How to Stop Being Haunted by Sales Prospects

Here’s a familiar situation to anyone in a franchise: You (or someone on your sales team) is in contact with a potential customer. Maybe you’re a franchisee trying to sell them a product. Maybe you are a franchisor trying to sell a franchise. Either way, you get in touch and the prospect seems interested – but then they disappear. You have become a ghost. And you are left to ask: Why?

I have been involved in the franchise since 1994, am now the franchise’s executive coach, and have seen this issue time and time again. Here it is: You lose control of the sales process. That’s an easy mistake to make, especially given the gift of our modern means of communication. You might think that digital tools make selling easier, but it’s often the other way around. Technology has shifted control to buyers, and allowed them to push the sales process or stop it altogether. They can find information without your help, which means they make decisions without your guidance, and they have plenty of tools to block or remove your follow-ups.