NotInterested

Business Development Manager

Am I Taking Getting Ghosted Too Personal?!

Hey WR. Help a girl out.

I have about 10 contracts waiting to be signed or have been signed without orders. I am getting a vibe that these companies are ghosting me. I have followed up several times throughout the months, called, emailed, showed up at their place of work with donuts, you name it! I feel like I have really gone the extra mile with my efforts here.

You can be honest, is repeatedly getting ghosted a sign of me being a shitty sales person? Or is this the name of the game? I hate to take shit personal but dang I am getting frustrated as every meeting I go to seems to go really well.

Advice appreciated.

👑 Sales Strategy

📈 Closing

🧠 Advice

46 comments

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CharmingSalesGal

Politicker

Account Executive

I'd say it's part of the game/job but depends on how often you're getting ghosted. There's a reason it's suggested to have 3-4x your pipeline. I usually expect to get ghosted by 75% of the people I talk to unfortunately.

CharmingSalesGal

Politicker

Account Executive

Mind you, I am THE most pessimistic when it comes to taking anything at face value in sales. 😂

NotInterested

Catalyst

Business Development Manager

I do try to be really positive. I feel like a lot of ghosting is due to pricing as we are more expensive, but that shouldn't matter as we are really valuable. Truthfully, I think since these deals are bigger that they are taking more time but gosh idk. Getting impatient and irritated over here! Lol

KPIMaster

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

What do you sell? One thought I have is that you're not "really" getting an order, they're just saying "sure send it" with no intention. I assume this is a very transactional sale and that's why it's happening often. If the above isn't true and you truly feel like they see the value and just aren't signing, one thing I learned early on with e-contracts is to say "hey Mr/Mrs prospect, I've got the agreement in hand, want to schedule a few minutes to walk you through it since there can sometimes be some confusion or questions, do you have 5 minutes this afternoon" Then get them on the call and close it down, make sure they sign. Best advice I can give, other than that, don't take any of it personal, but do ask yourself honestly if you've truly earned their business. Good luck!

Kinonez

Celebrated Contributor

War Room Enthusiast

It's definitely part of the game, people are busy and your solution might not be their top priority, even if you did a great job, they loved you and your solution, if there is no immediate interest of budget you will get ghosted. What I do is log everything in a master document where I know exactly what percentage of my deals go through, how many ghost me etc. Then i compare it month to month and see if it's me or it's just the standard.

NotInterested

Catalyst

Business Development Manager

I like the idea of charting. That way I can keep track of percentages closed and those still open or ghosted. You smarty pants, thank you!

Kinonez

Celebrated Contributor

War Room Enthusiast

Don't mention it, Always keep track of everything statistics is how you improve your numbers!

CaneWolf

Politicker

Call me what you want, just sign the damn contract

-What percentage of your contracts that go is out 10 contracts?
-Has this happened before? Sometimes we all just hit crazy runs of bad luck?
-Have you had the "come on, help me out" convo that gives them an out?

NotInterested

Catalyst

Business Development Manager

I have closed more than that ghosted me. I think I am dwelling pretty hard on the contracts that haven't gotten back to me. I do feel like I am a pretty unlucky person, so yeah might be a bad streak. And no I won't have the "Come on, help me out" as that makes me feel desperate. Hah

CaneWolf

Politicker

Call me what you want, just sign the damn contract

I once had 4 companies back out of contracts and refuse to pay unless we took them to court in the space of 6 weeks. I closed something like 40 deals at that job and those were the only companies that I ever happened with. I think you're in a bad run.

And for the email, this is what I do:

"Hey XXXX,

My bosses are putting a ton of pressure on me to get an answer one way or the other here. If things have changed, please just let me know. It's much worse for us to have no answer instead of answer that is no. I'd appreciate the help!"

NotInterested

Catalyst

Business Development Manager

OOOF. Okay, yeah that is a bad streak... I'm sorry you had to go through that!

That sounds like a really professional way to go about things, yet demanding an answer. Thank you so much for the advice. I am going to try that.

KPIMaster

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

I do like the approach of the "take back" email, only thing I would say is remove the portion about your problems and needs as the prospect doesn't care.

CaneWolf

Politicker

Call me what you want, just sign the damn contract

I've had really good luck with it personally. People feel bad making you look bad at work. To each his or her own though.

KPIMaster

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

fair enough, if it works it works!

CaneWolf

Politicker

Call me what you want, just sign the damn contract

Oh yeah, you can send smoke signals for all I care if it works for you. We all know we've been ghosted way too many times.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Ask if they have given up on the project.

Total Chris Voss move but it works.

NotInterested

Catalyst

Business Development Manager

Oof - I feel like the term "given up" is harsh. Does that actually work?

KPIMaster

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Yes or if you don't want to be as blunt say "hey it seems like priorities have shifted on your end and this is no longer on your radar, if so let me know as I don't want to blow you up"

harebrained

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

This "given up" languages is from one of the best negotiation books "Never Split the Difference" and works great b/c people don't like to feel like a quitter.

Hi (name), I've followed up a few times since XYZ and don't want to be a pest. Have you given up on the (training/network security/etc) project?

We look forward to reconnecting if/when the time is right.

NotInterested

Catalyst

Business Development Manager

Amazing!!! Wow. The WR has really changed my sales game. THANK YOU!

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

SaaS Eater

Ghosting is definitely part of the game. Im going to play devils advocate for a second because Im a manager and thats my job haha.

