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Is it normal to get messages from buyers that stop responding afterwards?

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#1

I get personal messages from buyers saying they love my gig and telling me brief information about their project, but after I respond that I am available and detailing the illustration process, they don’t get back to me.
I get about one order out of three buyers that message me.
Is this normal on average or am I doing something wrong?
I will paste an example of my way of responding, hoping that I would get a more accurate answer to my dilemma:

“Hello! I would love to do the illustrations. My illustrations are hand drawn, but I scan and edit them to high resolution digital files, in any preferred file format.
Let me know any specifics that you want to include, such as colors, size of the illustrations, whether you want to display them only in the printed menu or should they be bigger for your website for example, etc.
Obviously reference pictures would be more than ideal, but I have no issue with searching them for myself.
About the deadline, I would like to allow myself three weeks. I will most likely finish much sooner than this, I just like to leave time for anything that may occur. Are the three weeks suitable for you?
After we establish all the details, I will come up with pencil sketches of every illustration, for you to approve or make any changes. After you are happy with the sketches, I will start painting. I will keep you updated as I work.
I will wait for your response regarding the details of the project. I hope you have a great day!”

The only issue that I see is that maybe I jump in with too long a response. However I only do this if the buyer has come with quite clear directions and seems serious, so I figured a clear answer that could save both of us from messaging back and forth is best. Otherwise I keep it more conversational.

Thank you all for your time!

11 Likes
#2

Hi,

Don’t worry, I also get messages every day that get nowhere, some customers are undecided and others are just looking to chat.

After that, I tend to keep the chat very short and only answer specific customer questions.

(p.s. Welcome to the forum)

4 Likes
#3

It happens to me too.

Some buyers shows a lot of interest during conversations. They said they liked my gig and most probably they will come back later with information about the project.
But they don’t return. I really don’t understand why such things happen.

3 Likes
#4

Thank you, I can go on about my life now without worrying about this anymore!

3 Likes
#5

Either one of 2 things happened here. You got eager customers who jumped in head first without thinking things through and had second thoughts once they saw how serious you were (I tend to do that myself too).

OR

Someone who was trying to rip you off or just generally be a bad seller saw how good, composed, and ready you were, and they backed off.

Either way, it’s nothing to lose sleep over. Every sellers inbox is just FILLED with messages and offers that went absolutely nowhere.

Welcome to the club! :heart: :two_hearts:
Glad to have you!! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: :partying_face:

4 Likes
#6

I got that recently too from someone who’s bought multiple times before, who asks for something to be done, you confirm you can do it and send a custom offer that’s a very reasonable price (lower than the gig packages) and they just ignore it and don’t respond any more (and who’s done that once before too). I don’t know if they expect me to do it without an order/for free but they should really say if they no longer need it doing or there was some problem with the offer or let the seller know what the issue is.

Maybe it’s worth creating offers that time-out sooner than the 30 days I normally put - a lower number of days would let the seller know sooner if they still wanted it, but too low might put too much pressure on the buyer.

2 Likes
#7

This has happened to me too, I think that such buyers just haven’t decided for themselves what they want yet. You shouldn’t pay attention to that at all, much less get frustrated.

1 Like
#8

That is so kind of you, thank you! :blush:

1 Like
#9

Thank you very much for your time!

#10

I hate when that happens!

But it happens.

You are far from alone on that one.

1 Like
#11

Got already a lot requests from buyers telling me they will order the next day and then simply disappear.

I always write very polite messages also telling them they can tell me if they choose someone else so just I can do better plans with my capacities.

But yeah. Most dont do it.

2 Likes
#12

I also face this issue.

1 Like
#13

That’s a really common thing sellers face. I once faced a client who asked me to send a custom offer and he just disappeared after I sent the offer even though we already discussed everything. Then he comes back after a week and tells me to show some samples. And then again, gone! I still haven’t heard from him. :slightly_smiling_face:

I don’t know if they enjoy asking a lot of sellers about the job and then just disappear without ordering from anyone…

2 Likes
#14

its very normal, sometime I also do that, I chat with seller, but after a while, I saw gigs recommendation at the bottom, good price good review etc, and then I buy that gigs instead with first seller :slight_smile:

marketplace competition are quite brutal, because most mp platform ruin the conversion, by adding more suggestion, example, if I chat with gigs seller, before I do order usually I chat , to make sure seller live or not, but if I saw better offer at the bottom, believe it or not, i will choose that seller, instead the first one!

just fyi, the way how sales happen are quite complicated, but if you offer to much, it can turn off buyer, or go to better offer, for gigs seller it can kill conversion, but for Marketplace, its better option!

As result, most mp conversion are pretty low! and bad news is, war price between seller happen in every marketplace! but don’t worry, if you have genuine product or at least unique, for sure I can’t go anywhere and don’t have option to go to another seller,

so the tricks is, when you play on Mp, you only have 2 option, very very cheap Or very very Unique! it just my 2 cents, please don’t take it personal :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#15

Same here, I get like 10 messages per days for 1 or 2 orders, I don’t know, maybe they talk to other sellers, maybe they found someone else or just ask questions then they are gone or come back to me weeks later, we don’t know.

1 Like
#16

I also face this issue.

1 Like
#17

Hellooo :slight_smile:

You’re not alone! It happens to me sometimes - they chat me in the inbox, ask a few questions and then disappear. It’s completely normal! I guess they contact different sellers, ask them questions about their services and then choose one from those.

But here’s few things I would suggest to you… After getting a buyer’s message, don’t immediately reply explaining your service. Try asking them what they need and how you can help them first. Also, I suggest not to immediately indicate the 3 weeks deadline because that’s quite a lot. I understand that your illustrations are hand drawn, but most buyers want everything at once. Maybe try to ask them their needs in regard to delivery time and try to adjust accordingly. Also, there’s nothing wrong in your message, but you give the buyer no chance to get into a conversation with you, that’s why they might not reply after that and so you would have no chance to convince them to buy your service or understand what it is that they’re searching for.

I hope this helps! :slight_smile:

1 Like
#18

I will take your advice, thank you!