If you’ve been in the industry long enough, you’ve probably heard these traditional sales mantras:
The implicit message is: “keep pushing them until they either say yes — or say no.”
Makes you want to take a cold shower after reading those, doesn’t it?!
Of course, you don’t follow any of those ideas any more, because you know how they can break trust with your prospects – and how uncomfortable the make you feel.
Often times though, advisors do feel a deep sense of guilt, if they had a great conversation with a prospect, then they chase them with no return communication, forcing them to walk away.
You tell yourself: “I’ve given them my best, if they don’t appreciate my value, then that’s their problem, I’m not going to chase them anymore.”
It takes a lot of mental energy to be wound like that, especially if you start second-guessing yourself about why they never called you back.
But, what do you do if you have an initial prospect meeting and you determine they are not a fit with you?
How do you handle that with grace, so you both disengage unscathed?
Learning to walk away may be the hardest part of selling because we’ve been so conditioned to pursue anyone who we believe could benefit from our services.
Once you decide that you aren’t, here is some trust-based languaging to end the conversation graciously:
Or, if they are a fit, and you aren’t afraid to state the way you work (no chasing!), you can say:
Keep them on the calendar, and you’ll never have to feel guilty again having to chase and then abandon a perfectly qualified potential client.