Sales Reps: Don't Ghost on a Follow-Up When It Indicates a Cold Lead
With Halloween fast approaching, I want to discuss what can be a scary topic for businesses and nonprofits.
If you use cold email (or LinkedIn message, etc.) outreach as part of your lead nurturing efforts, and you do the following, your reputation could be taking a hit among an audience segment that might turn into a hot lead later.
Consider the workflow in my email thread below with Laurence from a lead generation service:
Here are the steps involved from my perspective as a potential client of his service:
He sends me the first cold email. I don't respond.
He sends me a follow-up email. I respond with two follow-up questions as shown above.
It's now been 11 days since my reply to him (it was nine days when I took the screenshot two days ago). He's ghosted me, presumably because my follow-up questions show that I don't fit their ideal client profile (ICP).
The sequence ends with a step that might not be apparent to him as the sales rep, but is definitely tangible for me, the prospective client: Now, even if he comes back with answers to my questions and a competitive, highly attractive offer, I might not be inclined to accept it and give his firm the business he originally sought.
Actions have consequences, but in this case, an inaction had a consequence. Laurence's ghosting has shown me that I'm not actually a potential valued business partner. I'm simply a number; a line on a spreadsheet.
I'm passionate about this sales rep workflow because it's happened to me recently in other email threads as well as in LinkedIn message threads. It's a trend, and not a positive one when it comes to the impression I now have of these service providers.
If your sales team similarly ignores lead replies when their follow-up shows they're likely not a match for your current ICP, I urge you to use one of the following to reinforce a human connection as a means to maintain your positive reputation:
A time-saving reply that still saves face: "Unfortunately the answer to your question is no. Thank you for taking the time to reply to me!"
A reply that takes more time, but provides an outsized level of value, increasing the odds that your lead remembers your firm fondly; a little more research on your part is required: "Unfortunately the answer to your question is no. However, if you're looking for ____, I recommend you check out ____. Thanks for your reply!"
Note that with either reply, you can create a template so you're not typing it from scratch. If you choose to respond with #1, you can create an auto-reply that uses keywords from your lead's reply to determine if the "no" auto-reply should be sent. This is a way to maximize automation and save communication time for your sales team, while still ensuring that you're not ghosting your (now cold, could warm later) lead.
