What to Do When Sales Prospects Turn Cold

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If sales prospects who once seem excited about your product or service turn cold, you may be doing a few things that turn them off.

Your sales presentation may be too lengthy or short on facts and transparency. Treat your prospects’ time as precious. Don’t make them sit through a long presentation or insist on a face-to-face meeting if they need you to cut to the chase. You might just be wasting your time and theirs if you delay too much. So work on stating up front what your value is and what you can do for customers in real terms, so you haven’t left important things unsaid when you run out of time.

Sometimes potential customers are just using you to get a better price from another supplier, so before you spend too much time on them, ask them questions like:

  • Who has previously provided you with this service?
  • How satisfied are you with your current service and pricing?
  • Why are looking to switch providers?
  • Who else are you considering?
  • Have you worked with these companies before?

That will help you determine how serious a prospect is about purchasing from you.

Sometimes customers just aren’t ready to buy yet – perhaps they found a temporary solution or other priorities took over – so keep them on your mailing lists and stay in touch until they’re ready.

Adapted from Why Hot Prospects Go Cold and What to Do About It by Maryalene LaPonsie at Small Business Computing.