Being Ghosted by a Prospect
Just last week, two different business owners raised the same frustration with me: being ghosted by prospects.
Ghosting can’t be eliminated, but there are steps you can take to make it less likely. What matters here is how you establish the relationship and how you respond.
Stay Detached from the Outcome
When we’re in the sales process, we can be so excited about speaking to a prospect that we forget to ask the important questions to properly qualify the prospect and uncover where that person is on their buying journey. We may assume that because we’re in a conversation now, the prospect is ready to make a buying decision now. That is not always the case. In fact, it’s more likely not to be the case. The key is to capture the information you need to qualify the prospect and not take their decision to proceed or not to proceed personally. If you take their decision personally, you may be ruling out a future ideal client. Keep all your prospects in a nurture, do your follow-up and let yourself be delighted when they resurface on their own timeline. Remember, you do not have control of another person’s behavior (as any parent or spouse can attest).
A Word About Proposals
It seems to be common wisdom at this point to never send a proposal to someone who is not willing to have a proper discovery conversation. A person unwilling to take that time is not a serious prospect, at least not today. Sometimes, a prospect may ask for a proposal as a means of avoiding saying no in the moment. Whatever their reason, putting together a proposal without a discovery conversation is a waste of your time, and ultimately theirs, because the proposal is all a guess.
Once you decide with your prospect that now is the time for a proposal (meaning they have a sense of urgency to make a change and are willing to invest their time and money into the solution), you want to create the proposal together, laying out details such as timing, budget, scope and responsibilities. Rather than sending the proposal after the meeting, schedule a follow-up call to walk through the proposal together. The call keeps momentum going, gives your prospect room to raise questions and makes ghosting far less likely as you continue to mutually agree upon next steps in that conversation.
Sit with this: How many prospects did you stop following up with because your prospects did not respond? People buy on their own timelines, not yours. If you don’t already have every one of your prospects in a nurture sequence, it’s not too late to get that sequence going now.
