Pod Insights The $100 MBA Show MBA2678 Q&A Wednesday: Why Do My Customers Seem Very Interested But Don't Buy? About this episode Getting polite interest but no actual sales? It’s one of the most frustrating parts of running a business- when people seem genuinely curious, ask great questions, and then… vanish. If you’ve been stuck in that limbo, this episode is for you. This week’s question comes from Brenda, who asked why customers often show interest but still don’t take the leap. Omar breaks down the real reasons behind this hesitation, from subtle messaging gaps to emotional friction points. You’ll learn how to build trust, follow up effectively, and create offers that move people from “maybe” to “yes”- without being pushy. Ready to turn interest into action? Hit the play button at the top of this page and dive into a lesson that’ll help you close more sales and serve your audience with confidence. To submit your questions, visit 100mba.net/q. Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://lm.fm/GgRPPHiSUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Small business owners, listen up. You started your business, but you can't do it alone. And that means you have to hire people to help. That's where Justworks comes in. Justworks is the payroll, benefits, and global hiring platform to unburden your brain from all the complicated small business stuff. They handle the things you can't afford to get wrong, so you don't have to worry. So you can focus on the parts of running a business that you enjoy, knowing everything else is running smoothly. You don't have to worry when it just works. Ever invest in something that seemed incredible at first, but didn't live up to the hype? For example, I really wanted to love the show Mad Men. I really tried to watch it and love it, but it just didn't do anything for me. As a marketer and business person, the show was a little bit of a disappointment.
0:45 Speaker 00 Marketers know that feeling. They optimize for the numbers that look great, like impressions. But then we don't see revenue. LinkedIn has a word for that: bullspend. Instead, you can get the highest ROAS of major ad networks with LinkedIn Ads. Cut the bullspend, advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 and get a $250 credit. Go to LinkedIn.com/MBAShow. Terms apply. Ever have a customer say, "I'm super interested," only they never buy? It's frustrating, right? Today, I'm going to be answering Brenda's question here on Q&A Wednesday. That question is, why do my customers seem very interested, but don't buy? Today, we're going to unpack why this happens and what you can do about it.
1:29 Speaker 00 We're going to make sure you have a game plan so that you convert more interested buyers into customers. Let's get into it.
1:43 Speaker 00 Welcome back to the $100 MBA Show. I'm your host, Omar Zenhome, where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, to help you start, grow, and scale your business.
1:55 Speaker 00 Before we jump in, can I get 30 seconds of your time? We love guiding you on your business journey and we want to help even more people build their dream businesses and lives. So if you could hit the follow button on this podcast app, it would be greatly appreciated. It's completely free and it helps us out more than you know. Thanks. First, let's define what's happening. Brenda, people, when they say they're interested, it's not the same of having the intent to buy. Interest and intent are not the same thing. We have all said to something or to someone, "That looks cool," or "I love this idea." But you never really pulled the trigger. Why? Because interest is cheap. It costs the buyer nothing to say nice things. But buying, on the other hand, that costs money.
2:40 Speaker 00 It also costs you trust, commitment, change, maybe even embarrassment, or fear of judgment if things don't go right. It's risky for them. So "I'm interested" might just be code for "I like the idea," or "I don't hate you," or "I'm being polite," or "I might buy someday," or even "I'm just not ready." So let's break down the four big reasons why this happens and why people don't become customers. By the way, this is just science. This is psychology. This is just how human beings behave. This is not a gut feeling. This is just statistically what happens in the buying process. Number one, lack of urgency.
3:23 Speaker 00 They don't see why they need to act now, why they need to buy now. If your offer is open forever, or their transformation is vague, they're just going to wait forever, right? We will delay any decision that will allow us to just delay it, right? If we could just wait longer, or just not make the decision now, we just won't make the decision now. This is why, if you want to fix this, you have to add urgency and specificity. Why they need to buy now, right? Time-sensitive bonuses, clear deadlines. What happens if they wait? What's the penalty for waiting? Whether it's the price goes up, whether they won't get the bonuses, whether they'll run out of spots and you don't know if we'll be available in the future. You need to highlight what they will lose. By waiting, you gotta make waiting the enemy.
