There’s nothing worse than seeing what you felt was a sure thing in terms of a sale slowly drift away from you and into the land of wind and ghosts. 👻 What in the world happened?! You did everything right and the customer said all the right things, but now they won’t return your call. 📞Was it something you said? Were you just being played for a chump? Are they just on vacation? There are all sorts of questions we ask ourselves when a hot lead turns cold, but the most important question is what do we do now❓❓
You were really counting on this sale, and now you are feeling desperate. You’ve considered offering a discount, showing up to the office to confront them or, heaven forbid, stalking them on social media to see if you can glean an answer there. Before you act on your desperation and give up all control of your sale, there is an effective technique I recommend to either get the sale back on track or just walk away; The Assumption Technique.
Before I hand this method over to you, we have to at least talk briefly on why the hot lead went cold in the first place. The answer is usually simple. You either have a very shallow sales process or you made the conscious decision to skip steps in your sales process. I can tell you that it is better and easier to correct this issue than it is to use the Assumption Technique, but let’s face it, sometimes we do everything right and the customer just runs off without warning. When this is the case and you want closer on the deal or the situation, it’s time to give the assumption talk. This can be via voicemail, email, or even letter, but here is the final message unless they truly do want to do business.
The Assumption Technique:
“You know what they say about assumptions. Since you haven’t responded to me by now I can only assume that you are no longer interested in our (product/service). If that is so, I can be okay with that, although I’d be a little disappointed all the same.
If I read the situation wrong, please let me know. Otherwise, I wish you the best of luck.”
It’s that simple. If they don’t respond, then you know you can walk away with the confidence that there is no deal to be had and you can quit chasing this one. However, oftentimes you’ll find the message is powerful enough to get them to break their silence and tell you what is really going on. There is something about the word ‘assumption’ that motivates people to respond and, best of all, this can put the control of the sale back in your court. Give it a try the next time you have a hot lead turn cold and let us know how it worked for you.