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
Website: http://coworkfrederick.com
Address: 122 E Patrick St, Frederick, MD 21701

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On Wed, Jun 17, 2015 at 9:18 PM, Oren.S…@gmail.com [email protected] 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
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