055: Preemptive Anti-Ghosting


Hey, 👋 Scott from The Sales Mastermind here.

Today’s edition only takes 3 minutes.


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"We'll talk internally and come back to you" is where sales conversations go to die.

If you accept this response, elite sellers will tell you you'll never speak to that buyer again.

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Today, we'll cover:

  • 60% No Business Priority
  • BAMFAM is Best (but not always possible)
  • The Alternative Talk Track

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No Business Priority

A previous company I worked with was 100% inbound. Yet we closed <10% of qualified leads, a terrible conversion rate.

Low conversion rates skyrocket the customer acquisition costs - a key SaaS metric.

The head of marketing and I wanted to know why and what we could do to fix this. We went through every single inbound lead from the past four months.

The approximate sales process was as follows;

  • Inbound Interest
  • Book a Meeting
  • Discovery Call
  • Demo Call
  • Follow Up
  • Close

About 60% of qualified deals ghosted us after the Demo Call.

Often without another touchpoint as the sales team accepted buyer statements similar to:

"Leave it with me, and I'll let you know tomorrow/next week/soon."

So many deals could have ended differently if the sellers had either BAMFAM'd or followed the alternative in today's newsletter.

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BAMFAM is Best

"Book(ing) a Meeting From a Meeting" is best and always will be. This means that before the sales meeting ends, you agree on the next step and schedule the next touch point with the buyer.

It works because buyers will do what is easy.

If you make it easy to meet by booking the time and sending the calendar invite, the buyer has to take action to cancel a follow-up meeting.

If you don't book anything, a buyer can passively fade away.

Always try to BMFAM, but if you can't, there is an alternative.

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The Alternative

Firstly, we have to accept that when the buyer says, "I'll get back to you," they mean it. They aren't lying, at least not in the moment.

However, as soon as the meeting ends, the next step is pushed to the back of their mind.

Therefore, your job is to make a response easier than being ghosted.

To do this, you need three ingredients:

  • Clarity on the next step
  • A time and date deadline, and
  • An outcome of non-response

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Clarity

Buyers must know what the next step is and what involvement is required.

Without clarity, it is easier to ghost you.

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Deadline

By specifying a mutually agreed deadline, you can create legitimate urgency for the buyer to decide.

Specificity matters; for example, "next week" needs to become "Tuesday before 4 pm."

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Non-response outcome

The last ingredient is letting the buyer know what action you will take if the deadline passes.

Again, specificity matters. Will you chase once or twice? Are you going to email or call?

Remember, whatever you agree honour your word.

If you tell them you will call twice and then assume they're uninterested, you can't call three times. Your word is your promise, and sellers must keep their promises.

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The Talk Track

Here is a talk track (or script) you can follow:

Buyer: No, I am not booking anything. But I promise to get back to you next week.
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You: Perfect, and does next week mean Monday, Friday, or another day?
Buyer: Let's say Tuesday.
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You: Easy, Tuesday 9 am, 5 pm, what are you thinking?
Buyer: 12 pm.
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You: Awesome, so you'll let me know if you want to move forward with phase one by Tuesday 12pm. Just before I let you go, if I don't hear from you, what do you want me to do? Should I assume you're not interested or chase you up?**
Buyer: Please chase me.
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You: That sounds good; I'm happy to. My rule is to send one email and leave one voice message. If you're keen, you'll let me know. If I don't hear from you, I'll assume it wasn't a priority. Is that fair?
Buyer: Absolutely.

**They will ALWAYS say chase because, at this moment, they are excited about working with you.

Want to see the power of this technique? Try it in your next sales call that won't BAMFAM.

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Until next week,
Scott Cowley

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