When a prospect goes dark! ๐Ÿ™€

My team has had a notoriously difficult time with this one. At every state of the sales cycle and with a concrete business issue.


Out of nowhere we get nothing from the prospect anymore. Email opens. No response. Calls. Nada. Text. Nope. Social, forget about it...


And this is across the entire team.


Thoughts on how to combat this?


๐Ÿ‘‘ Sales Strategy
0
lady_sales_savage
Good Citizen
1
Senior Account Manager
I hate this. Give me a yes or give me a no. It takes someone two seconds to tell you what's up. If it's a no, tell me it's a no so I can stop wasting my time wondering what the hell happened and move on.ย  ย 

Here are my go tos:ย 

- Send a calendar invite titled "*Suggested Time*- Company Name/Meeting Topic" in the body of the invite "We haven't been able to connect the past couple of weeks so seeing if this time works for you.ย  If it doesn't, no problem.ย  Just send me some alternative days/times and we can catch up then"ย 

- Calendar invites are hard to ignore so if that doesn't work and you have tried all the other outreaches you mentioned above then you have nothing to lose.ย  Something must have happened to them! You're concerned! so... CALL THEIR BOSS or even their boss' boss!ย 

Explain you haven't been able to get in touch and want to confirm they are still your contact/with the company/hopefully alive. I've had this help move stalled deals forward because it can lead to executive-level exposure and conversations OR it gets the "no" I needed to move right along to the next one.ย 


Panda4489
Politicker
0
Head of Some Shit
I wholeheartedly agree!! I don't give a damn if a prospect tells me NO! But damn at least give me 2 seconds to say NO we aren't interested anymore.ย 

Calling their boss is typically my go-to. I'll definitely have to try the calendar invite thing!
VEO
0
Head of Sales
Love the calendar play!ย 

What often works for me is a one liner subject: [topic name] - did you cancel the project?

Guess it's subject to industry/product/sales cycle.

Anyway. Thanks again for the calendar tip!ย 
7

Deals in play that go dark

Advice
10
14

Prospect's gone dark? Try the FW:

Advice
7
16

Prospect goes dark after quote

Question
22