There is nothing worse in sales than having a phenomenal conversation with the prospect. I mean, things seemingly went really, really well. You really hit it off.
Then you go to follow up and they ghost you. They stop answering the call. You're stuck in voicemail jail.
It's like the prospect fell into the witness protection program. I'm going to show you in this video exactly what to do so that never happens again. All right.
So, first off, let's talk about the big mistakes that most salespeople, whether you're in real estate or not, make over and over and over again and wonder why no one answers their follow-up calls. So, while we're talking to prospects, here's a script that I hear over and over again. When I break down a cold call, this is what it sounds like.
The salesperson says, "Well, listen, Mr Prospect, it was really nice talking with you today. I'll follow up with you in a few months just to see if anything has changed. Now, when the prospect responds with, "Okay, sounds good.
" The pro the the salesperson takes this as interest. This is not what's happening. See, most prospects are just like you.
They tell they tell salespeople what they want to hear. Why? in order to get rid of them.
It's the fastest way to get rid of a salesperson is to give these false agreements. But most salespeople are addicted to what? Hopium.
So they get happy ears. They hear this, "Okay, sounds great. " as, "Ooh, I've got one.
You have nothing. " The prospect is just saying this to get you off the phone. the prospect knows if they're just like, "Okay, this is coming to an end.
Sure, fine. Yeah, call me in a few months. " What that really means is, "Listen, dude, as soon as I hang up this call, I am blocking your number and I am never answering this again.
" So, when I coach a real estate agent, we would call this a force. This is you forcing the prospect into submission. This is you saying, well, you know, I will follow up with you.
The prospect gives you a counterfeit yes, and then you feel like you've generated an opportunity. Let me show you what to do instead. So, step one, we want to change the context.
All right? By changing the context, here's what I mean. We have to get the prospect to ask us to follow up.
We cannot force it. And so here's a really, really simple script. And by the way, if you want all these scripts, I'll put a link in the description.
But here's all you have to do to change the entire dynamic of this situation while you're talking to a prospect. Just say something like this. Mr Prospect, would it make sense for us to revisit this conversation at some point in the future, or would that be a complete waste of time?
Now, because you are respecting the prospect's autonomy, you're giving them the ability to choose for themselves. There is nothing to resist here. You've given them the option.
You've made it safe for them to essentially give them a way out. And so, they are either going to take this up to say, "Yeah, you know what? I'm glad that you said that.
Probably not. Probably doesn't make any sense for us to talk uh uh together. " uh again rather or they say no.
Yeah, why don't Yeah, let let's actually let's revisit this conversation. Either way is fine. But now instead of you forcing the prospect into saying yes, you're giving them the ability to say no.
So let me show you step two. So if the prospect by themselves, without you forcing them, says, "Yeah, sure. Uh let's absolutely revisit this conversation.
Yes, I do think it makes sense for us to talk again. Well, then naturally we want to get the prospect to tell us when we should follow up so that we just are adhering to their wishes, right? They've asked us to follow up as a professional.
We certainly uh want to serve them at the highest level. So, as uh you would in a conversation, this is something uh this is what it would sound like, right? So, you're having that conversation.
They say, "Yes, let's talk again. " You say, "Okay, fair enough. Uh, I'd be happy to follow up.
When would you like me to reach out again? It's not us forcing, hey, I'll follow up with you in a few weeks. I'll call you back tomorrow.
I'll call you back in, you know, this time frame. " We get the prospect to a verbalize and commit to wanting to have another conversation. That's really important because of the uh law of consistency bias, right?
So that's number one. Number two, once they have verbalized and they have decided for themselves, we didn't pressure them, we didn't force them in having that conversation. We get the prospect to tell us when that would like when when they want us to do that.
Once you have gotten permission to follow up, they've asked you to follow up. They told you when you want them to they want you to follow up. Then you can get into step three, which is vitally important.
We want to give them one last chance to bail. So, we want to make sure that you're not stuffing your pipeline and filling your database with people that in fact never want to hear from you again. Cuz I can make you a promise.
the data collection business doesn't pay very well. And so rather than forcing people into your pipeline and you continuing to fill your addiction withium, let's put people in the database, let's follow up with people. Let's invest in our follow-up systems with actually w with people that actually want to talk to us again.
Yes. Okay. This is what you do.
The last chance to bail. This is what this could sound like. So, Mr Prospect, listen.
I'll try giving you a call in March, but are you sure? I mean, I don't want to be that annoying salesperson who follows up. I mean, if you'd rather just put this to rest for now, it's totally fine.
