📄 Why and how to stop playing the waiting game

There's an insidious habit that almost everyone falls prey to - not just coaches and consultants, but also professional sales people.

It's called 'playing the waiting game', and it's the worst possible situation to be in.

You play the waiting game when you tell yourself things like:

"They know I'm here, they'll get in touch when they need me".

"I've sent the proposal, now it's up to them to get back to me".

"My ad campaign is running, I just need to wait until people start getting in touch".

There's a lot wrong with this kind of thinking.

For one thing, there's entitlement in it. What, just because your work is so good, people are supposed to kick in your door and throw money at you?

Also wrong with the waiting game, is that you give away control to your buyer - but when you are the seller, then it's your job to steward over your buyer's outcome, and you can only do that when you are the one leading, the one in control.

Anything less is disservice.

And, when you play the waiting game, you allow your pipeline to get filled with crud and stalled deals, which is terrible for your focus, productivity, and of course: for your sales results.

So instead of playing the waiting game, be the one who leads, and who makes decisions.

Buyer ghosting you?

Send them a 9-word email (courtesy of Dean Jackson), and ask: "Have you given up on <getting outcome XYZ?>", and see if that restarts the conversation.

Buyer keeps ghosting you? Clean up your pipeline and get rid of the deadwood.

Sent your proposal but your buyer just won't move forward? Tell them "Looks like this isn't the right time for you, and that's fine. I'm going to close this file for now so that I won't need to keep bothering you - let me know when things change and we can continue our conversation".

Buyer is ready, has the urgency, has a painful problem and they really want your work, but they just won't proceed to purchase?

Ask them: "This problem you want solved... what does "Enough!" look like? If not now, then when?"

Whatever you do, do something. Whether it's getting rid of duds or nudging people forward, you can't afford to sit there and wait.

If you're selling something, you're meant to lead. So, lead the process.