Latest / Closing the Deal with Fexingo: Sales, Negotiation, and Revenue Conversations for Operators / The One Question That Stops a Buyer from Ghosting You
Transcript
- Lucas: You send a proposal. Buyer says they'll review it. Then — nothing. A week goes by. Two weeks. You send a polite check-in. Crickets. You send another. Radio silence. The deal is not dead. It's in purgatory. Luna: I think every rep has felt that. The ghosting. It's awful because you don't know if they're still interested, if they went with a competitor, or if they just got busy. Lucas: Right. And most reps respond by sending a 'just checking in' email. Which is basically saying: I have nothing new to offer, but I'm anxious. That actually trains the buyer to ignore you. They learn that your messages don't contain value. Luna: So what's the alternative? Because you can't just sit there and hope they come back. Lucas: There is one question that top performers use to break the silence. And it's not a pushy 'did you decide yet?' It's a question that reframes the pause as a signal of value. I first heard this from a rep at a B2B SaaS company — let's call it DataFlow. They sell data analytics software to mid-market companies. Average deal size around three hundred and forty thousand dollars. Luna: Okay, so not a small sale. That kind of money, the buyer's committee is involved. Ghosting probably means internal politics. Lucas: Exactly. In this case, the rep — her name is Sarah — had sent a proposal to the VP of Operations at a logistics firm. The VP seemed excited during the demo. Said this was exactly what they needed. Then after the proposal went out: nothing. Two weeks of silence. Luna: Classic. So what did Sarah do? Lucas: Instead of sending a check-in, she sent this: 'Hi, I've noticed you haven't responded to the proposal. That usually means one of two things: either the priority shifted, or there's something in the proposal that doesn't feel right. Can you help me understand which one it is?' Luna: Huh. That's direct. But it's not aggressive. It gives them an out — either it's not a priority, or there's a problem. Which one? Lucas: That's the genius. By framing it as two options, you're not accusing them of anything. You're just asking for clarification. And it works because you've named the elephant in the room: the silence itself. You're acknowledging that something is off, and you're giving them a low-friction way to tell you what it is. Luna: Did she get a response? Lucas: She did. Within four hours. The VP wrote back and said: 'Honestly, the CFO pushed back on the price. I've been trying to figure out how to bring it up.' Sarah had a follow-up call the next day, and they negotiated a phased implementation that lowered the upfront cost. Deal closed three weeks later. Luna: So the silence wasn't disinterest. It was indecision. And Sarah gave them a way to name the objection without feeling like they were backing out. Lucas: That's the key insight. When a buyer goes silent, it's rarely because they forgot about you. It's because there's a roadblock they don't know how to talk about. Maybe the budget got frozen. Maybe a competitor came in lower. Maybe they love the product but can't get internal buy-in. Your job is to surface that roadblock without making them defensive. Luna: And 'just checking in' doesn't do that. It actually makes it easier for them to ignore you because there's no ask. They can just delete it. Lucas: Right. 'Just checking in' is a passive request for them to do the work of re-engaging. The two-option question is an active invitation to solve a problem together. It shifts the dynamic from 'are you going to buy?' to 'let's figure out what's going on.' Luna: I love that. Let me ask — does this work in every situation? What if the buyer truly has just deprioritized the project? Lucas: Then you get that information. And that's valuable too. Because you can stop chasing a dead deal and focus on something else. But even then, you might have a chance to re-engage later. If you know it's a timing issue, you can ask: 'When should I check back in?' Most buyers will give you a specific month or quarter. Luna: So you're not just recovering deals — you're also qualifying them. Which is better than sending five emails into the void. Lucas: Exactly. And I want to be clear: this isn't a silver bullet. Some buyers will still ghost. But in my experience, this question increases response rates by at least two to three times compared to a standard check-in. Because it feels like you're on their side. Luna: What about the wording? Could you adapt it for different channels? Like, does it work in a voicemail or a LinkedIn message? Lucas: Absolutely. The structure is the same: name the silence, offer two options. For a voicemail: 'Hey, I'm