We are a month away from Halloween! But the ghosting I plan to talk about is not like Casper or the presently running TV show “Ghosts”. It does not come with chocolate bars and fun… it is a pain in the butt. I am sure everyone reading this TMC has been ghosted in their lifetime and realistically probably at least a dozen times in the last year. I am referring to the ghosting where someone just fails to respond to you.
Let’s set this straight… if you reached out to me unsolicited (or me to you) and I don’t respond that is NOT ghosting. We have to have engaged before you stop responding to me to call it ghosting! When I get ghosted, I get really frustrated. Actually, I get pissed off. I make a point of trying to respond to every legitimate email, DM and phone call. If you reach out and ask to set up a meeting because you think you might need our services, I will respond. No matter how big you might be (love those ones because they probably have money) or small (like a one-person charity looking for help), I reply. In some cases, if they are looking for a sponsorship sales agency, I let them know what we are not a broker but rather what we do and how we bill ($525 per hour plus expenses for our consulting and advisory services). If they still want to know more, I set up a meeting with them, either phone or virtual or in person. I provide anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes to chat with them at no charge. I find out if we can be of assistance and if so, what that might cost them or alternative approaches to having their goal without hiring us… like a conference or a book or podcast or whatever. And if we cannot support them, I suggest others who might be able to help.
If they do feel we are the solution and they “have the money” we further engage. We do more discovery sessions, determine what their needs are and how we can most effectively and efficiently help them within their budget range. And that is probably between 5-8 hours of back and forth before we even build out a customized proposal for their needs. To build that proposal is about 8 hours or so. So, at this point I have invested 16 hours of time or about $8,400 worth of time and resources. And then off goes the proposal.
We wait to hear back. We follow up. We wait longer. We follow up more. And the time passes. And more time passes. And once it reaches the 1-year mark with no reply whatsoever, we close it down. We give up.
I find it unfathomable that a person cannot take the 30-45 seconds it might take to send a reply that says… “thanks for your submission, we will not be engaging you” or anything else like ‘the plan has altered’ or ‘set back in timelines’ or whatever. But just to have the courtesy to reply as a human being. In the last year I have 9 of these people. I was going to publish all their names and email and organization names, but my advisors advised me against it. So, they will remain anonymous. But really folks… does it take too much just to say, “not interested”. They don’t have to admit they did not have the money, or really just wanted to send me on a wild goose chase or that they were just tire kicking and did not need a detailed proposal but rather just a ball park figure to slap into their budgets for next year… you are the people I never want to work with.
What I can tell you though, in that in the last 24 years of that the Partnership Group – Sponsorship Specialists® . Thanks.) has been operating there have been three occasions where folks that had ghosted me for over 8 months connected to say “you won, we are ready to get started”. In each of those three situations I said, “thanks but no thanks”. We passed on the offer. One of the three said fine and moved onto their next choice, I guess. The other two wanted to know why and one of them was very angry “that we had submitted and then refused to do the business”. I told them both… your failure to communicate for over 8 months tells me that you are not a company we want to work with. Your disregard for professionalism and common courtesy of a reply or response send up red flags on what you will be like to work with. And those are not the types of clients we want to work with.
I hate to pass up business, but when people just have no common courtesy, I have no time for them. I do not think it is fair to put my team members into a project situation where the client will ghost them and not allow them to do their job.
If you want to meet and network with an amazing group of industry professionals who will not ghost you, register for Canada’s #1 sponsorship marketing conference, the Western Sponsorship Congress® – Alberta Forum (Tricia please insert www.sponsorshipforum.ca under the bolded text). Register today for awesome savings!
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