4:07 Speaker 00 Number two, lack of clarity. There is a golden rule in business that I teach inside of our program, the $100 MBA, and that is a confused mind never buys. Anybody that is in the buying process and they're not 100% clear about what they're getting, how they're going to implement that product, how they're going to benefit for them, how they're going to get the result, if it's not crystal clear and clear as day to them, they will not buy. Confusion is the enemy of conversion. So to fix this, your messaging needs to be dead simple. I'm talking about as simple language as possible. You want to make sure that it's clear what exactly they will get and what does it do for them, right? What results are they going to get and how they will feel after?
4:52 Speaker 00 What's the after picture of your product? So for example, if I was going to teach a course on journaling, how to pick up the habit of journaling five minutes a day, what's the after picture? The after picture is you will feel more at peace, you'll be more creative, and you'll enjoy your mornings and start your day right. That's a good, clear picture of what their life will look like after they consume your product and implement. Number three, lack of trust. Big one. They're not sure if your product can deliver. They're not sure if this is for them or if you can actually do what you're saying. And the way to fix this is to add proof, add case studies, testimonials,
5:34 Speaker 00 screenshots, numbers, statistics, people voicing what their experience is like working with you. Now, a lot of people, when they're starting out, they say, Omar, I don't have any testimonials. I'm selling my first product. What do I do? Well, you have people that know you, that have worked with you, ex-colleagues, bosses, even if they're giving you a testimonial based on your character, on how hardworking, the fact that you get results, the fact that you have attention to detail. Those are testimonials of your professionalism. And you can use those on your page. There's nothing wrong with asking for testimonials or a reference or whatever you want to call it.
6:15 Speaker 00 From your ex colleagues, friends, family, whatever it might be, and put it on your website. I highly recommend you get these testimonials from people that you worked with before because they're going to be able to give you a professional opinion of how effective you are. At the end of the day, they want to see someone like them who got a result that got something positive from you. Today's episode is sponsored by Whatnot. You've probably heard about live selling and it's taking off on Whatnot. Sellers on Whatnot don't need a storefront or paid social media ads to reach customers. This is what I love about it because with live video, you interact and engage with your customers. You just need your phone and buyers can ask questions. They can make purchases in real time.
6:59 Speaker 00 On Whatnot, you could see people selling from living rooms and warehouses, selling sneakers, electronics, vintage, even a guy on a boat selling lobsters he just caught. Thousands of items are sold every minute because customers get to know sellers and see the products live. For many sellers, it's gone from side hustle to full-time job since they're selling 10 times here than on other marketplaces. I've personally shopped on Whatnot and found the whole experience actually pretty fun. I got the bid on a product that I was looking at, which was a little tripod for my phone. And when I won the bid, the seller gave me a shout out and gave me a little demo of how the tripod works. In a couple of days, the tripod was at my front door. It couldn't be easier.
7:38 Speaker 00 Search Whatnot, W-H-A-T-N-O-T, in the App Store, download and start selling right away. Today's episode is sponsored by Upwork. I don't need a script to tell you how much Upwork has helped my business. I've been using Upwork for over a decade and it's the easiest way to find top talent to grow your business. From software development to AI implementation to marketing, design and business operations. You can browse profiles, review past work and get help scoping the role so you can hire with confidence and get started quickly. With Business Plus, you can access the top 1% of talent on Upwork. With over 170,000 freelancers holding five-star ratings, you can hire with the confidence
8:21 Speaker 00 that comes from hiring someone with a verified track record. I've hired engineers, customer service agents, marketers, copywriters, all on Upwork that helped grow my business from the moment they got hired. The best thing is it's free to sign up and posting a job is easy. Visit upwork.com right now and post your job for free. That is upwork.com to connect with top talent ready to help your business grow. That's U P W R K dot com, upwork.com.
8:54 Speaker 00 Number four, wrong offer, wrong moment. Big one. You might have the wrong offer for the wrong person at the wrong time. So for example, at the hundred dollar MBA, our program is quite in depth and it helps people go from nothing to a million dollars in three separate programs inside. Now, a lot of people get kind of overwhelmed by that. Maybe they're like, I'm not even sure if I can even be an entrepreneur, if I can even take my ideas and package it into a product. And that's why that offer would not make sense to them. It's better for them to start consuming the podcast or our YouTube channel, which is absolutely free and they can consume as much as they want until they start shaping their ideas and start feeling confident about starting a business.
