In the land of “sometime” and “someday” live unqualified prospects. Whispering sweet nothings into the ears of salespeople, who, if they believe those sweet nothings, become hopium addicts.
Hopium, the magic elixir that is sweet today and sour tomorrow, causes those salespeople to endlessly venture to the land of “sometime” and “someday” to “follow up” with the prospects that live there. They hope that their “relationship building,” which falls off their prospects like rain on a windshield, will cause their prospect to give them an order.
Unfortunately for those salespeople, every now and then a prospect will give them an order, which forces that salesperson deeper into their hopium addiction because “it worked once.”
Real prospects don’t live in the land of “sometime” and “someday.” They’re willing to put skin in the game, time skin initially, to create clear futures with the salespeople they interact with.
When a prospect attempts to pull us into “sometime”-land resist the sweet hopium they offer by saying something like “happy to. What did you want to talk about?” That question typically (dis)qualifies a suspect who either gives you the “I’m always interested” response (run!) or they have a legit reason to talk to you (e.g. “we’re having problems getting shipments delivered on time.”)
The neighbor of “sometime”-land is “call-me-in-X-months”-burg. In that case we resist their hopium and increase our credibility by saying something like,” happy to. Did you want to reconnect in X months or be implemented in X months?” Either answer is okay, but in the latter case we remove the potential of an awkward conversation in X months when our prospect expects we can deliver yesterday.
When our prospect responds positively we confirm their transition from suspect to real prospect by saying something like, “I’d like our next interaction to not be a cold call. How’s that sound to you?” Our prospect is unlikely to say “no, I love cold calls.” We then transition to, “great. Let’s confirm a time for us to speak and I’ll send you a meeting invite.”
Resist the sweet-today-sour-tomorrow hopium the unqualified prospects who live in “sometime” and “someday”-land offer and your funnel will be full of real, qualified opportunities.
Until next time… go sell something
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