What Do I Do When A Potential Customer Seems Interested But Ghosts Me?

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1:55You can try it totally free. Just head to granola.ai slash MBA. That's granola.ai slash MBA to get your time back. Try it for free at granola.ai slash MBA. So you had a great conversation with a potential customer. They seemed interested, but then silence. They ghost you. A ghost is not a no, most of the time. mostly it's, I forgot, I'm busy, or I feel overwhelmed. This might not be the right time. And you're perceiving it as rejection. It's actually a chance for you to help. And yes, sometimes it is a no, but in my experience, most of the time it's not. And I'm gonna show you how to identify each one and how to be able to reply to customers, potential customers, to get them over the line so that you can be a consultant, a helper, somebody that's on their side to make sure that you are giving them everything they need to make the decision to buy.

2:52In fact, there are three big reasons why people ghost, and only one of them means that they're not going to buy right now. So we're going to go through each one and explain what to do. I have Nicole with me here on Q &A Wednesday to help me go through this question and make sure that we answer for you. Hi, Emma. Hey, Nicole. Hello. Well, gosh, ghosting, it's a term that gets thrown around a lot. So our listener, viewer is not alone. This question today comes from Mandy. Mandy asks, I had a potential customer who seemed really interested and then just disappeared on me. No response to anything.

3:27What do I do to someone who ghosts me like that? I first want to say that I know that you and I both hate getting ghosted. Okay. I think that we both think that everybody's like us. And the truth is that most people don't like, we feel like I would never ghost anybody. I would always just reply even if it's a no even if i'm late maybe i can't make it you can't just like forget about we're talking about even this friends family yeah you know dinners appointments frustrating things like that is it a word that you even grew up with i feel like it's a new generational thing that's why i think we get frustrated possibly but i do think that we our standards are quite high and and i think it kind of hurts us in a lot of ways because we just can't imagine like why why would nobody reply to this this is like this is strange you know why would you just like i sent you a message and you know that I'm waiting for you so I can know if I have the book, the tickets or not.

4:16And you just don't answer me. It's rude. It is rude, in my opinion. But what I'm saying is that a lot of us, we just leave it at that and say like, oh, these people are strange. They're rude. They're careless. They don't care about other people. And you just we relate that to our own business. And sometimes we don't realize we're not actually helping ourselves or helping our business by knowing what to do with people that this is normal. Yeah. So if it's normal, what do we do? Let's get into it.

4:47Welcome back to the$100 MBA show. I'm your host, Omar Zinhome, where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to help you start, grow, and scale your business. Hey, if this show has helped you in any way, leave me a quick review wherever you listen to podcasts. This helps us reach even more people who need the same no-fluff practical business advice. It literally takes a few seconds, but it makes a huge difference. Thanks for being a part of our journey to help others on their journey. There are three big reasons I have found that people ghost. Now, there might be some other reasons here and there, but these are the three big buckets.

5:25And the first reason is probably the most common one. And a lot of people don't recognize this. And that is people are just simply busy. You might have a call with a customer that wants to sign up for your service to solve a certain issue in their problem or in their business and they want to like improve something, make some money, maybe they want to learn more about your product or service. This is one of many things on their plate. Like probably like you're probably a priority number 72. Okay. And I'm not talking just about their business plate. I'm talking about their life. They have kids, they have family, they have pick up the meds from the pharmacy for their dad's insulin.

5:59There's all these things that are going on in their life. They're just busy and they just, for some reason, missed your pitch or missed replying to you. Maybe they're disorganized. Maybe they don't have the help they need. All these things are true, right? But I think this is the biggest one because we feel like it's personal when it's not personal. It's just they're very busy. And I think that that's a good thing because if you're dealing with somebody busy, they're a doer. They're making things happen. And most business owners, people that are making money are very busy. They don't have a lot of time.

6:29So you're not letting them off the hook. You know, in a way, it's a nice reframe that it's not a personal thing. Like, don't take it personally. Yeah. And I actually love it when I get a sales call, when somebody calls me up. Like, for example, last week, the gym called me and said, hey, we sent you an email and I was just too busy to reply to the email about my annual renewal. And they called me and they say, hey, you need to renew your membership. It's going to be canceling at this time, blah, blah, blah. And I actually appreciated it because I can just finish and close this loop right now on the call, right?

