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[E90] Q&A Week: How come my prospects aren’t responding?
“How do you follow up with a prospect who requested a quote and/or more information, but then didn’t follow up on the information?”
Classic question from sales reps when they are struggling to get a response from their pipeline full of leads.
So, what can you do about it?
Most reps do not like my answer.
Episode 90 – Transcript
Hey there. Welcome to the show. Welcome to the sales
experience podcast.
This is episode 90 finishing out another week of episodes,
a week of questions and answers where some guy talks into a microphone talking
to himself, answering some questions, talking about sales with the goal of
helping you, the listener, whether you’re a salesperson, whether you’re a
manager, you’re an owner of a company or you’re thinking about getting into
sales, you’re curious about sales.
My goal is to help you create the ideal sales experience
for yourself and for your prospects to understand that there’s so many
different ways to be effective and great at sales and not just the what
everyone thinks, which is the charismatic manipulating, closing line using
salesperson.
There’s so many other ways to go about it where you’re
very effective, you’re very happy, and your prospects turn into customers and
they’re very satisfied with what you do.
So many different ways to do it. There’s so many different
things to use that you have naturally in your talents, your skills, your
abilities, your experiences to bring all of that and be you in the sales
process instead of trying to be somebody else.
You are, you, you do you and bring you to the sales
process in a way that works for selling. Now again, I mentioned a couple
episodes. If you find yourself talking too much and that’s who you are, either
fix that, change that, adjust that in the sales process or maybe sales isn’t
for you or find a sale that works really well.
We’re talking a lot is actually going to lend itself well.
But no matter what, make sure you bring who you are [inaudible] don’t try to
pretend or actually like anybody else, that will never work. All right, this
question on this last episode of the week, this one’s all about follow-ups.
So the question that I see a lot is how do you follow up
with a client who requested a quote or more information and then just literally
isn’t responding? So how do you follow up with that person? What’s the best way
to go?
I think this one is going to depend on your situation, on
your sales process, the sales timeline, but really the best advice I have for
this, no matter what your vertical, your product, your service at your price
point, whatever that might be, my best advice is to always treat it like you
would if you’re in a courtship situation where you’re trying to date somebody
else. Okay?
So a lot of people
laugh, but if you’re a true sales professional and you’re enrolling and not
manipulating, if you’re helping people solve a problem or get a goal or get to
where they want and you’re not selling them, you’re not being a sales person,
then you’re going to want to treat it like you were.
If you were to be courting somebody who you wanted to go
out with them, what does that mean? Well, [inaudible] somebody were trying to
date you. Would you want them to call you five times a day or send you five
texts a day wondering what’s going on and when you’re going to go out with them
on the next time? Most likely not.
That’s usually really creepy. However, salespeople do that
all the time, especially when they get desperate. They get towards the end of
the month, the quarter or the end of the year, and there’s a fine balance as a
sales professional with follow up, tenacity, persistent [inaudible] keep going,
not stopping and having that drive, but not being creepy and desperate.
The problem is if you follow up too much in your [inaudible] calling a lot and sending lots of emails, you’re basically putting all of the power into the prospect’s hands. They are now driving the bus because you’re coming after them instead of them coming after you. So the problem is, is that they’re now in control of the process, whether it’s about price or it’s about when they sign up. But at this point, if you’re chasing them, they are in control to, same thing in personal relationships as well.
The person who’s being chased has all of the control and is driving the bus. So what does that mean for you? The first thing is, a lot of times I see sales reps who have a pipeline full of prospects who are not responding. They’re trying to do the follow-ups and not calling back.
They’re not responding to emails and so on, and really the
issue actually started during the sales call. If you have a pipeline full of
people who aren’t responding, then you need the step back and you need to look
at how you did those interactions, those phone calls or those meetings in the
first place.
Did you go through your discovery questions? Did you find
their pain? Do you know why they should buy from you and do you know why they
didn’t buy from you on the spot? Now, do you have a one call close and they
didn’t buy it from you? That’s one thing.
If you have a long sales cycle, its multiple calls, then
you have to keep that in mind. The fundamental thing, whenever I’m in a
coaching or training situation and I have a rep who has a pipeline that looks
like this, my question to them always is, why did that person need to buy from
you on that initial call?
