Consider this sales scenario: You conduct a great meeting with a prospect, engage in smart conversation and exchange ideas. Then the prospect:
- Thanks you for the insights you provided.
- Agrees that your solution meets her needs.
- Engages in a preliminary discussion regarding pricing.
- Asks you to prepare a proposal.
- Goes so far as to discuss start dates for the project.
You leave the sales meeting excited and confident that you have a deal. The prospect gave you every buying signal you ever learned.
Sales success starts before the follow-up. You write the proposal, review it with your team, include detailed pricing and timelines and send off the proposal with a well-crafted email.
Silence. You call, you email—silence. You're dumbfounded. What went wrong? What happened to the great relationship you thought you had? Why won't your prospect return your messages? I don't know, but you certainly need to.
Maybe she got busy, went on vacation, changed roles within the company or ran into barriers for approval and feels too embarrassed to talk to you. Maybe it's none of these.
