How many times has a prospect stood you up?  Have many times have your prospects ghosted you? This is a full guide about how to get prospects to stop ghosting you.

You had a sales call with a prospect, sent a proposal, and then what happened? 

Crickets.

You wait a day, send an email, and still nothing.

You wait another day and give them a call… still nothing.

You continue to follow up a few more times, and then finally, you conclude that you’ve been ghosted.

So, why didn’t this prospect just let you know that they weren’t interested?

Why did the prospect ghost you and what can you do about it?

Based on my experience, it all boils down to a few points.

Three reasons why you’re being ghosted by prospects.

1. They wanted to use your information as competitive research, but they were not actually interested in your services. They wanted some insight into what you offer and the price of your offering to either compare it to someone else that they plan on working with or to compare to what they plan to have someone do internally. 

2. They are embarrassed that they can’t say ‘yes’ right now. 

These people like the idea of your product or serving offering and would like to go forward with it, but rather than being honest and saying, “I can’t afford that right now,” they are embarrassed and ghost.

3. They aren’t actually committed.

The idea of what your product or service offering sounds great, but they aren’t ready to make the change they need to make to move forward. Change is uncomfortable, and if you offer any coaching or consulting service, you probably encounter these people more often than you’d like. 

So, what can you do about prospects who ghosts you?

While you can’t eliminate them completely, I’ve found this process can help you eliminate a vast majority of them. 

Here’s what you should do. 

Step 1. Never send a proposal over to the client to review at their leisure.

Repeat after me:

I will never send a proposal to a prospect without having them on the phone (or Zoom call). 

Got it? 

Great.

By the prospect saying to send over a proposal for them to look it over, that’s often just a way for them to get out of the sales call. 

Think about how easy it is to say, “Oh yeah, just send me over a proposal and then look it over.”

If a prospect wants you to send a proposal, then I want you to ask when they have time to walk through it TOGETHER.

If they are serious, they will be happy to set up a time to discuss further. 

Once you have this time set, go through the proposal together, and when the client says it sounds good, have them sign and collect payment information right away.

Let’s review how this solves the ghosting problems identified above:

1. Setting up a meeting to go through the proposal together and then collecting their payment on the phone is an immense pain for those just wanting to collect information about your services. You’re making them schedule another appointment, and you’re also not going to just leave them the proposal to “think over.” 

Are they still getting information about your services to use as competitive research? Sure, but this is a lot more inconvenient for them. Explaining to them your process of walking through the proposal together will probably turn a lot of them off.

2. When they’re too embarrassed to say no, they most likely will not want to have another call to walk through a proposal together. If they go as far to tell you they’ll do this meeting, they’ll likely ghost the meeting. While getting ghosting for a meeting isn’t fun, at least you don’t have an outstanding proposal.

3. Similar to number 2 above, if they aren’t actually committed, they sure as heck will not want to walk through a proposal together where the next step is committing to getting started.

All right, so now you understand the importance of not sending contracts over, what’s next?

Step 2. Never get off the phone with a prospect without scheduling the next touchpoint.

If a prospect has some genuine concerns or isn’t the decision maker, they may need some more time.Time is okay, but time without a definite end to an answer is not okay. 

If a prospect is in the “thinking it over phase” by the time the call is over, then schedule the next follow up call during this initial call. 

I am not sure where I first heard the saying, “people buy based upon emotions and then rationalize with logic after,” but this is so true. The sooner this follow-up call, the better. You don’t want your prospect to get into the logic phase because (remember) people buy based upon emotions. 

Step 3. Ask prospects for a ‘no.’

Ask prospects to be honest with you and let them know a ‘no’ is totally okay. Give them permission to say ‘no.’ I know this may feel funny, but once you get used to it, you’ll see how powerful it is.

I would SO much rather be told a ‘no’ than have to send a series of follow-up emails, calls, text messages, etc. No one likes hunting people down, and you can avoid having to do so with this simple question. 

Plus, you’ll find a lot of times, when you ask this question, you get to the root of what’s really holding them back. This is important to talk through so you can properly handle any objectives and roadblocks when it comes to them using your services.

Now, after all that information, let’s recap the three ways to avoid being ghosted:

1. Never send a proposal over for a prospect to review.
2. Never get off the phone without scheduling the next touchpoint.
3. Ask the prospect to be honest with you, and tell them a ‘no’ is totally okay. 

Give these these the tips a try and let me know if they help you!

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