You have your targets to meet, but sadly, the leads in your pipeline are not responding to your texts, emails, or even phone calls.
Amidst this, what should be the best way to get your prospects at least to pick up your call? Or open the email you sent.
Let’s hear it out from our stellar sales reps.
- Ravish Kumar, Associate, SMB Sales (Inside Sales)
- Srishti Jawa, Senior Quality Manager, Sales
- Pankaj Chaudhary, Senior Program Manager, Sales
- Rajat Lodha, Manager – Business Development, Sales
- Piyush Singhania, Team Manager – SMB Sales
- Rupesh Kumar Singh, Regional Manager – SMB Sales (Inside Sales)
- Neerav Singh Chib, Associate Director, Sales
Find out the root cause of the problem
When a prospect is not responding to you, first you need to figure out “why?”
Is the lead/inquiry you’re pursuing can be a potential buyer? To gain some more clarity, let’s understand the attributes that sales reps consider in a prospect.
What is a prospect to sales reps?
To sales reps, a potential customer who meets the criteria for your target market and has the budget to purchase your product but has not yet made a purchase is considered a qualified lead or prospect.
“The three main criteria I see for classifying someone as a good prospect are as follows: they are actively looking for the product, they are interested in it, and they know that they need it and have done enough research on it.”
Pankaj Chaudhary, Senior Program Manager, Sales
There are times when good prospects go dark and stop responding to your call, emails, SMS, etc. Try to understand why they’re not responding to you.
There could be several reasons for it, some of the obvious ones are:
- They may be busy and unable to respond at the moment.
- They may have already found a solution to their problem elsewhere.
- The product might not be a good fit for the person’s company.
- They might not be responding to the follow-up because of the pricing.
If they are simply busy, a reminder email or call may be all that is needed.
However, if there is another issue, such as a competitor’s offer being better, it is important to address that issue head-on.
How to follow up when your prospect is not responding to you
“There are two types of clients who do not respond to follow-ups: those who will not get annoyed but just genuinely ignore you, and those who will get annoyed and tell the salesperson not to call them.”
Srishti Jawa, Senior Quality Manager, Sales
If a lead matches all the criteria of being a prospect, these are the things you can do to get a response:
Try out different communication channels
Did you know a follow-up email even after not getting a response from the prospect have a 27% of reply rate? And those who don’t send one have a reply rate of just 16%.
Everyone uses different modes of communication channels these days.
When a prospect is not responding to follow-ups, it is important to stay positive and keep trying. You can also try reaching out to them through different channels. Here are a few things you can do to increase the chances of getting a response:
- Send a follow-up email or give them a call.
- Try a different method of communication, like social media or LinkedIn.
- Personalize your message and make sure it is relevant to the prospect.
- Keep your follow-ups short and to the point.
- Be persistent but not pushy, and always be respectful.
“If possible, and if you’re in the city, you can plan to visit their office or meet up. But if you’re not, then the best medium to follow up is through communication channels like SMS or email.”
Rupesh Kumar Singh, Regional Manager, SMB Sales (Inside Sales)
Now you may be wondering, what kind of messaging would work to get in touch with prospect who hasn’t responded to you in the past couple of months?
While there is no hard and fast rule, one would be to wish them on a festival through email or SMS. This can be a good opportunity to start a conversation.
You can also give them a call every month or 40 days to see how they are doing. This way, you can see if they still need help. Remember, you are not selling anything, you are just helping them.
Also, you can use tools like Sales CRM Software to send messages through multiple channels and track all the interactions. This way, you’ll know which channel works for which prospect. Plus, you’ll have a track of conversations and the context of the last conversation.
Identify the frequency of follow-ups
Usually, the frequency of follow-ups depends on the requirement of the prospect, like how soon the prospect wants to buy the product. If they want to buy it quickly, then the salesperson should follow up with them every day. If the prospect is not in a hurry, then the salesperson should follow up with them every 35 days.
Your ultimate goal should be to get a response without annoying them. Give them a good enough reason to respond to you.
In this case, the salesperson should only call these clients if they see activity on the website or the prospect is asking for a demo. This indicates that they are interested in the product. So, you can send them an automated email because nobody feels annoyed by those automated emails.
LeadSquared allows you to track a lead’s activities on your website and ads (like page visits, etc.) and sends notifications to sales reps about those activities.