6:59I can say, okay, just renew me. Or I can say like, when can I, you're going to the gym on Saturday? All right, I'll be there. I'll meet you on Saturday when you go to the gym and we'll renew your thing. I can close that chapter in my head now, you know, and that's actually easier. And some of us, we don't take that approach with our customers. We're like, just call them. Maybe they're just busy and a phone call is much easier. They're going to pick it up. They're in their car. Oh yeah, I'm so sorry about that. Where do we land? One, two, three, four. That sounds great. Let's make it happen. Send me the contract.

7:25I'll sign it today. You know, that sometimes is just the cure. Is this like understanding that they're busy? How can I make this easier for them? So it fits in their busy schedule. I like that. It's almost like you're not taking it personally. You're not feeling the rejection, the hurt. You just get out of that hurtful. There's a reason. There's a good reason. Right. And I think that we forget that this happens to us. We get busy in our life. How many times have you ignored emails? How many times have you ignored letters in the mail from the plumber that wants to fix your thing or whatever, or the HVAC maintenance guy that put a letter in your door envelope thing, whatever.

8:01But the point is, is that that person to get upset, like, this person didn't reply to me, my God, no. They're just going to be consistent about it and try to help you out knowing that you're busy. All right, let's move on to reason number two, and that's they're interested in your product or service, but they're overwhelmed. This is different from busy. It's not that they're too busy to answer you and they're sold. this is somebody who feels like getting started, doing what is required to solve this problem, is going to be too much lift on their side. It's going to be too much work, too much time commitment.

8:33They're not really sure what's involved. It's just kind of in a too hard bucket. Like, oh, I'm delaying the decision because it just feels like too much right now. Like your pitch, you haven't explained clearly what the steps are. It's a bit vague. Because that could be a problem too, right? Or we're assuming the pitch is good, the offer's good, it's not clear to them why why would it go into a too hard basket well we have to take responsibility as business owners often this feeling comes because they don't feel like the desired outcome is achievable with your solution right this is subconscious and i'll go back to the gym example like say for example somebody's umming and ahhing it's not like me like i'm going to the gym i just need to renew it because i like the gym but what if somebody's like i really didn't use the gym last year and I'm kind of delaying it.

9:22And it's just too hard for them to commit because they feel like it's not going to be worth it. Right. This is where the gym has to step in and has to create an offer to make it easier for them to say, yes, there's some friction here because they're overwhelmed because like, I don't want to do the gym. I don't know the exercises properly. You know, I don't feel the motivation. I didn't get results last time. All the stuff is happening and delaying the decision. So the gym needs to repackage and say, hey, by the way, if you sign up today, we're going to give you three personal training sessions for free.

9:51And if you come in today, we're going to give you the one for free without even signing up. So you can go through the routines and see how it goes and be with one of our coaches. And then after the session, you can decide if you want to renew. That's a good reframe. Now the prospect has no excuse. They're like, okay, I have nothing to lose. I can go and do a workout and see how it feels to have a personal trainer. Never had that before. They get the training, they get the exercises, they realize they're doing a few things wrong. They figure out that, oh, this is what a good workout looks like.

10:18If I sign up today, I get two more of these. It's tempting to do that. Now I'm giving them enough to get over the line. A lot of people don't understand that we don't say yes to an offer unless we feel like getting to the desired outcome is going to be low pain threshold, low effort threshold. We wouldn't go to a restaurant. Let's say, for example, you're going to a French restaurant. It's fine dining, right? And then they said to you, OK, great, have a seat. It's going to you know, this is going to be expensive meal, but don't worry. We're going to take care of everything. And by everything we mean, you're going to come back in the kitchen and you're going to put the ingredients together and you're going to do all this stuff.

10:51I know you wear fancy clothes, but just wear this apron is going to be fine. You'll be like, no, I don't want to do this. It's too much effort. I want to sit down and relax and have a meal and be pampered. Okay. The restaurant example is one thing. I think because this applies to professional services, people who operate, say, they're a law firm, accountants. I think this happens a lot in professional services. So, and I think we've experienced this with an immigration lawyer, for example, where it was really clear what the outcome was going to be working with that person, that it was just a no-brainer to say yes.

11:23Because once you choose, like you may decide, I'm going to work with this person. That's it. Like there's no more opportunity to come back to the first person that pitched you. Is it because the outcome is not clear? Yes. I think that people don't understand what is required of them, right, as the customer. Because they understand you can't do everything. There's something that you have to do. Like even if, for example, you're hiring an agency to edit your videos, right? They need your videos. You need to shoot videos, right? So they have to outline, hey, this is all we need from you. Shoot all the videos, this format, send it to us in this folder.

