She’s Just Not That in to You – The “Maybe Whirlpool”
Chasing….I hate chasing. Wouldn’t you rather have a fast “no” than an excruciatingly slow “maybe?”
Do you know what the difference is between begging and professional follow-up?
Three unreturned contacts to your buyer.
After three, you have to be honest with yourself—she’s just not that into you.
I call this endless follow up process the “Maybe Whirlpool.”
You know that you are in the “maybe whirlpool” when one or more of the following conditions happen:
- Slow response cycles. Any response cycle outside of 48 hours from your point of contact. When these are repeated with your key buyer or contact, then you either have a very weak contact, or you are very low on the list of issues they are solving.
- Long consideration windows, like when you receive a message that says that they will be considering their options over a period greater than 3 weeks. You may need to modify the period if there are engineering requirements, IT configuration issues or other technical compliance issues. However, there is a cycle that you need to define and then honor if you are going to stay out of the whirlpool.
- Vague political maneuvering comments. “There are a few things going on here that I can’t discuss. I need to line some things up and then I will get back to you.” Again, you have a weak contact who will not be making a decision in the near future.
- Two delays. When a fixed decision date has been moved twice.
You have to get out of the maybe whirlpool. It wastes your time and it creates a depressing and debilitating set of activities for you as you sit outside the prospect waiting and wondering.
My solution to this is to break the cycle. The following is a general version of the email we send to companies that are keeping us in the “Maybe Whirlpool.”
“Dear Prospect-
I know how important timing is when considering work with a company like ours. Because we have not been able to connect in the past few weeks by phone or email, I believe that what we have discussed is not currently in your top priority list.
I do not want to keep contacting you, because at this point my calls and emails move from the “pleasant persistence” category into “active annoyance” category.
Out of courtesy to you, I am going to assume that if I do not hear from you in the next several days, other priorities have replaced the project we discussed. I will not contact you for another 3 months to allow you the time to take care of those priorities.
If I am wrong, please, give me a call or an email because my interest in your company and the project has not diminished.
Best,
“Sales Rep who is no longer in the Maybe Whirlpool”
The next step is to honor what you have sent. Don’t chase anymore. Call back in 3 months, or whatever cycle you have stated. Period.
It is possible, actually very possible, that your prospect will respond quickly to you and re-engage. Awesome. But, if he or she does not, you have to let them go, take them off of your pipeline and move on. Admit it. She’s just not that into you.
Love it Tom! Now if I could only sack up and do it everytime!
Question: If they are all not into you, what do you do? (not that I am dealing with this, just curious) meaning do you need a makeover or plastic surgery? LOL
1Probably both the makeover and the plastic surgery and a style consultant.
Seriously, during the economic downturn a lot of projects went into the “Maybe Whirlpool” for companies. No funding, reorganizations, all initiatives at dead-stop.
I coached my clients to re-cycle in 90-120 days and to keep doing that. With the amount of upheaval in the market, the re-visits gave them the chance to pitch the deals over again. What was being perceived as a Maybe Whirlpool was in fact a dead deal. Re-cycling gave them a chance to start the sales process over with new people, (their previous contacts were often gone or had a change in job scope), new initiatives, (when things calmed down, companies still needed to do business, just in a different way, and new market conditions, (strong companies were positioned to take market share).
In your case Nate, don’t do anything drastic like surgery…it could just be the tie….
2As usual, great column, Tom. We have had the “busy-ness” versus “business” conversation before, and I think having imaginary friends in your sales pipeline is one of the classic signs of “busy-ness.”
Your simple approach to identifying the whirlpool and jumping the heck outa there is terrific. Of course, it’s possible that when all our imaginary friends are removed from the pipeline, we’ll find that we’ve left the whirlpool but are still up to our necks in hot water… but that’s another column.
3Great sample email Tom. You mentioned the “key buyer or contact”. I’ve had many “maybes” come from key buyers/contacts that aren’t the true decision maker. It’s good to ask upfront if they are, then you can pinpoint the “maybe” based on this information.
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