I’m Closing Your File
Do you ever get frustrated by prospects who ask for information, but then don’t return your calls?
It’s the worst, right?
Listen to this story from Tom, a new client. He’s an engineer who sells environmental testing services to large energy companies.
He said he'd had a good conversation with an ideal prospect at the beginning of March.
She told him what she thought her problem was and he said he knew how to fix it.
She liked his ideas and seemed ok with his pricing.
It seemed like a perfect fit!
He put a proposal together and sent it over as she had requested.
When he called to see if she'd gotten it and had any questions, she said she had received it but hadn’t had time to review yet.
Said she'd be back in touch in a couple of days.
It had been almost 2 weeks and he hadn’t heard back...
Nothing.
He’d left a couple of voicemails and sent her an email.
“What the hell should I do?” he asked me in his first coaching call.
“I don’t want to be a pest, but I need to know if we got this project or not.”
I asked if he was ready to know within 24 hours whether or not she was going to hire him.
“Of course." he said.
“Then close her file.” I said.
“What? No, I’m not ready to give up!” he said, sounding frustrated with me now too!
I explained that “closing the file” isn't giving up at all. It's just a way to learn the truth about where you are in a deal.
I told him to leave her a voicemail using his calmest and kindest tone: “Hey Susan, this is Tom. I haven’t heard back from you about that proposal we sent over a couple of weeks ago. I assume you've decided to go a different direction. No big deal. I’ll close your file. I hope we’ll run into each other again soon.”
I explained that either she won’t call back and you have nothing, or she’ll call within 24 hours and ask you not to close the file, at which point you can sound surprised and ask what had happened.
He was skeptical and nervous, but made the call anyway.
One hour later he reached back out to tell me the news:
She'd called back within 30 minutes of him leaving the message and apologized! She signed the contract and emailed it back to him while they were on the phone.
“Walker, she even thanked me for my professionalism and said he appreciated the way I handled things!”
It was a $75k project with 40% margin. He laughed and said with that deal he’d already gotten a 10x return on the money he’d spent with me!
Closing the file doesn’t always lead to closing a sale.
Sometimes you don’t hear back at all. In that case, at least you will have divorced yourself from the emotional tie to the outcome and can move on to work on your pipeline.
It seems counter intuitive, but “closing the file” in some situations is a great way to get to the truth.
Bringing Honesty, Transparency, and Selflessness to Business.
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