#72 - Did Your Client Die On You?

Hey Bob, guess what? 

First two things. One, we're on air, and two, it's another episode of Let's, Let's Chat Sales. 

I got that from a good friend, you know? 

So 

I got a dining room table from a good friend. Everyone won. 

So, hey, this episode we're gonna talk about dead prospect. 

We go to their funeral or not? 

Yes.

No, no. 

We're actually, this is your topic, but it's topics that where someone goes, radio silent on you. 

Right. 

That's what we need. 

Someone that, so it's your problem. 

You brought it up. 

I mean, this is like you, why don't you paint the picture. 

Okay.

So I'm gonna paint the picture.

I have a prospect.

That I was having discussions with and they completely disappeared. 

Yeah. 

Like no communication whatsoever. 

Yeah. 

Yeah. 

And it happens from time to time. 

Yeah. 

I don't think I did anything to send them that way. 

Yep. 

They didn't telegraph it. 

Cuz sometimes someone's like, you know what, not sure this is gonna work for me.

And then you get the sign and then they disappear and they don't take your calls. 

They cancel the appointment. 

That's cool. 

Yeah. 

Yeah. 

But when they just like literally, it's like they dropped off the face of the earth.

Yeah. 

I don't know what to do with that. 

I don't know how to resolve that. 

I don't know if it's something I'm doing or something they're doing, or if.

And that's the part that's hard for me. 

You know, I'd rather you tell me, Hey, you know, you're a jerk. 

I don't like your sense of humor. 

Yeah. 

Than to just leave me hanging. 

Yeah. 

People are gonna do that. 

Yeah. 

And so it's not you. 

So the girls in high school were actually more advanced than the people I'm dealing with now.

Cause they were always good at, well, I mean, 

That's a whole different dynamic. 

But, in your case, in this case, the problem's not them, it's you. 

And what I say that, what I mean to say is, is I was what 

They said it in high school too.

I was. I'm always of the opinion that it's not helpful to blame other people.

It's better to examine what you could do differently, right? 

Because, you can't really make, you really can't influence other people as much as you think you can. 

And so it's really much better to how you can, you manage yourself and so forth. 

And so we talked about this in a previous episode a little bit, 

but let's dive into it a little bit more.

And that is, I think the big thing is you have to qualify. 

And qualify them much more aggressively and more thoroughly. 

And you have to

Or disqualify them more aggressively. 

Same thing. Same thing. 

Yeah. 

Well, I think there, there is a difference though. 

If you're disqualifying to me, that means you're really looking to see the reason why they aren't a customer.

Tomato. Tomato, yeah. 

Okay. 

So, there's that. 

And then you're also not developing enough level of commonality and trust early on, early enough

on, I think.

They're kind of related to one another. 

And that is people wanna be agreeable. 

People always wanna agree with you.

Most people don't like confrontation. 

The people that do are oftentimes categorized as assholes. 

This is why, like when we talk about discovery, like the idea by discovery, in the discovery process, 

people want to tell you things that are supportive of your idea.

They don't wanna discourage you and your idea. 

They don't wanna say your idea sucks, or this feature isn't gonna work

or this is why you're barking up the wrong tree, whatever. 

They don't wanna do that.

It's confrontational and it leads to a bad outcome, right?

Or, or can't. 

And so the discovery process, it's really important that you ask people questions 

in a way that allows 'em to be really comfortable, to tell you the truth, right? 

And if you don't do that, you end up getting a lot of happy talk.

And then things kind of move along because they, you want them to move along and they don't wanna discourage you.

So they sort of let them move along and, but at some point it. 

There's a inflection point where they just can't say yes anymore.

They can't be agreeable anymore because they're not, well suited to the solution that you're

pitching or they don't have the budget or whatever the reasons are, 

or they're, or they don't have the decision making power and capability 

or whatever, whatever the reasons are, 

in my opinion, it's typically that you haven't qualified enough early on 

and you haven't developed enough trust early on to get them to say the.

Because if your solution is really good and it fits and it's the timing's right, 

and they have budget and all those sorts of things, it's, it's hard to suggest and they believe you

can deliver.

It's really important. 

If you've got all those things going for you, those are all check marks.

Yes. 

They're not only gonna wanna buy from you. 

They're gonna be really eager to buy and can't wait to go. 

Right. 

Can't wait to get started. 

Right. 

So when they're not, when do I let them go? 

Like literally no more trying as, as soon. Oh, and now you, they've gone radio silent for you. 

Mm-hmm. 

There's no right answer to this question, but the two parts of the answer that I would say is

one is I would first of all, you might say, you might give them an easy out, Hey, this is, this is clearly not a fit.

I misunderstood, you know, blah, blah, blah. 

Okay. 

Unless I hear back from you, I'll just assume that there's no opportunity. 

Okay. 

Or that you know, something has changed. 

You don't have the budget or I didn't, whatever, whatever your statement is, but basically something effect of saying, I'm not gonna bother you.

