It seems like every week I see somebody complaining about
getting ghosted.
These posts are often met with a tonne of support for the person who got ghosted, but then quickly descend into a client bitch-fest.
"It's so RUDE"
"How DARE they?"
"I put HOURS into my proposal"
Firstly, I totally get it. I've been ghosted plenty of times of the years. I used to have a CRM that tracked email opens, and I could see one prospective client open all three of my follow up emails. But they never bothered to respond to any of them. How infuriating.
But these days I rarely get ghosted. Here's how:
1) Pre-qualify your prospects
Stopping a ghost happens BEFORE you even speak to them. Look at their website/profile/posts and ask yourself:
- Does this seem like the sort of person I would get on with?
- Are they the sort of company/person who would invest in my services?
You'll get a gut feeling about whether someone is serious or not right away. Pay attention to it.
2) Find out how serious they are on a call
- How would working with me support your goals?
- What results do you think we could get by working together?
- How much time/money would you like to invest?
Ghosting often happens because a client is unclear or not fully committed to their own goals. This makes them indecisive and they'll likely take the cheapest/easiest route. Use this opportunity to assess how serious they are about getting results.
The more serious and invested they are, the less likely it is that they will ghost you.
3) Ask when you will hear back from them, specifically
Get a date down and verbalise it. "Okay, so I'll look forward to hearing from you on Tuesday". Once again this asserts you as the leader. If they're flaky on giving and answer here, don't be afraid to explore further by asking "do you have all the information you need?" or "what are the next steps at your end to move this forward?"
I'm sorry to say but most people, in most cases, don't do enough to mitigate their chance of ghosting. Clients are busy and distracted and yes, sometimes rude. But the closer you can get to them in that first interaction, the less chance they'll ghost you. You have far more influence over this than you might think.
Watch: In the video above I talk about what to do when you've been ghosted.