11:57We'll take care of the rest. Now it's a bit clearer picture. That's not overwhelming. It's going to take maybe, you know, a couple hours a week. I could do that to be able to boost my social media. Once they understand that this is linked to the outcome and this is all I need to do. But when it's all vague, like this big agency and the videos and the editing, do I have to approve things? Do I have to like, I don't know what this is all about. I've never done this before. You have to understand the customer is a newbie. They don't know what it's like to work with you. So you need to paint the picture and say, this is all you got to do.

12:24This is your job. This is our job. And this is the outcome you're going to get when we do this. Now, what I'm hearing is if you focus more on them in that scenario, then you reduce that overwhelm. If you've been a listener of the show for some time, you know how much I believe in the power of selling with live video. That's why I'm excited to have Whatnot as today's sponsor. Whatnot is the largest dedicated live shopping platform, whether it's beauty, collectibles, electronics, luxury fashion, even cookies. Sellers are building real, thriving businesses. It's where sellers shine and find their people and where customers come back to see your face instead of just the logo.

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14:54That's Upwork.com to connect with top talent ready to help your business grow. That's upwork.com, upwork.com. Reason number three why they ghost you. And here it is. They don't actually want what you're offering yet. There is a world where people are just not a good fit for you at this moment of time. Maybe they can't afford it. Maybe they just actually don't have the time to do what they need to do to fulfill their end of the bargain to see success in this transaction. Regardless of what they say, this is actually good news for you. Why? Because you've already built a relationship with them. You've had a conversation with them.

15:35They understand what you're able to do. Your job is to keep that relationship alive. This is the only mission you have. Why? Because if you continue just to check up on them, even if it's like once a quarter, hey, hope everything's going with your business, letting you know if I can support you in any way. We actually have this new service that's a little bit lower entry. You may want to take a look. If not, wishing you all the best. By the way, Happy New Year. Whatever. Just be in touch like a friend so that when they are ready to buy, at some point they're going to be ready to buy, they have you top of mind.

16:07They're not going to be shopping around and looking at everybody else. I already know this person. I have their email. They email me every few months. The next time you email them and say, you know, Happy Easter, they're going to be like, oh, actually, can you tell me again about what you do? Because I think I might need it. Right. So you're saying it's not just following up on, do you still need my services? it's other types of content that you could put out there, whether it's around the festivities, like wishing people well around the festivities, or even other content. Like if you're a law firm providing like insights into what's happening now, if you haven't unsubscribed from the list, could that still be helpful to be top of mind and having a system around continuous contact with your customers?

16:45That's not necessarily... I mean, it could be both. I mean, you can definitely tell them, remind them of your services, anything new that's happening in your business, Maybe an upgrade that's happening, share some news. But you could just genuinely just check up on them, right, just to see what's going on. And this doesn't have to be in a newsletter format. This could be literally you sending them a text message. It could literally be you sending them a WhatsApp, sending them an email, just a personal email saying, you know, hey, I saw on Facebook that you had a baby. Congratulations from all of us here at the office.

17:15Hoping everything is great. No ass, no nothing. Like, you're just top of mind. You're still in their world. The longer that you kind of ghost them, the harder it is for them to remember you and for you to then have that conversation again when they're ready. Because it's a relationship ultimately. Yeah, 100%. And the example that comes to my mind is you and I, you remember, we used to run weekly webinars at Webinar Ninja. We would run a webinar every single week demoing our product. And we show why Webinar Ninja can help people's businesses as they try to create sales and sell the products and services via webinars.

17:49and we would send an email out to our email list, inviting people to this webinar every single week. And some people would show up and not buy. Normal, right? Not everybody's going to buy, right? But we have people that would show up, one webinar, two webinars, five webinars, six webinars, nine webinars, 10 webinars, like go to every webinar for like three months straight and then they buy, okay? Yeah, I never got that until now. Like it makes sense. They're just not ready. They weren't ready, but they still wanted, they were still interested, but they knew it wasn't the right time. But I'm going to guarantee, this is a guarantee, guarantee they would not buy if I never invite them to the webinar every week.

18:28Or if they didn't continue. Yeah. And if they didn't continue to build that relationship, because in a way, those webinars were a way for you to build trust. That's what you always said. And it was a way to continue to nurture that relationship. And they felt like, okay, when it is time, why would I go anywhere else? Because I've already formed a sort of attachment, a relationship with this brand, with this business, with this person. But I easily could have had the attitude of like, oh, all these people didn't buy. They went to the webinar last time. I'm not inviting them again. You know, these guys are losers.

