Dealing with Unresponsive Clients & Prospects

Top Secrets of Marketing & Sales

When dealing with unresponsive clients and prospects, we have to make sure that we're doing everything on our end to be as responsive as possible. If somebody takes a week to get back to me, that doesn't mean I'm going to take a week to get back to them. Because if I start to fall into the trap that they've laid out, then that's not good for anybody. David: Hi, and welcome back. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing unresponsive clients and prospects. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey, David. Once again, great topic here. I think all of us are guilty -- anyone who's involved in sales -- of thinking, this client is going to turn into something, but really, if we looked at it, should we be spending time on somebody else instead of trying to push people through who are not ready or not able to do so. David: Yeah. And I think, as you said, everyone in sales deals with this, and that's when you're dealing with prospects, right? That's when you're dealing with people who have not yet spent money with you. This is even harder for some people when you're dealing with clients, people who have spent money with you and who are not getting back to you with the information that you need in order to do the job that they paid you to do. Jay: Yeah, I actually have a client right now that is driving me crazy, because we're in the tax business and they were like "we need to get this done because we have an extension." And so at some moments they're like pressing me like this is so important. And then they'll ghost me for like three or four days. So right now I'm in the ghost period. I've emailed them, I've called them and I'm like, where did they go? And I just know like tomorrow they're going to be, "Hey, we need to get this done." It's driving me crazy, David. David: Yeah. And again, you are not alone. I think everyone in business deals with this, and every time it happens, we're like, why is this happening? I don't get it. And that's why I think it's important for us to take the time and sort of examine this and try to determine, okay, what are the reasons behind it? If it's a client, why are they not getting back to me with the information? So in a situation that you just described, maybe they don't have access to it as quickly as they thought. Obviously, they're just probably distracted with other things. They're working on other projects. They know it needs to be done, but they're not able to do it as quickly as they'd like. Every excuse in the book, some of them valid, some of them not. But when we are tasked with getting things done on somebody else's behalf, and then they refuse to live up to their side of the bargain. That's when we start to run into trouble. Jay: Yeah, absolutely. And I think one of the things that I'm guilty of as we talk about this, is feeling like if I put any pressure on the client, it's going to like affect our relationship or something like that. So I treat people with kid gloves. And I really kind of find out, no, if I'm, I don't know if stern is the right word, but at least, David: Maybe firm? Jay: Yeah, firm maybe is a better term. David: Yeah, because I think there is a difference between stern and firm. Firm is basically like... Jay: They sound the same. David: Yeah, exactly. Listen, I'm trying to help you here and I need this in order to move forward. And in most businesses, when you're interacting with someone, particularly in a service business, it comes up a lot. So the rapport obviously is key. We have to be able to have the rapport with people to be able to say, "listen, this is what I need. Otherwise I can't move forward on it," and have them be able to come back and say, "yes, listen, I understand. I'll get this taken care of for you." But it doesn't always flow like that. And that's why I think if we start to look at what are the reasons for it, we may be able to have better ammunition in terms of dealing with ...