How firm are the orders you are getting? is it a "send the order over and we will take a look" or verbal commitments ie "we are ready to move forward, what are next steps" Those are two very different responses and in a transactional role, you need more than the first to assume they are actually interested in closing.

Second thing that comes to mind is how you are setting up next steps, how concrete is your Fu and onboarding schedule. If your next steps are not concrete or the prospect wont commit to a next steps but just want the contract, thats a sign they are just pushing you off the phone and you should dig in before sending contract/pricing.

Lastly, you have mentioned that pricing is usually the issue. That tells me you are lacking value somewhere in your sales process. If its a competitive industry and your company is on the higher end of pricing, you need to sell the hell out of what makes you different and cant send over pricing/contracts until the prospect is 100% on board with paying your premium vs the competitor.

Hope this helps a little bit!

RedLightning

Politicker

Mid-Market AE

It's something that will happen prospect to prospect, but if its consistent you need to review your deals and find the why.

Did you have firm steps after they sent over the contract? What was the problem they were trying to solve? What is the consequence of solving that problem vs. not solving that problem.

People will ghost over saying no (it sucks, but they do it).

NotInterested

Catalyst

Business Development Manager

I do review my deals and I believe most of the time it is due to pricing. Once they see the #'s they are outtie 3000. So that's tough. I sell staffing services, so there is a lot of competition when it comes to rates.

I always follow the steps and I really do stay on top of each prospect in my pipeline.

alexpe2294

Catalyst

Sales Account Manager

It might not be you! Could be the product or the added value. Talk to your customers and if they say no or ghost you, try to get that last connection just to ask for a reason why they weren't interested so you have a point to start.

NotInterested

Catalyst

Business Development Manager

I like this idea. Doesn't hurt to ask, right? The problem is..will they even answer. Lol

BullDawg

Politicker

This is just part of the game, unfortunately. It’s easy to forget that while your entire job is getting these deals signed, it’s usually a very minor part of their job to sign them. It’s easy to get pushed to the bottom of the priority pile, and - from a psychology perspective - people tend to avoid problems rather than confront them. It’s way easier for someone to decide to simply not return your calls/emails/etc than to admit that they’ve been ignoring you and/or don’t want what you have and get into what they perceive to be a confrontation over it. Pain in the ass though for sure!

NotInterested

Catalyst

Business Development Manager

Thank you for the reality check. Needed that.

NotInterested

Catalyst

Business Development Manager

Wow this is really good advice, thank you for your valuable response. I sell staffing services. Now that you say that, some respond with, “send it over and we will take a look” and other respond with, “we are ready to move forward”. The ones I haven’t heard back from I would say are more towards the, “send it over and we will take a look”. We are taught to send the agreement over email after the meeting. Going forward, would it be better to say F that rule and bring the agreement in hand with me so they will sign right then and there to prevent the waiting game? And yes, maybe I can work on really selling the hell out of my company and what we do, but it is REALLY hard to convince people to pay more money, for almost the same service. Granted we are better 9/10, but to my prospects they see it as just another staffing company until we ACTUALLY are able to place workers, which is the difficult part. They could only see value after the agreement is signed.

NotInterested

Catalyst

Business Development Manager

@urassisaas

CoronerCloser

Good Citizen

Liger King

bro what... being ghosted is apart of sales. These comments make me cringe. This post makes me cringe. Do better and you wont be ghosted. And if you cant do better move on. Thats life bud

letsdoit

SDR

Yes you are. If its part of the game! Chin up

GDO

Politicker

BDM

Part of the job. But I think ghosting is worse than a no. With ghosting there always is a part of hope their that still makes you emotionally involved.

Blackwargreymon

Politicker

MDR

I'd say it's part of the game/job but depends on how often you're getting ghosted.

Beasthouse

Opinionated

Corporate trainer

yes don't forget industry average is something like 3% close rate from top of funnel meaning 97% will either be disqualified or disqualify themselves

KPIMaster

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Right, but she's referring to sent contracts...so close rate on engaged prospects should be much higher than that.

Beasthouse

Opinionated

Corporate trainer

should be 30 percent ish of qualified sets... ish depending on ...x lol

NotInterested

Catalyst

Business Development Manager

I think some truly are taking longer than others for X Y & Z reasons, I’m hoping. @BeastHouse you’re saying out of all qualified meetings/clients about 30% close?

Beasthouse

Opinionated

Corporate trainer

with a strong ICP and Qualification disqualification practice yes AE's should close 30 percent of qualified leads.

Beasthouse

Opinionated

Corporate trainer

i would try finding the excitement again. change your goal or outcome. go towards more discovery, learn more about your icp and their life, pains, needs, ect. get back to the researching and learning part of connecting with people. the sales will naturally come.

NotInterested

Catalyst

Business Development Manager

Thank you!

Sniper

Valued Contributor

Enterprise Account Executive

Yes

RealPatrickBateman

Politicker

🔪Amateur Butcher🔪

Well, first it IS personal. Second, don't take it personally lol. Figure out the common-thread and solve the issue. Find a co-worker or a manager to use as a sounding board. You'll figure it out, the best ones always do 😉

eman

Politicker

Account Executive

Yes

NotInterested

Catalyst

Business Development Manager

Valuable feedback lol thanks

Error32

Politicker

ISR

Everything done on company platforms is usually recorded, most people don't them because of time, but some folks in my company have been fired over inappropriate un work related topics they were discussing with coworkers.

Clashingsoulsspell

Politicker

ISR

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NotInterested

Am I Taking Getting Ghosted Too Personal?!

46 comments

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