Or there's not a good, or as far as, it sounds like there's not a good fit, or something's changed or, okay. 

Whatever. 

Hope everything wished to the best.

And so, and then wait and see what happens, you know, and contact him two months later, three months later. 

That was the second part of it.

The second part of it is, you could do a couple different things .

One thing is you could set up a tickler for two months down the road and say, Hey, just, just

checking in. 

Has anything changed? 

And if you've got something to update them on, Hey, we changed this feature, or whatever we changed, we add this new capability, or the pricing is changing or what, whatever.

Then you have the ability to kind of just remind them, Hey, we we're still there. 

Right? 

That's one thing.

And, you know, you just put 'em on your mailing list and they can hear about you and so forth. 

And I think, it's a small world and so you don't wanna alienate 'em. 

You don't wanna piss 'em off.

You don't wanna get turned into a confrontation because, they'll end up somewhere else, 

or you'll see 'em in a conference or whatever. 

The best thing to do is be gracious, and not, not let it bug you. 

So that's one thing. 

Okay. 

The other is you could go around. 

And if you really think there's a good fit, you know, if you're talking to the owner of the company,

isn't really nowhere to go.

Right. 

But, my situation, yeah.

But if you're talking to someone in a corporation where they're three levels down from the boss, 

from the department head or whatever, you could just say, Hey, I was working on this project and there seems to be a real fit.

But it sort of just got, disconnected.

And by this point in time, if you've learned a lot about the customer, if you learned a, maybe you

have a really good value proposition, right? 

And at that point, you can communicate that to someone higher up. 

And this actually gives you a chance to go further up the food chain if you haven't been doing that already.

Okay. 

And if you have been doing that already and you're getting radio silence from one guy, 

then one person, then you triangulate, you go around that person, talk to others and see what's

going on. 

But generally speaking, it's a qualification and a trust issue.

Yeah. 

Okay. 

That's helpful. 

Yeah.

I'm sad all at the same time. 

Well, it's just, yeah.

This goes back to the conversation we were having the other day,

about conversations, about the importance of having lots of conversations. 

And the thing is you get better at it. 

You get better at saying, Hey, you know, you really, and at the risk of labor in this topic, 

but you really sort of wanna give them all the reasons why things aren't gonna work, right.

Hey, here's, here's what's gonna happen. 

You really need this amount of budget. 

Right.

For, or this is what the cost is. 

So they're qualifying the budget, they're qualifying the timing. They're qualifying. Yep. 

Yeah. 

And you're basically giving them. Here are the ingredients. This is what I need. You know, this is the

steps along the way.

These are the things that are gonna happen. 

This is where it gets hard.

This is where it gets hard because we have to talk to so-and-so in your department, or we have to do this and that assessment. 

And if it doesn't fit, my IT team have to work together, et cetera, whatever the thing is.

Mm-hmm. 

You wanna map out all the reasons why it could go wrong and get them to understand whether or not they're up for it. 

Mm-hmm. 

And at some point it's a bit of a gut. You know, their behavior tells you, this is early on, you'll know

that someone's, they're not into it. 

Right. 

They don't have the backbone, they don't have the energy, they don't have whatever it is that, you know, it's like playing golf with people. 

The reason why people play golf with other people in business is because you have four or five hours to spend spend with 'em.

Right. 

You get to see how they behave under different situations,

and that tells you a lot about the kind of person they're do doing business with. 

Right. 

And in the same way, these conversations, early on, they should be telling you, oh, this is what this

person's like, this is how they're, they're likely to behave.

And that tells you a lot about how, like, what to expect from them down the road. 

And by the way, they're doing the same thing with you. 

They're trying to figure you out. 

Right.

Right. 

And that's why it's so important. 

Like first impressions are so important and following up is so important because these are

promises, right?

Mm-hmm. 

That you're making to the other person, Hey, we have a call at 10 and you show up at 10. 

After 10, you broke a promise. 

If they show up 10 after 10, they're sort of breaking a promise. 

Yep. 

And it's those little things that, that you kind of, you check them all off and use those as, as.

As kind of to help you. 

Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Okay. 

That was helpful. 

Thank you.

All right. 

So we beat that one to death. 

We did.

So we'll we should do this again. 

We will. 

I can see it in my mind's eye. 

It's coming. 

Yeah. 

And you know what? 

We haven't done a movie thing in a while, but I tell you what, by the next time we talk,

I will have seen everybody everywhere. 

All at once, something, whatever that is, that new, the Academy Award-winning movie. 

There you go. 

Which I'm setting myself up for some disappointment, so look forward to you. 

Okay. 

That's my favorite. 

When you're disappointed. 

All right, Bob. 

We'll see you, man. 

Alright, sounds good.

Thanks. 

Bye.

Bye.

That was another episode of Let's Chat Sales a quick one, of course. 

And I hope it was helpful. 

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