you will do them.
Scope creep. Don't let it happen. Speaking of you, probably by asking this question kind of gives me some vibes, like you don't have a signed contract with that exact scope of work. You got a deal, you got good vibes, you guys are gonna be great together. Not a really clear contract. Again, I'm gonna do A, B, and C by these dates.
And that's it. And then the last one, and this one is just a shot in the dark. Shot in the dark. Permission to shoot in the dark permission. Do I have permission to shoot in the dark? Okay, thank you. You're not charging enough. In my experience, the lowest cost clients are the biggest pains in the butt. They just are.
There's a meme that goes around the internet. Uh, how much is it? A hundred dollars. And they come back with 10 different questions. How much is it? $10,000 checks in the mail. Thanks. It's kind of true. It's a meme for a reason. Low cost clients are generally the biggest pains. We didn't get into the exact situation that you're in, but those are some warning signs to avoid nightmare clients. Don't take them when you need the money. Make sure you discover what the problem is and define the working relationship. Get a signed contract of what you're gonna do and not do, and make sure you're charging enough. It is, uh, pesky client repellent when you charge more money. It just is, trust me on this one, raise your rates.
You'll have better clients. It's just a fact. Second question today, I keep getting ghosted. Oh, is there a ghosting thing going on right now? Have you been ghosted? I have been ghosted lately. I send the proposal and I don't get anything. This is way too common. Usually it's just like this question. I keep getting ghosted.
After sending proposals, we have great conversations. I send the quotes and then crickets. What am I doing wrong? Now I have to make some assumptions 'cause you are not on the air. You just sent me the question, which I appreciate, but these are the things I would investigate with you if you were on the air, okay?
In your conversations with this client. Are you validating your budgets or are you just talking about how great the results are gonna be? Because if you get someone on a call and you talk about all the problems you're gonna solve and how great the relationship's gonna be and how fast the transformation's gonna happen, and everybody gets all excited, oh my gosh, send the proposal.
Then they get the proposal and it's any dollar amount. Any dollar amount. Odds are they're gonna say, oh, that's more than I expected. In the process of getting them, getting them excited about working with you, you've gotta qualify. If they have any money, you gotta ask them, what's your potential budget?
What have you tried before in the past that didn't work? What would success look like to you? So you can understand, do they have any money? Have they spent money on this problem before? And can they articulate what success looks like? All really important parts of the prequalification for bringing on a client.
'cause if you don't do that, you're gonna end up with a client that really has big expectations and they don't have any frame of reference about you and what you do. So those are really important questions that you need to ask every client before they come on. The second thing is you may have a discovery problem.
Your discovery problem may be pointing to the wrong things that you are asking questions that feel right, but they're not getting after the actual problems that you're trying to solve. So you probably should look at your qualification script on top of just asking for the budgets. Another reason why you might be getting ghosted is you're too slow.
Think about that. Today, right now, I can go ask for a proposal from three or four people all at once, and as soon as I have a conversation with someone and I know that they're the one for me, I'm ready to go. I am ready to go. Unfortunately, that's not how everybody sends their proposals. Yeah. Okay. I'll get you the proposal.
How is Monday? No, Monday is not good. Monday is not good. You've got a hook, a fish on the hook they wanna buy. Everything stops till that proposal gets out. Get back to them immediately. Do not let that sit there because in the meantime, someone else might have zipped over a proposal and you are out. And then the last thing about ghosting, and this just has to be said, never stop following up.
Ever, ever, ever, ever. What does ghosting mean? I've called them like twice and they have not gotten back to me. I've sent an email last week and they haven't replied, no, you're just getting limbed up. Eight or nine touches easy before you start getting worried about getting ghosted, and then never stop following up. Ever. You follow up until you get a yes or a no. That's how it goes. That's why I'd recommend if you're getting ghosted, it happens to all of us and it seems like it's getting worse right now and I don't know why it's getting worse, but I wish it was better. For sure. If you wanna bring your biggest challenge or opportunity to the show.
I'd love to have you on the air. We can promote your business, talk about what you're working on, and solve a challenge or an opportunity for your business in real time together. It's fast, it's fun, it's free. You get to pick the day you come on, scan the QR code and join the show. I would love to talk all about your business, uh, the air.
Coming up, we're gonna talk about the clever things I found this morning. Two things you can steal that I thought were just outstanding word play and positioning. But first Businessing is sponsoring by, sponsored by Eng g Eng. G Eng G is marketing an autopilot. It's a must for small business owners, and Enji makes it easy.
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NG's been, uh, at work for my business for quite a while now, and it's definitely recommended by the show. So I asked them, okay, give us a hookup, give us a deal. What can we give to businessing viewers so they can try out NG two? And they said, okay, cool. Click the link that's on your screen and get 14 days free so you can try it. See if I'm crazy and see if it is not as good as I say it is. But you can try it. That's cool. And then afterwards you'll get discounts on your first two months of membership. And then after that, it's only 29 bucks a month. Like we're not talking about a thousand dollars solution here. Imagine putting your small business marketing on autopilot.
