Yesterday on a group sales coaching session, one marketing agency owner had a prospect who was comparing their agency against two others. Their contact was pressuring them to create a pitch, sales proposal, and answer a series of questions that had nothing to do with what they were trying to accomplish.

Unfortunately, the marketing agency owner hadn't gotten to the other influencers and decision makers.

After some back and forth that went no where, another sales person told him to send a reply that said; "Looks like we aren't communicating. Bye."

The prospect's (expected) reply was; "Well that was unexpected, and rude- though I'm sure you didn't mean it that way. I'm disappointed, but it's up to you."

Are you horrified? No way you would have sent that email, right?

Why do you think that was a good idea to send? What would it accomplish? The marketing agency owner was a little nervous now that he got the response- what if they now go around telling everyone that they are rude? Worse yet, what if the person tells the ones who referred him he was rude and they don't want to refer him any longer?

Guess what happened? The prospect was all over his site, looking at their past work, clients, and still tried to engage. The more he pushed away, the more she came back. 

Here is what I suggested he reply with;

"Prospect, I would rather you think I was rude then incompetent. I appreciate that you are direct, and you have your stuff together. That is why we were still talking.

The majority of my business comes from referral. You came to me as a referral.

You have a certain way of doing things. Your director has a certain way of doing things. Your CMO expects certain things. Everyone has an idea of what ABC is. My job is to make sure that you all look as good and as smart as you are. I can't do that by guessing. As you can see, I'm not a good performing artist.

How did you come up with the questions you asked everyone? Did anyone come back with an answer that everyone agreed on?

Now that I am no longer in it, do you want to know what questions I would be asking?

<Now give her the questions she and her team need to be able to answer before you would ever be able to develop a plan together- which is what a proposal should be. If you already have a post somewhere about the questions they should be asking to pick the right ABC firm, then send her that.>

So far, we haven't answered any of those questions, so to continue would not be in either of our best interests.

I didn't forward this to your boss out of respect for you and your expertise, but you might want to ask the other ABC firms who pitch for you these questions. If they don't answer to your satisfaction then I would start over."

Then I told him, once you send the email, forward it to whomever referred her to you. Then write a post on the whole thing, "Why Your Buying Process is Hurting Your ABC" or "How I Would Buy ABC" and give everyone the questions they should be asking like you gave to her.

What's the lesson? Would you have sent that email? Would you have made the pitch and proposal?