sales
CRM
Marketing
With Halloween here we constantly see scary sights, but in sales, NOTHING is more frightening than ghosts…getting ghosted that is.
It’s true, it doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, who your target audience is or how tenured you are, as a sales rep, nothing is more frustrating than getting ghosted by a prospect you were expecting to close. We’ve all been there, and hopefully these experiences are few and far between…but what’s the best way to avoid getting ghosted by prospects? How can you try to re-engage them in the sales process? And when is the right time to cut your losses?
Well, like everything else in sales, it’s best to get out in front of this by establishing upfront agreements and clearly defined next steps (preferably on the calendar). By the time most salespeople realize they’ve been ghosted, it’s too late and they’ll never get the prospect back on the phone. As salespeople, our guard is always up, ready to combat objections and convince others why our product/service is the best. So when someone finally comes along showing positive buying signs, saying “yes this sounds great,” we tend to let our guard down, we believe what we’re being told and we let our, normally ridged, sales procedures fall by the wayside. However this is when you should be MOST diligent in your agreements and next steps.
Here are a few ways I found most helpful to prevent getting ghosted:
Start with an upfront agreement - when you begin a conversation with a prospect, get them to agree to booking a next meeting with you if they like what you say. I always start every meeting with;
“My goal for today is to get us to a yes or a no, and a yes might not mean we’re doing business, but could just mean there’s some interest here we need to explore more and if that’s the case I’m going to ask we set a follow-up meeting. Does that sound fair?”
Most will agree and you’ve set the stage to next most important step…
Set clearly defined next steps - in order to prevent a prospect ghosting you, it’s important to get them to agree to calendar defined next steps (i.e. “I will come back on _ day/time…I’ll call you on _ day at …I’ll have you a proposal by _ so you can sign _”). If you do this after every call, every meeting, every interaction you will severely lesson your chances of them ghosting you.
Mutually agree to next steps together - throughout the sales process you should look for every opportunity to lead the prospect in the direction you want them to go. So ask them, “when would you like to see something like this implemented?” and when they respond “6 months,” ”1 month," or “1 week,” use that date and work backwards from there;
“If you want this up and running in a month, I’ll need a week or so on my end to get contracts sent so let’s schedule time in 2 weeks for me to come back and get everything signed, does that sound good?”
Keep them engaged throughout - I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, but prospects don’t sit around thinking about you and how much they’re looking forward to your next encounter. So when you schedule a meeting a week or more in the future, make sure you keep them engaged. Send them some relevant info, wish them happy holidays or send them something you saw that made you think of them based on your conversations. Maybe in one of your conversations they mentioned how they’re going hiking and you saw an outdoor survival book you can send them, or they’re asking you a lot of tech questions about your software, send them a link to a customer review.
Get comfortable being uncomfortable - it is HARD to have difficult conversations in sales, it’s tough to push back and disagree or dig deeper when a prospect pushes you off or makes excuses, but you have to do it from time to time if you want to be successful. You need to be honest with yourself (and them) and realize when someone is giving you an actual legitimate reason as to why they have to wait to implement or if they’re just making excuses. If you feel it’s an excuse, which most times it is, push back. Say something like;
“I have no issues implementing this in 3 months, but I have to be honest, when I’m done presenting this most people are jumping to have me implement it immediately, is there a reason why you want to wait? I just want to make sure I’m not missing anything.”
Even if you do all of this perfectly, you’re bound to have some prospects still ghost you from time to time. Here are a few ways to try and re-engage and steps to take:
Try different communication methods - emailing is safe, it’s easy to do and somehow hurts less than being told “no” over the phone. But your money and success depends on it so make sure you’re pulling out all the stops; call, text, email, drop by their office, LinkedIn message, send carrier pigeons, whatever you can do to get them back on the phone with you. Let them know;
“Please don’t mistake my persistence for anything more than excitement because I thought we both agreed this was a good fit for you but let me know if something changed and I’ll stop bothering.”
Reach out to other contacts - if you are working a large organization, or there were multiple people involved in your meetings, try reaching out to others to get answers.
Get the “no” - Obviously we’d all love to sell everyone we present to (could you imagine the commission checks??) but that doesn’t happen. Whatever you’re selling isn’t going to fit everyone’s needs and even if it does, they might not realize it. So as important as it is to get a “yes!” it’s sometimes equally important to get a “no.” The sooner you get a “no” the sooner you can cut your losses and focus your outreach efforts on other prospects who ARE interested in what you’re selling. Every minute you spend following up with someone who isn’t going to buy from you is a minute you’re not finding new prospects to fill your pipeline. Which brings me to my last point…
Have a full pipeline - it was drilled in my head early in my career that sales is a numbers game. You can do everything right, you can be the top producer of the company, the best salesperson to ever walk through their doors, but people are still going to tell you “no” and people will still ghost you. It’s the way it goes. If you have all your eggs in that one basket, that “no” will be devastating, there goes your quota for the month and that big commission check. But if that “no” is one of twenty open opportunities you have, it’ll still suck to hear, but the blow will be a lot less.
