Should I let the client go?

It may be to late in terms of whether or not they are going to take advantage of any information you may have given them. Hopefully you didn't deliver everything during the meeting? This sort of thing does happen from businesses.

Let's assume that is not the case.

My attitude is always that if I went to the trouble of getting a presentation together, coming out and meeting with you, then you owe me the respect to decline or accept my offer on the phone or in person. I do not stop contacting until they give me a yes or a no. I do it tactfully, of course, and it takes all of 2 minutes to call someone.

Stuart,
I had a client lined up that did gourmet meats and delivery. They were saavy and had the right kind of setup for a social media campaign. I spent a LOT of time writing a proposal and had a 1 hour chat on the phone with them. They were ready to go it seemed - and then they just disappeared.

It was a blow-off basically. When I'd call they were always out etc. That was their way of saying they weren't interested.

Would I let yours go? No. Keep on them. In 18 days call them and say "Okay it's been 3 weeks, let's set up that meeting and get you going because -insert big reason why they should hire you here-"

I wouldn't give up that's a warm lead.

It's often hard to know if you're being/appearing hyperactive/desperate/impatient or actually being gamed/taken advantage off. Every customer is different.

What I always do is put a deadline on my offers/proposals.
If a client wants to make a contract after that date he can't expect the price to
still be the same and needs to get a new proposal from me.
That gives you a good reason to ask for a final decision at a set time.

Stop coming across as desperate. Leave it for a few weeks and then come back to them and say look, I am wondering where I stand?

God knows what else they have going on in their business. There are nearly always more important issues going on. Give them time to think about it. If you come across pushy it will do damage to the sales process. Let them have their think etc etc and come back to them in a few weeks.

One of the most successful salesmen in my last job was quite blunt with the potential customers. He would use reverse psychology and say, ah its probably not for you etc and this would stimulate interest and they would buy. It wasn't IM services though, completely different market but just saying.

Ask what stage they are at with it, do they require anything else from your end, look and seem professional. Some sales take months to close regardless.

One of the fundamentals I recently learned in managing your prospect pipeline is:

ALWAYS get to the next step.

As in, Always Be Closing.

"Too busy this week, Mr. Prospect? That's fine, because I'm busy, too; how's 2 weeks from now on Monday at 5pm?"

Fight to move the project forward or end it. It's up to you entirely, not them. If they begin to waffle, not commit, etc... then they are blowing you off.

But it sounds like you don't KNOW this is the case or not because you are not ASKING for the next appointment to close this deal.

You might also want to try telling them "Hello [client], I'm scheduling my workload for the upcoming month. I know how important this project is for you, so I wanted to give you a chance to get a priority schedule before I begin work on another commission. How do you want to proceed?"

This is a three-pronged approach. 1) It's an attempt to get the client moving again, while 2) letting them know that you do value their business and want to work with them, but 3) you ARE busy, and they're NOT the center of your universe.

If they say yes, then great, you'll have gotten them off their butts. If they call your bluff and say no (or don't respond), then you know the client isn't invested in the project and you should turn your attention elsewhere.

I agree about not coming off desperate. Don't let it die but stay busy on other things too. Give them the time they said then follow up with "are you ready to move"... In the proposal always leave some secrets also. That way you are never worried about them taking it all and running with it. Never give the whole outline up. It's great to give free advice or give some detail in a proposal. But, don't make it so that they don't need you. Make them value you.

But, again, don't be the desperate girlfriend. They are just one of many.

Mistakes..but you learn as you grow as a business person...

1. Never wrote a complete proposal without prior meeting with the person face to face and if you are doing international like i am; try to use skype or video calling.

2. Put a disclosure in your proposal about using the proposals without prior approval from your agency may lead to legal sanctions. It will put off potential clients that are just seeking ideas.

3. In your proposal; do not write all the complete details, this is a major mistake most of us did from beginning. Do write the "gist" of the strategies etc.. Just get them to see the picture; once they give you a retainer, then you can outline it in complete details but still keep some of the secrets for you to keep them dependable on you.

