When I talk with salespeople about ghosting, when the best time to break up with a prospect is, and how to break up with that prospect, the analogy that's been left with me is dating.
Because throughout the conversation that I was having with salespeople, we were talking about why ghosting bothers us so much. It's the rejection. It's that they didn't reply back to us, or it's the idea that we now actually have to go out and find other people to talk to, which means more rejection.
And so how do we overcome some of these hangups about prospecting? And why is prospecting so important when we're thinking about our pipeline?
Often the question I hear is what is the cadence? How soon do I follow up with leads? And how do I do it? Is it going to be by email or is it going to be by phone?
It Depends On Who Your Buyer Is
At the end of the day, prospecting is really like this grand experiment where you're trying to figure out what time is it they're likely to answer the phone? Which messages are going to be most relevant to them? I even had people go around and tell me, all right, every one of us has ghosted salespeople before. It's kind of like we're still going to get into heaven if we ignore them or if we lie to them, because, ya know, it's salespeople.
When I went around and asked everyone well, why is it when you ghost salespeople, why do you do it? And it's because, well I'm not interested. I don't have budget right now. There isn't anything that's going on, or I just don't find what they're saying all that interesting.
And then when I asked them in the reverse of those salespeople that you have replied to, why is that? And it's because the timing was right or it was because they had a relationship with that particular salesperson and knew someone in common.
Examine Your Messaging
Let's apply these concepts to how you're doing your prospecting. Examine the messages that you're sending out. Are you talking all about the latest discount you're going to give them or are you talking about things that they actually cared about?
Then experiment with the messages and the times. If you're giving up after the second try, have you really tried?
The last thing that we were talking about is why is it that when this ghosting thing happens it bothers us so much, and a lot of times it's because we don't have a whole lot of things going on. If your pipeline is really skinny or stagnant, meaning stuff hasn't happened or moved in a while, it's time to get it out of there.
That's going to push you towards getting that daily discipline of prospecting going. And knows, every one of us have done. We kind of start and then we stop.
Developing A New Habit
How do you start a habit that you want to do more consistently? I suggest take baby steps.
Start with committing to making one prospecting call every day. And if you can do one, then the next week after that you can do two. And eventually the habit has formed and the discipline is cemented and suddenly your perspective on your pipeline changes, because you're not so desperate for that person to call you back.