You can for free right now, ng.co/s boc. Click the link on your screen. ng.co/sbo ng solves the I do my own marketing problem. Thank you, Angie, for being a partner. I appreciate it. Okay. Closing out the show today. We've got some clever things to share. I, I found out that, like I realized, I'm kind of a clever collector.
Whenever I see something that like, ah, that's good. Oh, that I see what you did there. When that happens, I write it down because I'm always thinking, what can I share with you that might help you solve a problem that you have in the future? I'm on the treadmill this morning and I'm watching Netflix. It was Netflix and we're on the Netflix plan where they get commercials every 20 minutes or something like that.
It's really annoying, but we're watching Netflix and here comes a commercial. It's Ted Danson for consumer cellular, so it knows I'm old. Here comes Ted Danson. Now, what's clever about this, at the end of the commercial, it says Try consumer cellular for free or try consumer cellular and get your second month free.
Hmm, I thought about that for like a half mile on the treadmill. Second month free. Now, we just talked about nng giving you your first 14 days free and giving you discounts. Very standard. A lot of people do it very low friction. Try us out. It costs you nothing, but this is a little twist. Hmm. First thing, people pay attention to things that they pay for.
So if someone gives you something for free, sometimes you don't play with it as much as you could. Even if it was a dollar for the first month, you'll have people paying more attention to it. But the second thing that happens with consumer products is churn. People buy the product and then they unsubscribe.
But if you could force them to pay attention in the first month, but then give them the second month for free to fight churn, huh? I don't know where I'm gonna use that, but I'm gonna use that for something. Does that make sense? Do you see why that kind of like made my neurons go, woo, second month free?
Very clever. Remember that We're gonna use that someplace. Here's the other clever thing that I saw today. I'm following someone on LinkedIn named Amy Green. And here's how she describes herself. I help entrepreneurs master the money side of business so they can pay themselves consistently and feel financially secure.
Okay, cool. Help me with my money. But I'm reading my social media today and she used a phrase that I thought was so good, I just had to share it. She's doing a mastermind, and guess what her mastermind is called? This is so good profit, like it's hot accelerator. Profit, like it's hot. It's so good. It's so good.
It's just, just, it's so good because then when you put it into the description, inside the profit, like it's hot accelerator, you don't just learn about money. You build financial foundations together. You get expert guidance from me every step of the way. Real support when questions come up. A room full of entrepreneurs who get it.
Accountability. Accountability that actually helps you follow through and relationships that change how supported you feel in the business. Profit like it's hot accelerator, that's just great. Like that is 10 out of 10 no notes. So next time you're naming something. Have a little fun with it. Make it memorable.
If that was Amy's money mastermind, would we be talking about it? Not a chance. How many other money masterminds will you find online today? A million. Will you remember? Profit? Like it's hot. Damn right, you will. God, that's good. So I challenge you. Next time you're naming something, try a little bit harder.
Well, yeah. All right, before we get outta here, Tuesday's a big day because we, I am headed to Madison, Wisconsin. So on Tuesday afternoon, the small business owners, community members are going to meet up for an in-person networking event and an in-person idea slam. It's an absolute scream. It's one of the most fun things that we do, but it's also a new member Welcome event.
If you're within driving distance of Madison, now is the perfect time to join our owners only group. You can get trusted answers from real people, feedback on those big decisions that come up like every single day and feel supported so you have someone there for you when you're having a bad day. The small business owners community, it's a nationwide online community for owners only who are ready to work with you and collaborate as you build your small business dream.
Here's the best part. It's only $19 a month. $19 a month to unlock networking events and idea slam masterminds and co-working sessions and in-person events, and a legal hotline and a tech support hotline. It's all there. It's all there. It's all there. $19 a month. Join now. The link is in the chat and on the screen.
It is awesome and many of our members are standing by to welcome you with open arms. Alright, thanks for busing, businessing with me today and this week. Because guess what? Daddy's off on Fridays. So it is the weekend, the show this week sponsored by Gen Head and Enji. Gen Head also produced the show.
Thank you to Gen Head and Enji for their support. And thank you for tuning in because someday six months down the road, a year down the road, I might have like 12 viewers. Wow. 12. And you're gonna be able to say I was with him from day one. Because this was the first week of doing the show every single day.
So like, and subscribe to the show, share it with your network. And if you do share it with, with your network, I'm sending out what I'm calling share mail. Nothing better in a business relationship than to be referred to someone else. So if you refer me to your network and say, Hey, here's a show that's kind of fun, you should watch it.
I'll send you a gift in the mail. It's a lot of fun. Share Mails are going out soon and I appreciate your support. It's the new daily Habit for small business owners Businessing with Pat Miller. We are back on the air Monday at 11:00 AM. Thanks so much for tuning in. We'll talk to you then.
Have a great weekend.