4. Never ever call and email them so many times; usually one follow up email and a call is enough. If they tell you to wait 2 weeks; please do so and do not harass them as you are showing you are desperate to have them and they have the power over you.

5. You've already prepared a detail proposal; seek out potential competitors in that same field and personalize the proposal while omitting essential info -> send it to them; you do not want to let your hard works go in vain.

If they contact you after two weeks; that is good and if they do not; you already have their competitors in line. If after 3 weeks; nothing happens; kindly give them a call and inform them that you were waiting but given that there is no call from them; you are moving on by helping their competitors using the same proposals.

They can not sue you or anything as you are not legally binded to them and most of the time; they will call you after a few hours or days to beg you to be their consultant; sometimes with a huge raise if you are good at what you are doing with their competitors.

Here are the 3 "rules" I go by:

1. If it's not a clear "yes" - then the answer is "no."

2. Interested people who want your services do the things interested people who want your services do.

3. Actions speak louder than words.

Sure, sure, maybe there's a one percent chance they really are stuck for time. What to do? Take your offer off the table. If they are really stuck for time and really wanted your services, they'll let you know! If they do, then give them a firm deadline.

Get out there and get more business. They are not the only business in your town.

Hey here are two ideas for you.

Prospect says send it all to me in a proposal when you get back to the office:

No problem at all, you wouldn't have a problem with this non disclosure agreement :

This has two benefits

1.It will protect the work you've done and you can have a small buyout fee in that if they intend to use your ideas and not you they have to pay you a fee.

2. The time wasters are more than likely going to say erm err stutter =ok maybe we need more time to think about it, so in this situation you don't waste you time and stay in limbo maybe they will maybe they won't.

Also you can work this in during the meeting usually when they ask so who else have you done work for ?

Well here are 2 clients whose permission I have to show off and here are their numbers please feel free to call them right now I will step out.

''This is because I protect all my clients with a non disclosure so I don't mention them without their prior permission I apply the same principle with clients and my proposals''.

Right from the get go you've shown your professionalism and weeded out the tyre kickers who now know no-non disclosure no proposal (Its not rude its not personal its just business/ they protect themselves by shopping round for cheaper options so why shouldn't you protect your ideas?)

They may respond so how will we know how much it will cost us ?

Oh that's no problem at all I can tell you the price but I cant tell you the work I want to do for you (without a non disclosure) and then stop you from going to someone else with the blood sweat and tears I have put into drawing up your proposal.



Another option is a generic proposal
eg:
social media $500
seo #kwords : $100
website : $300

No details no ideas just costs.


Hope it all helps good luck

NEVER use a proposal as a sales tool. Never. Ever. Always close the deal before you write a proposal. How? It's all about perception. These guys give you the run around and waste your time. Nope. You need to be sure they know your time is important and your aren't doing any work until you have a firm commitment. This includes working on a proposal.

They get the proposal after you have agreed to work, and now you are just proposing a course of action. Once you agree on a course of action, it should be understood they will be writing a check. You do this by only spending time with people who want what you got to offer. If they are dodging you or you have to talk them into it, move on.

If your marketing method requires you to go beg for business and chase them around, create a new system to find the people who want what you are offering. It isn't that hard and will save you untold frustration and wasted time. When you start doing this, you can raise your prices significantly.

NEVER chase a prospect. If you make them an offer and they pass, walk away. Sell someone else and then start mailing them the results their competitors are getting. The more calls I get from someone, the more I think I can dominate them. The less I want to do business with them.

The clowns aren't treating you like a professional. I bet they don't treat their lawyer, accountant, real estate agent, or doctor that way. Don't call them again...if they want to do business...they will call you. Then make THEM wait. Tell them how busy YOU are.

Most likely, they will just take your proposal and get other quotes and you will never hear from them again. Been there. Done that.

Give them some time. Some of my clients do take a while and I just give them time. Eventually they end up calling my business and we continue from there. I would not stress over one client, just move on to the next one.

