What to Do When the Sales Prospect Goes Dark

Printing company salespeople ask me about a common situation these days: GHOSTING.

“What should we do if the sales prospect stops talking to us after we deliver the quote?”

Ah, the prospect who “goes dark.”

Also known as “ghosting,” going dark is when someone ends a relationship by suddenly and inexplicably cutting off all communication.

The truth is, potential print buyers drop out of the sales journey at various places in the sales process. However, when it happens after the quote is delivered, it leads the print salesperson to believe it’s because their prices are too high.

In my experience, price is RARELY the reason a prospect stops talking to you.

After all, a prospect who is legitimately progressing through the sales steps will come back to you, ask clarifying questions, and make a counter proposal if price truly is the issue. Rarely will that person just drop out of sight and not respond to follow-up calls or emails.

The truth is that the sales prospect who stops interacting with you — ghosted you — probably dropped out of the process long before the quote was delivered.

Here are the three top reasons prospects go quiet on printers:

• They don’t like you.
• You confused them.
• They never intended to do business with you.

YOU CONFUSED THEM

1. You gave them too many options. (Confused)
2. They feel insecure about their ability to proceed. (Confused)
3. They are embarrassed about something. (Confused)

THEY DON’T LIKE YOU

1. You don’t communicate well, don’t listen, or insist on using your preferred methods of communication rather than theirs. (Don’t like you)
2. You consistently have gotten things wrong, possibly the details in the print quote. (Don’t like you)
3. Someone in your organization rubbed them the wrong way. (Don’t like you)
4. They found out something negative about you, maybe from another customer, competitor or online. (Don’t like you)

THEY NEVER INTENDED TO BUY FROM YOU

1. The prospect was on a fact-finding expedition that was never going to end with a purchase order. (Never intended)
2. The print buyer used your quote to beat down the price on their preferred provider. (Never intended)
3. They don’t have a clear timeline to complete the project. (Never intended)

What can you do if a prospect goes silent after the quote is delivered?

It takes self-confidence, good communication skills, and a professional approach to selling to help salespeople overcome or prevent ghosting.

Here are the skills I work on with teams:

• Train printing salespeople in modern, 21st-century selling techniques.
• Design a better format and delivery process for sharing quotes.
• Fix the gaps in your sales process.
• Be professional in all areas of writing, including emails, messages, and texts. Always re-read before hitting send.
• Qualify prospects better.
• Define the project objectives and timeline.
• Don’t make assumptions.
• Have a sales manager or owner attend sales presentations with the reps.
• Do role-playing exercises during sales trainings.
• Use brief questionnaires earlier in the customer’s journey to get information on that specific buying stage.
• Pay attention to your online reputation.
• Hire someone to anonymously go through your buying process and give you feedback.
• Train all employees who come in contact with customers and prospects including CSRs, bookkeepers, delivery people, and those who work in your booth at trade shows.
• Create a company environment where employees are proud and excited to work and sell.
• Listen to how the owner and top managers view prospects and customers (what types of words do they use to describe them?) to see if they are role-modeling positive behavior.

Finally, although it is uncomfortable, ASK your prospect why they’re unresponsive.

As you know, I am a big fan of using the customer’s own feedback rather than making assumptions.

To encourage feedback from a prospect who is not communicating:

• Email a survey.
• Have a third-party service make a phone call.
• Ask them. “What can we do better?”
• Send a letter with a stamped postcard asking for feedback.
• Offer to meet with their buying team to clarify issues that weren’t resolved to their satisfaction.
• Introduce them to a different sales rep in your organization.
• Invite them to an open house or event.
• Go to LinkedIn and see if your prospect still works for the buying organization.
• Ask if there’s anyone else on their buying team who should be included next time.
• Ask them, ”What is the one thing you wish your current print provider would do better?”

When you receive feedback, log it, share it with your team, problem-solve around it, fix the issue, and circle back to make sure you didn’t create any unintended consequences with the change. Keeping feedback in a central place is important. Don’t store texts apart from emails apart from phone messages. You need to assess the big picture to understand where to improve.

“If testing shows we are losing a sale at a certain point in the sales process, it’s important to pinpoint that exact place, make corrections, and then add extra steps so the prospect is fully comfortable moving forward.”

Ultimately, when the customer goes dark, it’s a clear sign you need to to improve your sales process.

View ghosting as an opportunity, and you can start to make improvements that benefit all of your sales interactions.

Read more from Sandy here.

Sandy Hubbard is Chief Marketing Advisor for printing companies. She works on a retainer, by the project, on a fractional basis. Her areas of specialty include building the print company to be stronger from within, improving sales, planning for growth, structuring a more powerful market position, and preparing leaders for company sale, succession, or retirement.

Connect with Sandy on LinkedIn.