I promise you're not going to hurt my feelings. See, we have to double down on the prospect's intentions. We have to make it really, really, really safe for them to say, "You know what?
I appreciate you saying that, but no, I genuinely uh uh uh value this conversation. I genuinely want to revisit this. I genuinely want to talk again.
Or by doubling down on giving them the opportunity to bail, giving them this one last chance to get out. Some people will take you up on that. Some people will appreciate this because they have been in this situation before.
Listen, nobody wants to a chase prospects. if you're in sales and if you're a prospect, nobody wants to be chased. It's so annoying to get phone calls and text messages and emails from people that you have uh that you don't want to hear from again.
So rather than, you know, getting the prospects to to mislead or misguide us, not because they're bad people, but because they just want to get rid of us, we just make it really comfortable for them to say no if that's what they want. So once we've given them this opportunity and they don't take us up on it, then we can move to step four. So after you've gone all through that, you can move on to what I call the backup plan.
So, it's really simple because here's the the the the downfall. If you don't do this and you go and follow up with prospects a couple weeks, couple days, a couple months later and people get busy, right? And so, if you get into their voicemail, then that starts the the chase game.
That starts the uncomfortable, all right, now do I call him again? What do I say? Etc.
So, we have to put a plan in place proactively that both you and the prospect have agreed to ahead of time. So, doesn't it make sense to simply ask the prospect what you should do? If you follow up like they've asked you to follow up and you're calling out their uh their potential decision later to send you to voicemail on what you should do next.
So we are getting in front of things so that the prospects don't have any type of opportunity to to uh uh give you some type of an excuse. Yes. So we get in front of that.
All we have to do is simply ask the prospect, listen, when I call you back, when I follow up with you, if for some reason I get your voicemail, what should I do? So again, this does two things. A, we want the prospect to verbalize that if they send us to voicemail that we're not just like every other salesperson that they can just easily brush off.
We've given them the opportunity to tell them tell us that they don't want to hear from us again uh ever again. But if we do get to their voicemail, we get them to verbalize these words. Well, I will call you back or uh just text me.
Something like that. So that they when the time comes and they see your number pop up on their phone, if they put you to voicemail, they're the ones who told you what to do next. You're not being the annoying salesperson and oh by the way giving up all of your credibility and losing the positioning as the authority here because that's what's at stake.
Because needy salespeople, desperate salespeople that chase prospects for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks, they give up all of their status and as a result they get walked all over. Now, if you've done everything right, what will happen, and in over 20 years of me selling, what I just walked you through will help a lot. But there are always the anomalies.
Yes. So, if you've done everything right and you still are having prospects ghost you, then it's step five. It's time for the Dear John message.
Now, you can send this in a text or you can send this uh in an email or you can put this into a voicemail, but there's a lot of psychology behind this messaging. I won't get into all of that. What's important is that you deliver it in the right way.
Okay? So, if you're following up with a prospect and they simply are not answering, you've called them a few times, here's exactly what you're going to say. You're going to say, "Hey, John, I've tried reaching out like you've asked me to, and I haven't heard back.
" And so, like I mentioned before, I'm not going to be the annoying salesperson who chases you. I get the feeling that you've decided to go a different direction, which I totally respect. If I'm wrong and you've just been busy, I'm certainly here to help.
But listen, I wanted to wish you and Karen all the best. Now, what happens is this calls the prospect's character into action without accusing them of anything. And this is how you get people to instantly call you back because their integrity is at risk.
You have given them ample opportunities to not have this conversation. You've given them the last chance to tell you, "Yeah, you know what? Don't follow up.
We're probably wasting our time. " You've even gone as far as saying, "Listen, if I get your voicemail and I can't get a hold of you, what do you want me to do? " And you've got the prospect to tell you what they should do or what you should do, rather, and they're still not answering.
See, their integrity at this point in time is being called into question. And most people just don't want to contradict what they've committed to in the past. This is why if you have to use this message, you can get people to to instantly call you back.
All right, so now we talked about how to never be ghosted again. We talked about exactly how to end your prospecting sales conversations. Now the question is, how do I actually open up a sales conversation with a prospect where they don't want to instantly just hang up on me?
See, there are certain things that you can say that will allow prospects to lower their defenses so that you can actually get into a good conversation such that you can generate a lead. And so, I made a video right here that I break down the very best ways to open up a cold call. These are things that I've tested for over 20 years and I found the very best way to open up a sales conversation.