guessing the proposal hit a snag or the timing isn't right. Give me a call and we'll sort it out.' For LinkedIn: 'I noticed we went quiet. Was it the budget or the timeline? Happy to adjust either.' The key is to keep it short and make the choice clear. Luna: And you want to avoid sounding like you're guessing. You want to sound confident that you know there's a reason. Lucas: Exactly. Confidence matters. If you sound uncertain, the buyer will feel uncertain too. But if you say 'this usually means one of two things,' you're positioning yourself as someone who's seen this before and knows how to handle it. Luna: Which builds trust. Because the buyer thinks: this rep gets it. They're not going to waste my time. Lucas: And that trust is what lets you have the real conversation. The one where they admit the CFO killed the budget, or the CEO decided to go with a cheaper option. Once you know the real objection, you can actually address it. Luna: So what do you say when they come back with an objection? Like, 'the price is too high'? Lucas: That's a whole other episode. But briefly: you don't discount immediately. You ask: 'What specifically about the price feels high? Is it the total, or the monthly, or the ROI timeline?' Get specific. Then you can offer options — not just a price cut, but a different scope, a longer term, a phased rollout. The point is, you can't negotiate against silence. You have to break the silence first. Luna: Right. And the two-option question is the best tool I've seen for that. I'm going to try it this week. Lucas: Let me know how it goes. And look — if you're finding these conversations useful, here's a quick thing. We keep this show ad-free, and that's only possible because a handful of listeners chip in a few bucks a month at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's not a big ask — just if the show's helped you in your work, that's the place to support it. Luna: Yeah, it's a small community that keeps us going. We really appreciate it. Lucas: So back to the ghosting problem. I want to give listeners a concrete script they can use tomorrow. The email version: subject line 'Quick question.' Body: 'Hi, I noticed you haven't responded to the proposal. That usually means either the priority shifted or something doesn't feel right. Can you help me understand which?' That's it. No fluff. No attachment. Luna: Short enough that they'll actually read it. And it puts the ball in their court without pressure. Lucas: Exactly. And if they don't respond to that within a week? Then you follow up with a different approach. Maybe a case study from a similar company. Or you ask for a referral to someone else in the org. But the two-option question should be your first move. Luna: What about if the buyer is a committee? Do you send it to the main contact, or try to reach others? Lucas: Send it to your main contact. But if they don't respond, you might try reaching out to a secondary stakeholder you met during the process. Say: 'I've been working with on a proposal, and I wanted to check if you had any thoughts.' That can surface internal dynamics your champion isn't sharing. Luna: So you're building a map of the buying committee. Which we talked about in episode forty-seven. Lucas: Right. That episode was about mapping the committee before you close. This is about using that map when you go dark. If your champion goes quiet, someone else on the committee might tell you what's really happening. Luna: Have you seen this work in a really long sales cycle? Like enterprise deals that take a year? Lucas: I have. In long cycles, silence is even more common because priorities shift over quarters. I know a rep who used this question nine months into a deal. The buyer had gone silent for three weeks. Turned out the new CEO had put a freeze on all new vendors. The rep asked the two-option question, got that answer, and said: 'When does the freeze lift?' The buyer said next quarter. The rep put a calendar reminder and called back in three months. Deal closed two quarters later. Luna: So the question also helps you know when to walk away — or when to wait. Lucas: Exactly. It turns ambiguity into a timeline. And that's incredibly valuable for your pipeline management. You can stop wasting energy on deals that are dead, and focus on the ones that just need a little patience. Luna: Alright, I'm sold. I think the biggest takeaway for me is: don't assume silence means no. Assume there's a reason, and ask in a way that makes it easy for them to tell you. Lucas: That's the whole episode in one sentence. And next time you're staring at an unanswered email, try that question. You might be surprised how many deals come back to life. Luna: Thanks, Lucas. Great insights as always. Lucas: Thanks, Luna. See you next time.