You spent a lot of time and effort generating this proposal. I never would let a lead go until they give me an answer on the quote. It is still a warm lead...I never let a lead go, they are too valuable.

Hi StuartM

Some excellent strategies, advice and approaches here that work for many people.

Might add some of my ideas that may help you, and perhaps some others here.

My approach is to quickly (and genuinely I might add) get on a level with someone.

If they are challenging or difficult its because they are either that way generally speaking...or your approach isn't quite connecting with them.

Most people respond to value propositions on some level - or the promise of those situations.

Personally i'm a big advocate of 1 percenters in life. The little things count.

You have to be careful not to let your ego get in the way of making a connection with a person/customer/client.

Remember this is about you - you are the central theme here in all of your business negotiations. How you manage you is more important than how you manage them.

Sometimes you don't win a client. But you can always win with professionalism and see it as an opportunity to learn and grow from personally and professionally.

Are you listening to them? Are you hearing what they are saying?

Maybe you have pushed too hard to get their attention? Maybe as has been mentioned already, they are just after free info?

If these people are avoiding you then perhaps you need to hear that and acknowledge that?
I'd want to set up another time...or time frame to speak to them

eg: "Hi client, how are you. just calling to see how you are progressing with that information/proposal we discussed last week?
How are you going with it?"
Havent looked at it yet? Thats understandable, theres a lot of high value information and strategies to go through there, how about I call you in a couple of weeks to touch base and see if we can set up a time?"

Now the above is just an average off my head example but it establishes a connection. It empathises with their situation. It listens in other words. What you have done is also kept them in the potential customer zone by saying you will call them again.
You could have tried to get a specific time - but then you need to be intuitive ie do you get the feeling they wanted to set a time just yet? If no don't push.

The fact you said you would call them back is establishing further communication and deal potential and its building trust/familiarity on some level.

Many moons ago I was a fairly successful outbound cold call telemarketer (sell cold calls you can sell anything just about as they say. I always tried to listen to what the person was really saying - if that person said 'NO'
From there I had to determine if there was a good chance of getting that person to say 'YES' in the future....and I always did my job with the future in mind as the future determined my present... when I arrived there!

Too many sales people think now and do not see the bigger picture. I always saw myself as a sales person 'with awareness' - never liked the salesy pitch many had as I saw it as insincere and fake.

Suffice it to say I did very well in relative terms to successful outcomes (pay was crap!)...but what a fantastic foundation to develop so many skills and so much experience.

Keep ego out of the sales equation is my advice. Find ways to connect - not disengage. Be prepared for NO...and move on.
That'd be deemed perfect practice in my book

They are not on your communication schedule. They are on their own internal schedule and have better things to do to fill their day.

They might be ignoring you because they don't care for your proposal, or they might be ignoring you because their effort is focused on daily operations and some big contract they are working on. You will never know.

The point is; let them close the door. Otherwise just wait without being obnoxious.

If you are being ignored then they probably haven't caught the vision that you had for them in your proposal or they like the ideas and believe they can do it cheaper internally. Either case is not good for you. Proposals should be heavy on vision and light on details to be most effective.

Well, just leave and try it to others but never give the whole outline about your business. You're just wasting your time on waiting them.

may be they thought your offer is expensive,
dont wait for them, and dont call them.
dont show them that you are desparate to get the deal.
always behave like, "You don't need customer, customer need you"

keep contacting more businesses, it's not about getting one client, it's about getting the skill, if you have the skill of closing then you'll make $$$

Stuart,

Your OP makes it sound like you're a little desperate for their business. Remember back in the day when you were chasing girls and saw one that you really liked and wanted? The more desperate you were the more put off she was. The same principle applies in business. So what do you do? Remind yourself that they need you more than you need them. Get busy with some other business that will appreciate your services. Do you dump the current prospective client? Nah, don't burn your bridges, but just put them on the back burner and just drop a line once in a while and see how they are doing and that's about it. Best of luck to you.