It helps sales reps figure out the best time to follow-up with the client, who is ignoring your calls or messages.
If you feel you annoyed your prospect, think about how you can come out of that feeling in a few minutes. However, the biggest risk is that you will spoil your company’s name with an annoying statement.
Built a relationship with your potential prospect
In order to connect with someone, you need to create a relationship with them. Once you have a relationship with them, you will be able to understand what they want, and you will be able to communicate with them in a way that is not annoying.
“There is no right time to follow up, anytime can be the right time. It can be Diwali or any festival; it can be anytime. You just set communication with customers in some way or the other to build a good relationship.”
Neerav Singh Chib, Associate Director, Sales
After some point in time, what matters is the comfort level and how you sell the platform across as well. First, get the prospect to trust you. Do proper research, and try to provide them with solutions to their problems rather than just selling your product.
Try to reach out to prospects personally in order to increase the chances of getting a response. Also try to understand whether the prospect is available at a certain time or not, in order to avoid repeatedly trying to contact them when they are not available.
What to do if your prospect went ahead with your competitor?
“One reason why someone might not be responding to the follow-up is because of the pricing. They might prefer to go with a local vendor that has a lower price. However, they might come back to you after a few months because the local vendor’s system might not be as supportive.”
Ravish Kumar, Associate – SMB Sales (Inside Sales)
When your prospect goes ahead with one of your competitors, try to keep in touch with your competitor’s customers. You can send them a monthly email with updates on your product and call them every two months just to check on if they are facing any issues with their current product.
This allows the company to build relationships with its potential prospects, and to stay up to date on what they are using.
How to re-engage with prospects who have gone cold?
The most important thing to understand is why a prospect has gone cold.
“There are two reasons a customer might get cold: either they find a better solution than the one you were pitching, or a competitor wins the sales. Another reason could be that the existing system the customer is using in their company gives them certain discounts or benefits that make your solution less attractive.”
Rajat Lodha, Manager – Business Development, Sales
If a lead goes cold, it’s best to stop following up for sales deals and instead start talking to their team leads and managers to learn about the problems they’re facing. Those at the bottom of the pyramid will be most interested in your solution, as it will make their work easier.
The best way to connect with cold lead in India is to reach out to them via email or cold call them to inquire about their availability.
For those who have gone cold, do lead nurturing and keep sending them emails on the product updates, run campaigns or send them some data and facts about their competitors who are using your product.
Another way to follow up with a cold lead is to send them case studies of similar problems that you have solved. If you are not getting a response, you can update or change your follow-up approach by visiting their office or sending them an email.
Know when to stop pursuing a lead
“There are two red flags to watch out for when pursuing a potential client. The first is if the client is too focused on negotiating price, this may mean they are not willing to pay what you are worth. The second is if the client does not fit into your usual use case, this may mean they will require too much customization outside of your normal scope of work.”
Piyush Singhania, Team Manager, SMB Sales
The three main things to keep in mind when pursuing a customer are: fitment, customer seriousness, and budget.
If the customer does not have a requirement that matches what the company offers, if the customer is not serious about the project, or if the customer’s budget is not realistic, then the company should not pursue the customer.
To sum up
These are a few options you can consider, but the most important thing is not to give up. You’ll need to be persistent and find a way to stand out from the crowd.
When a prospect is not responding to follow-ups, it can be frustrating. However, there are a few things you can do to try and get a response. First, try reaching out through a different channel.
If you’ve been emailing, try calling or vice versa. You can also try sending a more personalized message or offer. Finally, if you’ve tried all of these things and still haven’t gotten a response, it might be best to move on. There are plenty of other prospects out there who will be more responsive. 😊
One last thing before we wrap up.
As we mentioned, if a prospect is not responding to your phone calls or ignoring your emails, you can call them/send a message when they’re active on your website or have clicked on an ad. LeadSquared allows you to track this and sends notifications whenever there’s a lead activity. So, you know when to reach out to them.
Another thing that LeadSquared makes it easy for sales reps is if you haven’t contacted a lead for days, it will send you a reminder that you may want to follow up with them. Of course, you’ll have a lot of leads and tasks in your bucket. And it’s very humane to miss out on follow-ups. But LeadSquared understands this and makes it easy for you to set up appointment/follow-up reminders.
To know more about how LeadSquared helps sales reps not miss a follow-up and increases response rates from prospects, book a quick 1-1 consultation.
