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String Me Along Why Don’t You

Written by: Marshall W. Northcott

Article Overview: How do you avoid being strung along by customer and prospects? Why does this happen, how can you position yourself to minimize this aggrivation and what questions could you or should you be asking?

String Me Along Why Don’t You

Being strung along by a qualified prospect can be exhausting, extremely frustrating and an enormous waste of time. The enormous amount of energy you can burn up trying to get what seems to be derailed back on track and moving forward can be exhausting. If you are a persistent sales person, the customer who you have the best of intentions to help can turn you into a professional pest.

How do you feel when you suspect that you are being strung along by a prospect? You may lose respect for them and think that they are a wimp or that they don't value your time. Possibly you feel sorry for them or even more so for the people who are counting on their direction and leadership. In your mind, you may consider them to be a very indecisive person. For those who are determined, you likely believe that if you keep calling they will eventually cave in and go ahead. Sometimes you will be right and other times you will not.

Why do prospects string sales people along? There are all kinds of reasons and it has been my experience that in most cases you will never learnwhat the real reason is, or what has happened. It may be because they are ashamed or embarrassed to admit that they have misled you and that the decision making is actually out of their hands or that possibly the initial circumstances have changed which has altered their plans to act. Possibly, someone else told them that they could not proceed with their plans. Often people aren't comfortable enough sharing the truth with you or they just don't want to say, "No, we have decided otherwise." Your contact may really want to go ahead but they just don't have the funds or means to do so. They continue to hold out hope and don't want to tell you it is a dead issue because that would be like admitting defeat. Many other things could have potentially happened behind the scenes that you may never be made privy to. Their company could be in financial turmoil, they could have a personal situation that is delaying the decision, they may have gotten involved in negotiations to sell the business, they may be playing internal politics and the list goes on.

Under what circumstances could it possibly be your fault you are being strung along? Are there times when you chicken out and fail to ask the tough but direct questions that you should be asking? Did you insult or offend them? Have you been guilty of calling too many times and leaving voice mail messages when you should try to have them paged or ask for an alternate contact method (cellular number etc.) to reach the prospect? Do you sometimes secretly not want to hear the truth because if the news isn't positive you will have one less active prospect? Here are a couple of suggested questions; "The level of urgency seems diminished, has something changed since we originally spoke?" "Things seem to have become stalled, is there something I can do to get us back on track?" "Mr. Customer I know you wouldn't lead me astray, have there been delays beyond your control?" "If so, may I ask what they are?"

As your ability to properly qualify a prospect improves and you ask enough of the right questions the likelihood of being strung along by a prospect diminishes. When you are more effective at building rapport and making a personable connection with prospects, you increase the chances of being rewarded with honest responses. Being strung along will never disappear entirely because there is always going to be someone out there that will refuse to tell you the real goods.

There have been times when I felt I was being strung along for an extensive period of time to the point that I thought the prospect was probably going to explode on me. I was staying in touch, following up on a timely basis but each time there was nothing to report. I was thinking I was beating a dead horse and even came right out and asked, "Is this thing (the potential deal) still alive?" I was put off again and again and in the end got the business. I have told my contact, "I'm getting nervous that this (my phoning) is bordering on stalking" only to be told, "No, I'm really busy, it's still a priority and I appreciate you staying in contact and following up with me." In some instances, in the end, I have secured the business and in others I have not.

"Anything that is wasted effort represents wasted time. The best management of our time thus becomes linked inseparably with the best utilization of our efforts." - Ted W. Engstrom

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Article Tags: best of intentions, circumstances, decision making, enormous waste, leadership, nbsp, prospects, real reason, sales person, string sales, truth, waste of time, wimp



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