Chasing Your Dream Client Across Time and Space

When you leave a client interaction without scheduling the next commitment, without agreeing on the process, you end up chasing your them. Because you didn’t agree upon what the next step of the process would be, your client can appear to go dark. This creates an imbalance, one in which you want a conversation now and your prospective client doesn’t necessarily want or need that same conversation on your timeline.

You end up chasing your dream client across time and space. It feels bad, and it’s weird to have to give chase after you’ve been deep into building some sort of change. To your client, it feels like you are self-oriented, and sometimes it reeks of desperation.

The voicemails you leave are ignored because your client doesn’t find any value in replying, and by telling them you want to “check in” or “touch base,” you’ve confirmed their belief that there is no more value you can create for them during this process. This doesn’t mean they aren’t having internal conversations or that they aren’t meeting with your competitors. But it doesn’t mean that they are; your clients are busy running a business.

The emails you send to follow up are also easily ignored, much easier to dismiss than your voicemails. Click, deleted. More emails aren’t better. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t follow up every call and voicemail with an email, but rather that you are going to need a really good reason to get on the phone or face-to-face, having failed to define next steps.

While you give chase, you lose time. And so does your dream client. Neither of you are producing the results you hoped for.

All of this to say that if you don’t want to chase your client across time and space, then have the courage to ask for the commitment you need before the end of your sales call. The agreement as to the process is as important a commitment as any you gain throughout the process, as it is the one all the others are built upon.