TSE 1318: What To Do When a Prospect "Ghosts" You

What To Do When a Prospect "Ghosts" You   During these uncertain times salespeople can feel they are being “ghosted” by prospects.  Someone who once seemed like a potential client has vanished with what seems like no hope of reconnecting. When this happens, what can you do?  You’ll find answers in this episode.    Rian Laniga graduated college and moved to Australia for a year. When he went back to Ireland, he started his career in sales. After working for other companies, he decided to start his agency to help B2B sales leaders get themselves in front of people more regularly. Rian is working with clients all over the globe including Singapore, Ireland, England, and the United States.    Defining ghosting Ghosting is not simply sending an email and not hearing or getting a response. Ghosting is more of already having a meeting with them, arranging for a follow-up, and then they didn’t show up. It’s when you’ve reached out to them multiple times but you didn’t hear a response. It’s not a one and done deal.    Why you may have been ghosted When you feel you’ve been ghosted the first question people ask themselves is why. One of the ways people make it easy for others to treat them this way is that sales reps aren’t deliberate about sharing next steps with prospects. Prospects need to know what to expect after having that initial contact and you need to know if you have someone who sincerely wants to continue a relationship with you. Salespeople can mistakenly believe they have a new client when all they hear is positive feedback. Rian suggests, however, that if you hear positive words, you may need to worry. Positive words don’t mean the prospect has decided to move forward with you. As the sales rep, come up with next steps that can be mutually agreed upon so you both know where you stand.  .  The calendar invite Rian’s next suggestion is to get your prospects to accept the calendar invite. You can’t expect them to turn into a call if you don’t send them an invitation first. Many salespeople tend to forget this step. People nowadays hate to go to meetings so it’s  important you get on their schedule so there’s a lesser chance of cancelation. It’s more important that you ask for time than a meeting. Always ask for more time than you need so when you finish early, you’re able to give their time back to them. You’re Hero of the Day! To get on the calendar initially, Rian asks prospects to open up their calendar while he’s with them so they can look at availability together.   Once the prospect offers a date and time, you can push back and offer an alternative date and time to appear a busy person. The important thing is for them to confirm on their calendar.    The next step is a little bolder. After confirming the schedule with them, ask if there is anything that might keep them from making it to the meeting. It lets the prospect know that you’ve scheduled meetings before and you understand things can happen. This can be an  unusual occurrence, especially for people who are high up the chain such as CEOs but don’t be afraid of challenging the status quo.    Make No an acceptable answer Receiving a no isn’t always a bad thing because it frees  you up to chase the yeses.This is one of the biggest lessons Rian has learned. There are three possible outcomes from a phone call that you have with your prospects: Yes,  No, or a Referral. Rian has learned to ask which one it will be by the end of the call.  What makes it easier is when he takes his prospect to Starbucks, Rian says if they close a deal, he’ll pay for coffee.  If they don’t, the client gets to pay.  At the end of the meeting Rian asks who’s paying for coffee. If the answer is, “The coffee is on you today,” Rian then knows that he’s just closed a deal. As a sales rep, expect to hear a no but understand, It’s typically not a...