The Dreaded Ghost

The Lead - The Dreaded Ghost

Have you ever had a conversation with someone and thought, “That went great! Surely they are going to move forward!”, but weeks later you’re hearing crickets?

If you’ve been in sales longer than a month you’ve experienced this, and honestly it’s one of the more frustrating scenarios you can face. Let’s talk about why ghosting happens, and what you can do.

First, it’s worth acknowledging that some things are outside our control. Sometimes you do exactly what you should do, and still end up with this result. That’s ok. Being overly hard on yourself (or your prospect) can be counterproductive. 

At the same time, it’s worth noting that there’s almost always room for improvement. Take ownership of what’s within your control, rather than assuming your prospect is just making a poor decision. We are guides on the path to resolving problems. Sure we can’t take the steps for them, but we can give wise counsel.

That being said- here’s why you’re getting ghosted.

1. Legitimate change in circumstances. What can you do? Sometimes nothing. I’ve had some unlucky losses that simply resulted in a change my prospect experienced that altered the urgency or decision making dynamic. It sucks. I had a huge opportunity I was looking to close in March of 2020. Talk about a rough curveball. They closed thankfully, but not until June.
2. Failure to establish clear next steps. I think this is far and away the most common reason for ghosting. You’ve had a good conversation, but you fall into the trap of leaving the ball in your prospects court to get back to you at their convenience. Even when the person you’re talking to needs more time to evaluate, you need to establish a clear next step. If you don’t you’re making it so easy to just disappear.
3. You haven’t instilled confidence you can solve their problem. I’m not saying this is easy to do in one conversation, but you better make significant progress. If you’re just pitching away about how great your company is, then you shouldn’t be surprised when your prospect doesn’t feel inclined to re-engage. They’re not sure you actually know what they need.
4. No urgency. Lack of urgency can be legitimate but your discovery should uncover whether this is due to circumstance or lack of information. For instance, a homeowner finds out there’s a possibility they may be moving to a new city “sometime” this year. Well, that decision is a lot bigger than whether they find a great property manager. So you have to balance the other factors and understand how you fit in.Now the other example is a self managing landlord who may or may not continue to self manage or hire a PM. There’s not necessarily an urgency tied to that decision making by outside factors. This is where a good salesperson can uncover the problems, and provide solutions that really can’t wait. 

We could probably parse out a few other reasons people ghost, but the real reason you’re still reading at this point is because you want to know what to do about it (other than prevent it from happening in the first place).

1. Better follow up. If your follow up consists of “just checking in” or “refloating this email”, let me stop you right there. Resurface the problems they stated they’re having, the things that are most important to them. “Hey Prospect, last time we talked you mentioned that handling maintenance requests was taking up a lot of your time. Just curious- is solving that still a priority?”. Boiler plate check ins are lazy and uninteresting.
2. Be consistent. This is sort of a sub-point of follow up. Sending one or two emails after you’ve met with someone is not enough. Mix in calls, try a text. As we discussed before, sometimes people have legitimate changes in circumstance. If you’re only following up over the span of a week or two, add a few more touch points in.
3. The Negative Reverse. This is my favorite, and all credit to Scott Stollwerk who taught me this years ago. First off- a lot of sales people just hold onto hope indefinitely that one day this prospect will want to work with them. You have to let them go at some point, mostly for your own sanity. When you’ve gotten to that point here’s what you do.*“Hey Prospect, really enjoyed getting to know you and I hope you don’t mind my persistent follow up. When we spoke last it seemed like we were aligned around x,y,z. I understand that priorities change and wonder if that’s what happened here. I’m going to go ahead and close out your file with us since it seems as though we aren’t going to be a fit.”*What we’re doing here is taking back control. We’re making the decision for them (even if they’ve really already made it). Obviously this isn’t some silver bullet, but there’s power in it. You’d be surprised how many times you’ll suddenly hear back with a “Hey I’ve been out on vacation” or some variation of the timeline has changed. You might even get a reason why they chose a competitor. Even that is better than nothing at all.

I’ll leave you with this - most sales people don’t do a good enough job in discovery. The best way to make sure someone stays engaged and you keep momentum in the sales process is to provide actual value, and take a consultative approach to solving their problems. If you’re not successful in doing that, don’t be surprised when they disappear into the wind.

Update on Elevate Sales Kick Off

We’ve had a tremendous response from vendors interested in sponsoring Elevate, which is awesome. Right now we are talking to potential sponsors. Our goal is to open registration to attendees in July at a discounted rate. If you haven’t already, fill out the interest form on the site to be looped in as soon as we announce more details!

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