"When Prospects Give You The "Silent Treatment"

If you’ve been selling for a while, you’ve probably had a minimum of one experience in that your prospect suddenly started providing you with the "silent treatment."

 Anthony described this dilemma terribly poignantly when he referred to as me a few weeks ago:

 "Ari, I don’t know what to do when I get hit with the ‘silent treatment’ -- you recognize, once I’ve worked with an opportunity for quite a while, and we have a tendency to’ve had nice conversations, and they've expressed interest in our answer -- and then all of a sudden everything stops.

 I attempt calling them back a few times. I even send a follow-up e-mail, however nothing. They just disappear. And i figure I’ve lost the sale, and i don’t grasp what I did wrong, or what to do next. It makes selling feel like such a painful and arduous process."

 If this has happened to you, you may have felt anxious and confused. You'll have told yourself, "It’s not as if I’m the one who did anything wrong. I put everything into the link. How will I rescue the sale if I will’t even get them to talk to me?" 

 The "Hopeium" Trap

 There may be a pressure-free approach to reestablish communication when your prospect starts supplying you with the "silent treatment." However initial, it’s necessary to understand why matters is going on in the primary place.

 Most folks who sell get trapped in "hopeium," a comical term that means we focus our hopes and desires on making the sale. But hopeium will be a trap, as a result of it's impossible for you to stay in mind your most vital goal: to be told your prospect’s truth.

 When we fix our minds on the result -- creating the sale -- we tend to automatically begin anticipating how the process can go, and we conjointly begin expecting that things can happen as we hope they can.

 But if we’re in that mindset and our prospect suddenly breaks off communication, we tend to feel lost, anxious, frustrated, discouraged, and confused. We tend to become preoccupied with what went wrong.

 We tend to may even feel betrayed.

 Is there any way to clear up the mystery?

 Yes, by discarding your agenda and learning the truth regarding where you stand together with your prospect --and being happy with no matter the truth may be. "However how will I learn the truth after they’re avoiding me?" you will raise. "And why do I would like to giving up of the sale?"

 Let’s take the second question first.

 If you approach your prospect whereas you still hope the sale can happen, you’ll introduce sales pressure into the connection. This will push your prospect off from you and destroy any trust you've got developed with them. Instead, you'll eliminate sales pressure by telling them that you’re okay with their call if they’ve determined not to maneuver forward.

 In other words, you are taking a step back instead of trying to chase and follow up with calls as a result of you’re targeted on getting a "yes."

 The bottom line is:

 When a clear stage gives you the "silent treatment," it doesn’t mean you’ve lost the sale. It simply means you don’t grasp the reality nevertheless.

 What you wish to try to to is call and learn the reality.

 Why is learning the reality thus important?

 Here are four necessary reasons:

 1. You stop losing confidence in your selling ability. The "silent treatment" threatens our "hopeium." We tend to start blaming ourselves. We don’t apprehend where we tend to stand -- a painful state of limbo. Our self-speak is negative and full of self-blame, and we’re on pins and needles wondering whether or not the sale will still return through somehow.

 a pair of. You increase your selling potency and decrease your stress level. Once you learn the truth regarding your prospect’s state of affairs, you can either stay concerned with the prospect or move on. I typically say, "A ‘no’ is almost as valuable as a ‘yes.’" Why? Because it frees up it slow to search out prospects who are a better fit with your resolution. This lets you're employed a lot of more efficiently as a result of you can quickly weed out prospects who aren’t going to buy. Knowing the prospect’s truth helps you to walk away without that guilt-laden voice whispering, "If you provide up, you don't have what it takes."

 Learning your prospect’s truth translates into tangible results that equal real greenbacks. You’ll also put an end to the self-sabotaging stress that comes from living in "silent treatment" limbo.

 3. Sales pressure pushes prospects away. When you respond to the "silent treatment" with calls and e-mails, you’re really telling them that you just’re determined to move the sales method forward -- that means that you’re wanting out for your wants, not theirs. This makes them mistrust you and run the other method.

 4. The "silent treatment" -- totally breaking off communication -- is how prospects protect themselves from sales pressure when they don’t feel comfortable telling us their truth. The more we press, the additional they run.

 However the opposite is true, too. The a lot of we tend to relax and invite the reality, the a lot of easy they’ll be with us. Prospects feel okay sharing what’s occurring with them when they recognize we tend to’re okay with hearing it.

 How to Reopen Communication

 Once Anthony and i had talked about some of these issues, he said, "This all makes a lot of sense, Ari, however I’m still not positive what to say when I build that call."

 It’s simpler than you might think.

 * First, simply give your prospect a decision. (E-mail and voicemail are terribly impersonal, therefore use them only as last resorts if you cannot reach your prospect once many phone calls.)
 * Second, take responsibility and apologize for having caused the "silent treatment".

 Here’s some language I steered to Anthony that will build prospects feel safe enough to open up and tell you the reality concerning their state of affairs:

 "Hi, Jim, it’s Anthony. I simply needed, 1st of all, to decision and apologize that we tend to ended up not having the ability to attach. I feel like somewhere along the means perhaps I dropped the ball, or I didn’t provide you the data you required. I’m not calling to maneuver things forward as a result of I’m assuming you’ve probably gone ahead with someone else, and that’s perfectly okay. I’m just checking to see if you'll have some feedback on where I can improve for next time."

 When you respond to the "silent treatment" this method, the results can in all probability surprise you. You'll even learn that the prospect has legitimate reasons for not having gotten back to you.

 You’ll additionally notice yourself more productive and less pissed off. It’ll create a world of difference in your productivity level, your stress level, your income, and the way abundant you relish what you’re doing.

 Remember…

 You haven’t lost the sale. You simply don’t understand the reality yet.