18:55I don't want to deal with them. No, like, no, they're just not ready. My job is to give value. And when they are ready, then I go shopping around. I trust Omar. I've seen him on 12 webinars, right? I've gotten so much value from him. There's a lot of reciprocity that kicks in. They're like, you know, if I'm going to buy a webinar software, it's going to be from this guy because he gave me so much value week after week. And you just got to keep on inviting people to an opportunity to learn from you, to grow from you, have that conversation, to see the value of your products and services. And they just they eventually bought because I kept on inviting them.

19:27It doesn't cost me anything to invite them and to have an open mind. And actually, it was actually kind of fun. I don't want to name this person by name because maybe it's a little bit embarrassing for them. But like, let's call him Greg. You know, Greg used to show up like, it's Greg on the chat again. Hey, Greg, welcome back. And like, Greg is not a customer yet. But Greg was like. I knew so much about Greg. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. What are you talking about? Greg was great. Yeah, and it's just good to have Ally in the chat in this context of a webinar. But this is the point. You have to keep on inviting them.

19:57And the funny thing is that a lot of people lose a lot of sales because they don't follow up. And just to go back to the webinar example, we used to always teach that when you run a webinar for people, one of the low-hanging fruits in terms of making sales is the post-webinar emails. the emails you send after the webinar say hey we made this offer maybe you didn't see the offer you left early or you didn't attend the webinar you're watching the replay this is what the offer is there's 24 hours left on the offer there's 10 hours left the offer those follow-up emails that happen on average 30 of all sales came from follow-up and it's not i didn't just say oh they didn't show up that means they're not interested oh they didn't buy after the webinar they're on they're not interested forget about them i don't want to bombard them people are busy.

20:40People sometimes just need a little bit more time. Maybe they need to ask their wife or their coworker or their boss if this is okay. You know, there's so many things that can happen. Your job is to serve. Just serve, serve, serve, serve. And then when people are ready, they'll buy. By the way, thanks so much for joining us here on Q &A Wednesday. We have an upcoming episode that I'm really excited to share that we recorded recently. It's called The Top Five Mistakes when creating and selling a live event. Nicole and I have run a lot of live events. We've learned a lot of hard lessons. We made every single one of these five mistakes.

21:13We wanna make sure that you don't do this. And by the way, if you run a business, you're gonna run a live event. You're gonna run a professional development day. You're gonna run a Christmas party. You're gonna do something with your team, even if you don't do it for money to sell to customers. So make sure you subscribe so you don't miss that episode. It's gonna be one of my favorites because there's a lot of funny stories, pain and anguish that's shared. But at the same time, I went through that so that you can benefit. So make sure you hit subscribe so you don't miss it. You mentioned the word bombardment, and I think there could be something cultural there that it could be a difference.

21:45I feel like that's an Australian thing, like that sense of like, I don't want to bombard people. It's a bit of a mindset and therefore you don't follow up. And I've got an example that actually happened to me the other week. But I think in America, possibly you don't even have this thing of like, I don't want to bombard people. Well, the easy cure to that, if you feel like you're a burden to people, by the way, most of the people that are on your email list, they chose to be on there. They signed up for your newsletter. They signed up for some sort of freebie. Maybe they signed up for a webinar.

22:13Maybe your client asked for more information. That's why he called them. Like, you didn't choose this. You didn't just like cold call them. Most people, they have chosen to be contacted. If you feel like, oh, I don't want to keep on following up. Maybe it's too annoying. you can literally just have a PS line or a line in the bottom of your email and say, hey, I just feel like I want to make sure I help you in any way I can. Even if you don't buy, I want to make sure I could support you. If you don't want to get any more emails from me, you can unsubscribe or just let me know. I'll stop emailing you.

22:41Or otherwise, I'm going to keep on following up and making sure that I take care of you. Like you can just have a one-liner if you want to, if you're worried about that. That's it. Yeah. In an email, that's so easy. And if they unsubscribe, that's your message. That's clear. They don't want to be followed up with. So the example that I was referring to was there was a membership club here in Sydney. I'd gone in and inquired that I received and then nothing happened at the time of the day, you know, when I went a few months ago, I got a call randomly as I was driving. And it was someone saying it was one of their salespeople saying, oh, does this sound familiar?