What was it that they needed to solve or what was their
goal? Most of the time sales reps can’t answer that. They didn’t go deep
enough. They didn’t try to find out what actually was going on, how to solve
it.
They went into sales mode, Speaking mode, presentation
mode, where literally they’re just talking at the prospect instead of asking
questions and diving deep and you turn out with [inaudible] a situation where
you’re now just an order taker.
Literally all you’re doing is taking orders if they’re
interested in buying and that’s generally what happens. So keep that in mind.
The solution is actually being more proactive on those initial calls. Well,
make your pipeline stronger.
Now, if it’s already too late and you have a pipeline full
of people who aren’t following up with you who aren’t responding, who aren’t
calling you back, then all you can do is really send them some information and
give them time [inaudible].
If you can leave them a message or send them an email
where you want to get on the phone call and you just want to update your file
and try to get a chance to go through your questions and go deeper and find out
what that pain is that you can help solve without the pain.
It doesn’t matter. This is why like if we think about
health, for example, somebody who has a heart attack, it’s more likely to now
change their diet to change what they’re doing to exercise to get better. Until
that happens, even though they know it’s bad, it’s not bad enough, right? There
usually has to be pain that’s going to trigger action.
In this case here, your job as a salesperson is to uncover
that pain. If somebody comes to you [inaudible] and they already know what
their pain is, then that’s easy. That’s a lay down. You don’t have to do any
work. Anybody could have done that sale, Yeah.
What your job is as a professional is to be pulling out
that pain to tease out that pain and challenge those goals, hopes those dreams.
What wakes them up at two in the morning. They feel like they’re missing out on
that they want to accomplish or they’re stressed about or they’re worried about
happening, whatever that is, as to what you should be finding out, try to get
another chance in front of your pipeline, set up a time, or you just want to be
strategic.
Say, Hey, I just want to set up a session. We can talk for
five minutes, go through this and update my file and see if that works. There’s
also going to be a good percentage of your pipeline because of how you set it
up. That literally is just going to die if you didn’t do it right in the first
place.
They’re just going to die and there’s nothing you can do
about it. Yeah, except maybe put it into a nurture campaign where they get some
regular emails and when the time is right, they will come to you.
Unfortunately, when you get into this cycle, you’ve become an order taker
because if you chase after them and be desperate again, they’re going to have
all the control.
If you try to say, hey, it’s the end of the month. I think
we should try to do these specials. They do it or don’t do it, but you really
have no reason and you’re just throwing stuff out there hoping that something’s
going to work.
That’s the case. Put them into a nurture campaign. Send
them regular emails and hope that at some point they’re situational change such
that it’ll trigger them to think about you and buying from you. Now I know
that’s not the answer that you wanted.
A lot of times I tell that to salespeople and they look at
me like they were hoping I had the silver bullet, the magic pill to solve their
pipeline issue, to make everyone answer, to get back on board, to close those
deals and it just doesn’t exist.
There’s nothing you can do to revive those deals because
you call them too much. It sounds bad. You could do some takeaway breakup type
emails and messages to people where you just let them know, hey, follow up with
me when you want.
Sometimes that’ll work. Sometimes it won’t. Either way.
You’re now at the whim of when they feel like it and that’s all you can do.
Focus on what you’re doing during your calls and your
presentation, how you’re setting things up, how deep you’re going in the
problems you’re solving. If you get off that phone call, scheduling a followup
or knowing that it’s going to lead to a second call and you don’t know exactly
why that person needs your prospect or service you’ve most likely already lost.
Again, I know that’s not the advice that you probably
hoping for, but it’s the truth based on all of my experience. Hopefully that
helps. That’s it for another episode of the sales experience podcast. That’s it
for episode 90 I appreciate all of you listening.
Make sure to subscribe everywhere that podcasts are at [inaudible] Send me a message on the cutter consulting group.com website.
f you need help with your sales team, if you want to develop a different sales process with your reps in order to solve problems on the initial calls and set up your pipeline in a better, stronger way, send me a message on the website and until next time.
Always remember that everything in life is sales and
people remember the experience you gave them.
