Have you ever had that experience where you can’t seem to get your clients to close on their deals? It might be a few months since you’ve been able to close on a deal and you realize that you’re in a bit of a sales slump!

We don’t like to admit it, but it happens to everyone.  You’re putting in all the hard work, you’re doing the right things, you’re following up with people – and yet you just can’t seem to get things over the finish line.  No one is signing on the dotted line.

It’s frustrating!

So, I want to help. I’m going to share with you the ‘Have You Given Up Yet’ formula and if you put it into action, I promise you you’ll get those sales rolling in before you can snap your fingers.

The ‘Have You Given Up Yet’ Formula

First of all, I’ve got to give credit to my buddy Kevin who runs a marketing agency called ‘The Factory’ in Missouri – because this is actually his idea. I remember I was in town one day and I was at his house – where we just happened to be talking about sales slumps.  He recommended that I tried this one strategy and he all but guaranteed that it would win me some sales.

When he told me, I was so excited that I pulled out my phone right there and then to execute on the idea straight away.  The crazy thing is that I got a sale within a mere 20 minutes. It worked that quickly. And that’s why I’ve called it the ‘Hey, Have You Given Up Yet?’ formula.

Use these three steps and you’ll be back on your bike in no time:

1. Send an individual text or email.

The first step is to send an individual message that simply says: 

“Have you given up on this project?”

And you leave it there.  Don’t say anything more than that.  You want to make it as short as possible and let the prospect respond without any unnecessary prodding.  Leave the open question hanging and see what happens.  

Don’t use a bulk email or broadcast text here, it needs to be individualized.  The reason for this is that it’s specifically designed to be sent to cold prospects.  These are the prospects for which you’ve done a proposal, you’ve met with them, you’ve talked about the project – and yet it fizzled out towards the end. These messages are not meant for random people you’ve met at networking events or anything, these are for people who have expressed interest in what you do.    

2. Be ready to respond.

It’s crucial that you are ready to strike while the iron is hot.  If you’re going to be sending all these texts and emails, you need to make sure that you are ready and prepared to respond to all of them in a quick and decisive way.  This is because when it comes to sales (especially with cold prospects) the quicker the response, the better.

You don’t want to send this text and then only come back to the responses a day later because you’ve lost all the early momentum you were able to generate. You want to catch them when the conversation is hot – when you know they are on your phone and are reachable.  When they’re in the mindset of actually talking to you – that’s when you need to be making moves.

You make the move and then you want to be ready to double down on any promising conversations immediately.

3. The goal is to get a response.

A key piece of this is to manage your expectations. The objective is not to rush towards a sale. The only goal you should have in mind is to get a response. That’s the open door that you want to create for yourself and what happens from there will happen.

From my experience, if you do this strategy right, you’ll get a response around 70% of the time. And those responses will typically fall into one of four categories:

• They will continue to ghost you.  This is not necessarily a response per say, but it is actually helpful because it means you can write them off and focus your attention on more promising clients.  Better this way than holding onto hope for months and months.

• They will tell you that they are not interested in this project or your service anymore. This is also good because you get some closure and know that you don’t have to expend any more energy here.  

• They will tell you that they haven’t given up on the project but they waiting on something that is a bottleneck, or they’ll ask you to follow up again in a month or two.  This response means that you don’t cross them off your list, but you keep them as a prospect so you can follow up when required.
• They tell you that they haven’t given up on the project and they want to move forward with it with you right now.  And that’s where the magic happens. That’s when the cash register rings because you’ve got that sale.

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It’s that simple!  If you’re in a sales slump, you pull out your phone and put this strategy into place. I assure you, if you do it right – you’ll be amazed at what it can turn into.  It works because people don’t want to give up on anything.

By giving them a simple prompt in the middle of their busy schedule, you might just light that spark under the project and get the balls rolling once again. It’s simple psychology through and through.  And when you’re the knight in shining armor coming to save the day – you’re going to reap the rewards.

There are no excuses on this one. Get to it and let’s get you out of that sales slump today!