Is Anyone Actually Listening?

Have you ever wondered, as a sales person, how much of what you were doing was being read or listened to? If you leave a voicemail, send a text or an email and get “crickets” in return does that mean the prospect you are working doesn’t really have any interest in what you have to offer? This person may have been someone wasting their time and yours, filling out a form out of casual curiosity with no real interest in what you are selling. 

Unless you continue to qualify and disqualify by sticking with it until you can safely “stick a fork in it” how will you ever know? And finally, if someone doesn’t respond does that mean they are a bad lead?

Let’s tackle these questions one at a time. They are all legitimate and deserve some explanation and context. The first thing you must do when you start analyzing leads, lead quality, and how best to determine if what you are doing is having any effect overall, is to realize that the answers come in ratios. Numbers don’t lie, but your activities can create numbers for you personally that can be above or below national averages. Marketing and selling is about trends and placing the numbers in your favor; there are no absolutes. Fact: every lead has its own DNA. You are the detective assigned to crack the code. Individual leads have their own character so although you may have a follow up method, you can never go on cruise control because sales is a creative act and one size never fits all. 

That said let’s tackle question #1) How much of what you have said or sent has really been noticed? 

14.1% of all luxury marketing leads are just plain unqualified. They may have some interest at the time but only casual and will never respond, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t hear your message, read your text or email. The same is true for 25% of the leads who will never buy, even though they have truly explored what you have to offer but decided on another type of a product or service. That also doesn’t mean your message didn’t get through, it means they simply bought something else. So 39.1% of all luxury marketing leads end up not buying what you sell from you or anyone else. That's just the real world. Interest doesn’t necessarily, even in the best zip codes, equal wherewithal or a final purchasing commitment. It simply means that at that point in time, this particular person became a lead. They had interest and engaged in “consent marketing” by volunteering their personal information in return for an offer you made. It doesn’t mean they didn’t hear you; it means they were only “temporarily interested” or unable to buy. 

Since it has always taken so many “no's” to get to a “yes”,  the percentage of leads that will never culminate in anything is just part of the landscape, part of the journey, part of the territory. If you know that online leads inherently have "looky-loos" and they total almost 40% of the engagements in the market you are going in, then you are going in with your eyes wide open knowing that there is a swath of them you will end up disqualifying. This is no different than before the world went online and there was floor traffic. Those who weren’t serious “live” prospects were what the retail industry referred to as “tire kickers.” The question here was were they listening? The answer is yes but they don’t care because these 39.1% will never buy. In the days of ample floor traffic there were plenty of visitors who heard your greeting and either patronized you or were just plain rude. Just because someone doesn’t respond doesn’t mean they didn’t hear you, either in person or online. If they filled out a form to become a lead, they heard you. Some of them looked, some with some interest, and some simply need to get a life and spend too much of theirs looking into a screen… but they heard. They listened.

On to question #2) If someone doesn’t respond, does it mean they have no interest in what you have to offer? 

No. Insulating themselves from the dreaded sales person is common practice . Buyers are not in favor of the sales person having control of the sales process. They would prefer to do things inside their own time frame if they are not really very far down the sales journey toward the end where they are ready to purchase. The vast majority of them believe that engaging is scary, they may get into dialogue and get “talked into something.” The barrier keeps them safe and in control, but guess what? That doesn’t mean that they’re not listening. If they became a lead they almost always are, so it behooves you to figure out what messaging will best get them to drop their guard and allow you to be a friend. If all they get from you are questions that they can determine are designed to “get them to the trough to drink” they may run the other way. Fast! The relationship ALWAYS begins with their willingness. You’re the sales person; everybody knows that you’re willing. Getting the prospect to allow you to be their concierge takes some finesse, persistence and diligence. If they don’t respond right away, it doesn’t mean they aren't listening; it simply means they aren’t ready to talk to you yet… or you have yet to win their trust… or both.

The norm these days in the luxury marketing industry is multiple touches before you have achieved trust and still more before they buy. If you want a one, two or three call close, you may want to opt for an appliance or furniture store sales position because they have a typically shorter gestation period and more of an immediate need. Entirely less revenue potential than a luxury market sales associate, but folks will buy faster in those arenas.

The third and final question was: if they don’t respond does that mean they’re a bad lead? 

By now you can predict that I will say no, absolutely not. Many of the reasons have already been stated above, so let’s move on. Knowing that some leads are good but not responding needs to be a reality. If you have ever chased a lead for a couple of years before it became a sale then you have the knowledge that there is a gestation period. Since sales is a numbers game, you must acknowledge the existence of buyers preserving their anonymity until they feel safe enough to engage. Until a lead decides to engage, you must trust the process and protocol to continue feeding ALL leads content relative to their interest until they qualify or disqualify themselves. You only know the value of a lead after it engages, therefore your incubator must keep ALL the eggs warm to see which ones hatch. Killing your effort to warm a lead prematurely can allow them to go somewhere where they are being kept warm. 

My point? Good leads are impossible to identify until they get active. The effort of diplomatic outreach is the issue. If it takes 30 touches to close a deal and you abandon personal communications before they get active again, they have the option to purchase without your input. Every one of you has experienced a slow moving, large buyer. The psychological hurdle you must overcome is thinking that nurturing is a waste of time if they aren’t raising their hand and responding yet. Just because the timing is not right yet, don't you still want to be the person they come to when they do pull the trigger? Rhetorical, yet so many more people in this age of instant gratification want a sale now! There are commodities you can sell that will give you that constant reinforcement with frequent sales, but they are fewer and further between today than ever and do not offer the income possibilities that stuffing your pipeline with larger ticket items can afford you. The decision is yours and you should choose what makes you most happy and fulfilled.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that a “no response” means that you have a bad lead or that someone has no interest in what you sell. Let’s end this article with some AI wisdom. This is from Gemini AI:

Here are some conventional reasons a prospect may not respond to a salesperson:

• They're already working with a competitor. Prospects may have already found a solution elsewhere, especially if there was a delay in your outreach.

• Bad timing. The prospect might be too busy or it's simply not a good time for them to consider a new product or service. They might be more receptive on certain days or times of the day.

• Your product doesn't match their needs or there's no interest. If the offering doesn't align with what they need or believe they need, they won't engage.

• You're not in contact with the decision-maker. Reaching out to someone who isn't authorized to make purchasing decisions can lead to a lack of response.

• Lack of trust. People buy from those they know, like, and trust. If a salesperson hasn't built enough rapport or demonstrated their knowledge and humanity, prospects may not respond.

• Ineffective communication. This can include long, cryptic, or uncompelling voicemail messages, or leaving the same message repeatedly.

• Lack of research. If a salesperson hasn't done their homework on the prospect's industry, situation, or circumstances, their message may not resonate.

• Disjointed or complicated conversion funnel. Problems with the sales process itself, such as inconsistent client service or ambiguity about the offering, can deter prospects.

• Missed opportunities. If there's a delay in acting on a lead or returning a query, the opportunity might be lost.

Always self-examine and lay your head on your pillow at night knowing you were efficient, methodical and compelling before you place blame on the quality of the lead. It typically takes several attempts and approaches to get a lead to raise their hand and qualify or disqualify themselves. 

“Sales is a creative act, a mission; it’s not order taking.”    - Jack Klinefelter