View all episodes
By Jason Cutter
4.9
3535 ratings
“How do you follow up with a prospect who requested a quote and/or more information, but then didn’t follow up on the information?”
Classic question from sales reps when they are struggling to get a response from their pipeline full of leads.
So, what can you do about it?
Most reps do not like my answer.
Episode 90 – Transcript
Hey there. Welcome to the show. Welcome to the sales
experience podcast.
This is episode 90 finishing out another week of episodes,
a week of questions and answers where some guy talks into a microphone talking
to himself, answering some questions, talking about sales with the goal of
helping you, the listener, whether you’re a salesperson, whether you’re a
manager, you’re an owner of a company or you’re thinking about getting into
sales, you’re curious about sales.
My goal is to help you create the ideal sales experience
for yourself and for your prospects to understand that there’s so many
different ways to be effective and great at sales and not just the what
everyone thinks, which is the charismatic manipulating, closing line using
salesperson.
There’s so many other ways to go about it where you’re
very effective, you’re very happy, and your prospects turn into customers and
they’re very satisfied with what you do.
So many different ways to do it. There’s so many different
things to use that you have naturally in your talents, your skills, your
abilities, your experiences to bring all of that and be you in the sales
process instead of trying to be somebody else.
You are, you, you do you and bring you to the sales
process in a way that works for selling. Now again, I mentioned a couple
episodes. If you find yourself talking too much and that’s who you are, either
fix that, change that, adjust that in the sales process or maybe sales isn’t
for you or find a sale that works really well.
We’re talking a lot is actually going to lend itself well.
But no matter what, make sure you bring who you are [inaudible] don’t try to
pretend or actually like anybody else, that will never work. All right, this
question on this last episode of the week, this one’s all about follow-ups.
So the question that I see a lot is how do you follow up
with a client who requested a quote or more information and then just literally
isn’t responding? So how do you follow up with that person? What’s the best way
to go?
I think this one is going to depend on your situation, on
your sales process, the sales timeline, but really the best advice I have for
this, no matter what your vertical, your product, your service at your price
point, whatever that might be, my best advice is to always treat it like you
would if you’re in a courtship situation where you’re trying to date somebody
else. Okay?
So a lot of people
laugh, but if you’re a true sales professional and you’re enrolling and not
manipulating, if you’re helping people solve a problem or get a goal or get to
where they want and you’re not selling them, you’re not being a sales person,
then you’re going to want to treat it like you were.
If you were to be courting somebody who you wanted to go
out with them, what does that mean? Well, [inaudible] somebody were trying to
date you. Would you want them to call you five times a day or send you five
texts a day wondering what’s going on and when you’re going to go out with them
on the next time? Most likely not.
That’s usually really creepy. However, salespeople do that
all the time, especially when they get desperate. They get towards the end of
the month, the quarter or the end of the year, and there’s a fine balance as a
sales professional with follow up, tenacity, persistent [inaudible] keep going,
not stopping and having that drive, but not being creepy and desperate.
The problem is if you follow up too much in your [inaudible] calling a lot and sending lots of emails, you’re basically putting all of the power into the prospect’s hands. They are now driving the bus because you’re coming after them instead of them coming after you. So the problem is, is that they’re now in control of the process, whether it’s about price or it’s about when they sign up. But at this point, if you’re chasing them, they are in control to, same thing in personal relationships as well.
The person who’s being chased has all of the control and is driving the bus. So what does that mean for you? The first thing is, a lot of times I see sales reps who have a pipeline full of prospects who are not responding. They’re trying to do the follow-ups and not calling back.
They’re not responding to emails and so on, and really the
issue actually started during the sales call. If you have a pipeline full of
people who aren’t responding, then you need the step back and you need to look
at how you did those interactions, those phone calls or those meetings in the
first place.
Did you go through your discovery questions? Did you find
their pain? Do you know why they should buy from you and do you know why they
didn’t buy from you on the spot? Now, do you have a one call close and they
didn’t buy it from you? That’s one thing.
If you have a long sales cycle, its multiple calls, then
you have to keep that in mind. The fundamental thing, whenever I’m in a
coaching or training situation and I have a rep who has a pipeline that looks
like this, my question to them always is, why did that person need to buy from
you on that initial call?