9:37 Speaker 00 We even have a step in between, which is a challenge. We give an automated challenge called Own Your Job, which allows them to cultivate their idea and package it into their first product. From there, then they're ready for the next offer, which is the program. And this is all by design because I understand my audience very well. And the more you know who you're serving, the more you're going to know what to serve them. So a good fix for this problem is to go back to your audience. Are you solving the pain they really feel right now? And your audience is going to have different stages, okay? Different milestones in their progress and how you can serve them. Are you speaking their language? Or are you using your own language, which is a little bit advanced for them?
10:20 Speaker 00 This is something I constantly, even till this day, after decades of business experience, I still have to go back and simplify my language because I'm still very much in the weeds as somebody who's been doing this for a very long time. I might use some words that Are a little bit difficult for a beginner to understand. So I need to kind of explain those words or use different words to make sure that they understand what I'm saying as well as what they're getting. Now, let's get tactical. What are three things you can do immediately to convert those who are interested into sales? Number one, follow up with purpose. If someone said that they're interested, don't just say, hey, just checking in. That is just not useful and not helpful to the customer.
11:04 Speaker 00 Instead, say something like, hey Gloria, I know you were interested in product X. I'm opening up five spots this week. Just wanted to give you first dibs before I send it to my list. Now, if you have any questions about this product, please reply. I'm happy to answer any questions while we have spots available. It's friendly. It's generous. It adds a gentle nudge, but also gives them a chance to ask questions and not say, I'm ready to buy. The only option to reply is not, yes, I'm in, or ignore, right? There's another option. You can ask questions. You can say, okay, is it for me? This is my situation. This is my budget, whatever it might be. The second thing you could do to convert more customers is record a personal video. I can't tell you how impactful this is. This one really works.
11:49 Speaker 00 Send them a Loom video, any kind of screen capture video with your face as well as your screen. If you want to do a little presentation, say their name, show your face, and talk directly to them. Okay? If you want to get somebody over the hump where they say they're interested and you want to get them to buy, get personal. Show them that you know who they are and that you are willing to serve them. This makes it real. It separates you from everyone else that just sends blanket emails without even customizing it anyway or personalizing like this video. It builds trust very fast. And I highly recommend doing this, especially in the beginning when you have nothing but leverage of time, meaning that, you know, you don't have so many customers your way that you don't know how to handle it. You are just trying to get your first five, 10, 15, 20 sales.
12:34 Speaker 00 You can do 20 videos and make an impact. Number three, audit your sales message. Huge. Ask three people who've never seen your sales page or heard Your pitch or seen your sales video and ask them, what do you think this is? What do you think it will do for you? Who's it for? Ask them these questions. If they can't easily answer these questions, it's back to the drawing board. Time to edit the copy, time to edit that video. If they can't answer these clearly, it's not them. It's you. Simplify the message. Make the outcome irresistible and clear. Brenda and everybody who's tuning in. I'm interested is often a polite, I'm not sure.
13:15 Speaker 00 Your job as the business owner, as a person who's making this sale that wants to make this sale is to make it easy and obvious and low risk to say yes. You don't want anybody on the fence. You need a yes or a no. So your job is to help them make a decision. It's to give them everything they need to make that decision. Interest is a spark, but closing the sale, that's your responsibility. You need to give them everything that they need, all the information that they need. You need to educate them so that they give you a yes or no. By the way, a no is a sale, right? This is actually from a line from a movie called Boiler Room, which is they're either going to sell you on why they're not going to do it, or you're going to sell them on why they're going to do it. And it's true, but it's okay for you to get a no.
14:00 Speaker 00 It's okay. And that no is often not now, or maybe later, or I can't afford it, or all these reasons, which is valid, fine. And you're going to continue to serve them with your free content, with your blog, with your newsletter, whatever you got, until they are ready and they are in the position to say yes. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you've got a question you want answered here on the podcast, just go to 100mba.net/que, submit your question and we'll make sure to answer it right here on the show.
14:33 Speaker 00 If you found today's episode helpful and you want more practical business lessons to help you start, grow and scale your business, the best thing you could do is subscribe to this podcast. Hit subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast app, the one that you're using right now, whether it's Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. By hitting subscribe, you get our next episode automatically and it's the best way to support the show. It's absolutely free and it's a way for you to commit to growing your business. And now that you've subscribed, I'll check you in the next episode.
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Previous MBA2677 Extended Interview: The Million-Dollar Mindset: How David Royce Got Rich Ditching Passion for Problems Next MBA2681 Q&A Wednesday: How Do I Ask an Employee to go from Full-time to Part-time Hours? Page updated November 6, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated
