Whether you are a business owner or on a sales team, you have probably had a potential customer go from engaged to completely silent. Is the sale over? It’s easy to keep moving and forget about the prospect ghosting you, but this simple technique might re-ignite the lead. 

Prove your value.

If you did your job in the first conversation with them, you uncovered some of their pain points and determined why they need the kind of work you offer. Now you are armed with everything you need for a nonchalant value drive-by. 

Here is what this looks like:

• You have an initial meeting, and you identify what they need, why they need it, and how you can help ease their pain.
• You follow up with a value-laden proposal that explains your offering and how it moves the needle for them. 
• Then you follow up once or twice and wait for a response. 
• Radio silence. The Prospect is ghosting you harder than Patrick Swayze. 
• You follow up within the next 2-4 weeks with an email providing extra value and asking for a response. 

Quick example:

Hi Prospect,

I was just thinking about your [pain point], and we recently had another client facing a remarkably similar issue. We ended up using this [method/tool/technique] and saw excellent results – they saw their [pain point] turnaround in these critical areas. I think [method/tool/technique] could work for you too. Here is a link to [method/tool/technique] that you can start using today (or we would be happy to include [method/tool/technique] to our proposal from last month for no extra cost).

If you’d like to revisit the proposal, here are some times I can meet to discuss this: [booking tool link]. 

Joel

There are many ways to take that email, and I would tailor it to your specific client, but you get the idea. Offer something of value they can utilize with or without you, and give a soft reminder of the prior proposal you sent. This technique is a great way to justify sending a reminder. You aren’t just saying, “hey, I need an answer because I am desperate for more work.” You are making it about them instead of you. 

If you don’t hear back after this, don’t bug them. I don’t ascribe to the sales philosophy that bothers the Prospect until they offer an absolute yes or no. You will not want to work with someone you have to drag into the relationship, period. If you get a reply to this email, but no definitive answer on the original proposal, wait a couple of weeks and then send an email asking for a definitive answer. We will look at what that looks like tomorrow.

Takeaway:
When a Prospect goes silent, use it as an opportunity to prove you are valuable – it may tip the scales to a firm yes.