What was it that they needed to solve or what was their
goal? Most of the time sales reps can’t answer that. They didn’t go deep
enough. They didn’t try to find out what actually was going on, how to solve
it.
They went into sales mode, Speaking mode, presentation
mode, where literally they’re just talking at the prospect instead of asking
questions and diving deep and you turn out with [inaudible] a situation where
you’re now just an order taker.
Literally all you’re doing is taking orders if they’re
interested in buying and that’s generally what happens. So keep that in mind.
The solution is actually being more proactive on those initial calls. Well,
make your pipeline stronger.
Now, if it’s already too late and you have a pipeline full
of people who aren’t following up with you who aren’t responding, who aren’t
calling you back, then all you can do is really send them some information and
give them time [inaudible].
If you can leave them a message or send them an email
where you want to get on the phone call and you just want to update your file
and try to get a chance to go through your questions and go deeper and find out
what that pain is that you can help solve without the pain.
It doesn’t matter. This is why like if we think about
health, for example, somebody who has a heart attack, it’s more likely to now
change their diet to change what they’re doing to exercise to get better. Until
that happens, even though they know it’s bad, it’s not bad enough, right? There
usually has to be pain that’s going to trigger action.
In this case here, your job as a salesperson is to uncover
that pain. If somebody comes to you [inaudible] and they already know what
their pain is, then that’s easy. That’s a lay down. You don’t have to do any
work. Anybody could have done that sale, Yeah.
What your job is as a professional is to be pulling out
that pain to tease out that pain and challenge those goals, hopes those dreams.
What wakes them up at two in the morning. They feel like they’re missing out on
that they want to accomplish or they’re stressed about or they’re worried about
happening, whatever that is, as to what you should be finding out, try to get
another chance in front of your pipeline, set up a time, or you just want to be
strategic.
Say, Hey, I just want to set up a session. We can talk for
five minutes, go through this and update my file and see if that works. There’s
also going to be a good percentage of your pipeline because of how you set it
up. That literally is just going to die if you didn’t do it right in the first
place.
They’re just going to die and there’s nothing you can do
about it. Yeah, except maybe put it into a nurture campaign where they get some
regular emails and when the time is right, they will come to you.
Unfortunately, when you get into this cycle, you’ve become an order taker
because if you chase after them and be desperate again, they’re going to have
all the control.
If you try to say, hey, it’s the end of the month. I think
we should try to do these specials. They do it or don’t do it, but you really
have no reason and you’re just throwing stuff out there hoping that something’s
going to work.
That’s the case. Put them into a nurture campaign. Send
them regular emails and hope that at some point they’re situational change such
that it’ll trigger them to think about you and buying from you. Now I know
that’s not the answer that you wanted.
A lot of times I tell that to salespeople and they look at
me like they were hoping I had the silver bullet, the magic pill to solve their
pipeline issue, to make everyone answer, to get back on board, to close those
deals and it just doesn’t exist.
There’s nothing you can do to revive those deals because
you call them too much. It sounds bad. You could do some takeaway breakup type
emails and messages to people where you just let them know, hey, follow up with
me when you want.
Sometimes that’ll work. Sometimes it won’t. Either way.
You’re now at the whim of when they feel like it and that’s all you can do.
Focus on what you’re doing during your calls and your
presentation, how you’re setting things up, how deep you’re going in the
problems you’re solving. If you get off that phone call, scheduling a followup
or knowing that it’s going to lead to a second call and you don’t know exactly
why that person needs your prospect or service you’ve most likely already lost.
Again, I know that’s not the advice that you probably
hoping for, but it’s the truth based on all of my experience. Hopefully that
helps. That’s it for another episode of the sales experience podcast. That’s it
for episode 90 I appreciate all of you listening.
Make sure to subscribe everywhere that podcasts are at [inaudible] Send me a message on the cutter consulting group.com website.
f you need help with your sales team, if you want to develop a different sales process with your reps in order to solve problems on the initial calls and set up your pipeline in a better, stronger way, send me a message on the website and until next time.
Always remember that everything in life is sales and
people remember the experience you gave them.