One of the primary frustrations every sales person experiences is when a prospect who appears to be interested in their products and/or services stops responding to their e-mails and phone calls. They are now in a position where they have to come across as professionally persistent as opposed to annoying. Here are helpful sales closing techniques to use when the prospect goes silent.
The first thing to consider when this type of situation occurs is how they got themselves into this predicament, and then what should they do differently to avoid these types of situations. Most likely, this is a symptom of a sales person going through their sales process without checking to make sure that the customer was tracking with them along their purchase process. It is essential that customer actions trigger the advancement of a sale.
Nevertheless, even the best of us will find ourselves confronted with sales opportunities where the prospect has stopped responding and we need to find ways to get the customer to re-engage. While we stress continuing adding value as the key to ongoing communications, this is often easier said than done.
I posed this question to a number of my colleagues, and a common them was that the “added value” you bring as a sale professional does not need to directly relate to the product and/or service your prospect is considering. As opposed to simply “checking in”, sales professionals can add value by inviting them to webinars, or directing them to information (articles, blogs, web sites…) that relates to their interests and priorities.
The funny thing is that these prospects really do want to engage but it needs to be based on communication that is customer-focused as opposed to self-centered.