Over the past few years I’ve noticed a somewhat alarming but growing trend in new business prospecting. Perhaps you’ve experienced this scenario before? What appears to be a solid lead arrives in your inbox via a personal referral, a website form completion or an organic social connection, and you immediately get to work trying to learn as much as you can about the source. You reach out to them, schedule an initial call which you believe goes very well, and then the prospective customer asks you to prepare a quote. Great! You’re getting close! The estimate goes out. Then you wait. A long time. Several weeks go by. You may never hear from them ever again. You’re left feeling confused, disappointed and wondering what went wrong.
Surely there are ways to prevent ghosting from happening?
The Waiting Game in New Business Development
Everyone knows that even the most well-honed business development effort doesn’t guarantee a win every time. Lead fulfillment requires multiple touchpoints and leads can fizzle at any stage of the game. Undeterred by rejection, my favorite part of running my Portsmouth-based paid media and SEO agency is being able to share the great work we do with others. I like the rush of anticipation I get before delivering a presentation and I appreciate having a chance to offer prospective clients a glimpse into our marketing team’s stellar capabilities and receive their feedback in real time. Getting a glimpse into how we measure up to our peers in the marketplace helps us get better at what we do. You never know if your presentation will resonate with prospects, but one can always hope if they don’t say yes right away, they’ll give our ideas future consideration down the line. Waiting is a necessary part of the new business development process.
Why Ghosting Happens During New Business Development
Despite my enthusiasm for the pitch, there’s one element of biz dev that I’m less enamored with. Ghosting. Anyone involved in sales knows what this is. It’s the unexpected radio silence that happens just when you think you’ve set the stage for a new contract. Instead of adding to your client roster, you find yourself randomly emailing your contact to try to get their attention. Most of the time it’s for naught. Why does this happen? Here are a few ideas.
People are less accountable to one another these days. Blame it on our constant social media exposure which has taught us to rely less on humans and more on artificial communication signals. When you get a like on a post, it’s easy to extrapolate that into the person liking you, even if that’s not true.
- We’re inundated with digital communication all day long. Our brains are exhausted by the deluge of emails. Personally, as I write this, I have over ten thousand emails in my inbox. Help!
Corporate job posts generate thousands of resumes for one position, reducing the likelihood of a candidate hearing back to a very small percentage. This can be pretty demoralizing and it wouldn’t be a stretch to say it has changed people’s own willingness to respond.
Actionable Steps to Improve Your New Business Development Follow-Up
A recent LinkedIn article suggests ways to handle those prospects who engage in ghosting behavior. I’m sharing these tips along with my own comments. While I appreciate the points in the article, I have a few thoughts:
Tip 1: Understand why they ghosted
That’s tricky. I wish I knew why people ghost us! Perhaps it’s because I’ve never asked the ghosts? I’ll try to be more direct at the outset and find out what type of follow-up they’d prefer.
Tip 2: Choose the right channel and timing
For sure, follow up is key but which is the best channel to use? Email, text, phone…what about carrier pigeons? I’m ready to tie my note to the bird’s leg!
Tip 3: Provide value and curiosity
Of course we tried to offer value and appear curious in the initial pitch! However, perhaps that wasn’t the client’s perception. We can always try to do better.
Tip 4: Use humor and empathy
So far I haven’t found the comical side of ghosting, but I’ll keep trying!
Tip 5: Create urgency and scarcity
Is there any research on how most people respond to ultimatums? I thought so.
Tip 6: Know when to move on
Here’s one tip I agree on. There comes a time when giving up is the only option.
How Richardson Media Group Approaches New Business Development
There’s no way to avoid being ghosted, but we should at least prepare ourselves for the possibility it might happen. At the end of the day, we simply can’t control how others choose to behave. And the reality is that most new business prospects are hiring us because they don’t have expertise in the disciplines we handle. That means they may not have a full appreciation of the work that goes into assembling a comprehensive proposal demonstrating our marketing skills and talents.
I’d love to hear from others about tips and tactics you employ when a seemingly great pitch or presentation turns into the Sounds of Silence. And feel free to share a few of your own stories if you like. There’s strength in numbers.
From one business owner to another, I encourage all of us to keep our heads high and our dignity intact. Let’s not let being professionally ghosted define us. It’s simply an indication that what we were pursuing ultimately wasn’t the right fit.
