What To Do If A Prospect Ghosts You

We all experience this. We’re working a deal. Maybe we had a couple calls with them. They decide not to show up to a scheduled meeting. Or maybe you didn’t BAMFAM them.

Then you end up in chase mode for a while, trying to get them back on track.

What do you do? How do you get them to respond? Even if the answer is no, it’s better than silence!

Here are a few plays you can use to get those deals unstuck.

What to do if a deal goes dark

The most common reason for losing a deal is extended delay - you never build enough momentum, and they decide to do nothing. In order to assist a buyer during the delay, you need to do three specific things:

• DO NOT harass them. This can often lead to the customer feeling guilty or getting annoyed, and either one is usually a huge turn-off for them.

• DO make sure you have tracking turned on in your emails (proposal link, videos, decks, etc). If they come back to your emails/links, you’ll know and can take action.

• DO make sure you continue to assist by providing valuable insights in a slow drip cadence, with a focus on use cases. You want to keep educating them.

• DO agree with the customer. This can be on a proposal call, email or timelines you’ve covered in the past. THIS STEP IS IMPORTANT TO AVOID GOING DARK. BAMFAM as much as you can.

Creating Agreement After a Call

In a previous newsletter, we covered how to write an effective summary email after a sales call.

Here’s the template for your convenience:

You can do the same thing after a proposal:

The reason you want detailed summary emails like this is to hold your prospects accountable to what they’ve said and what they’ve committed to. This gives you a door to follow-up effectively if they decide to ghost you.

Now here are a few plays to get these deals unstuck.

Play #1: Reply

First play, assuming that you’ve created agreement/accountability throughout your cycle, is to resurface the “agreements.” If you’re operating on their timeline, not yours, then this is an easy play to remind them of their own accountability.

It could sound something like:

This has averaged an 80% reply rate for me over the years.

It’s the most basic play, but it gets people to respond.

The reason why it works so well is you’ve made the email about them, their problems, and their goals. You’ve already summarized your FOUNDER discovery and outlined dates in your email. All you’re doing is asking them if they’re are holding themselves accountable to what they said they wanted.

If you didn’t send a summary email after the call, try re-summarizing the deal. Send a detailed summary of everything you discovered so far, with the dates they agreed to. Step 2 do the reply bump.

It’s never too late to send a summary email.

Play #2: Pain Drip (FOMO)

In this play, you remind them of the pains they’re facing, and using case studies or relevant content to show them value. You can use an abbreviated version of the Call Follow-up template.

Here’s an example:

Aim to do this 2-3 times before moving on to Play #3.

Play #3: Excitement Drip

In this play, you send them info that you know they’re excited about to keep the momentum going. The way to do this is to go back to your recorded calls and find where they say words/phrases like “that’s awesome,” “I like that,” “that seems useful,” “that’s cool,” “that would help us,” etc.

Take note of what they got excited about. Then create snippets of that excitement.

Using a Loom video can be very effective here - quick 2 minute video showing something they’re excited about and explaining the value.

This is where we try to move the conversation from purely pain, to excitement, so it turns the momentum around.

You can do this 2-3 times before moving on to Play #4.

Play #4: You’re not ready yet

In this play, you’re using reverse psychology on them one last time to get them to convince themselves that now is the right time to change. 

Think of the last time someone told you that you’re not ready for something - how did you feel? What did you want to do? Did you feel like they were wrong and that you were ready? 

That’s the final feeling we want to leave them with, in a no-pressure/guilt-free way.

Here’s an example:

Sales Are Made In the Follow-Ups

Often times, deals go dark because we let them.

When you take a look at sales cycle data, it shows that the 1-2 weeks prior to a deal closing, the email volume back-and-forth goes up.

A lot of us forget to follow-up, or don’t have a good system for it.

Making sure that you take the conversation from a call/meeting, to email, is important.

Remember, B2B buyers rarely make a decision on their own. Giving your prospect something they can forward around makes their lives way easier.

Don’t give up too soon when someone ghosts you. They’re likely just busy. But you want to make sure you get a firm yes or no - silence is haunting in sales.

I’d love to hear from you. What do you think of the newsletter so far? What was your favorite tip? What would you like to learn about next? Hit reply and let me know!

For more practical early-stage sales tips, connect with me on LinkedIn.

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