Why Your Proposal Was Ghosted and What to Do About It: A HR Consultant’s Guide

Ever Been Left in Proposal Purgatory?

Your "perfect fit" client who was THRILLED about working together suddenly vanishes into thin air.

No replies. No feedback. Nothing but deafening silence.

Meanwhile, you're left checking your inbox every 5 minutes, second-guessing everything from your pricing to your professional worth.

In this week's episode, I'm ending the ghosting nightmare once and for all.

You’ll discover:

• The insanely clever question that gets a reply 95% of the time - even if it’s just to tell you, “no”.
• What to say to take control of the conversation so you aren't the one being ghosted anymore.
• How to improve your proposals so you don't get ghosted in the first place.
• Why ghosting happens - it's not always because they don't want to work with you.
• When to send chaser emails - and when to let the project go.

So tune in now to get all this and more so you never get ghosted again.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 – 00:51 | Why Do Clients Ghost Proposals?
• 00:51 – 02:09 | Is Ghosting a Rejection or Just a Delay?
• 02:09 – 03:31 | The Top 5 Reasons Proposals Get Ignored
• 03:31 – 05:13 | How Pricing Mistakes Cause Proposal Ghosting
• 05:13 – 06:25 | How to Write a Clear and Compelling Proposal
• 06:25 – 07:27 | The Best Time to Follow Up on a Proposal
• 07:27 – 09:30 | The Exact Follow-Up Email to Send After Being Ghosted
• 09:30 – 10:47 | The ‘Have You Given Up?’ Email That Gets Responses
• 10:47 – 12:26 | How to Politely Close the Loop on a Ghosted Proposal
• 12:26 – 13:53 | How to Qualify Clients to Avoid Ghosting
• 13:53 – 15:43 | Why Verbal Commitment Stops Proposal Ghosting
• 15:43 – 21:06 | How to Reconnect with Cold Leads and Win Back Business

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Transcript

00:00 Hello there and welcome back to another episode of Marketing Made Easy for HR Consultants with me, Nick Poninski. In today's episode we are talking about what to do when your proposal gets ghosted.

00:15 Now, first things first, let's have acknowledge this is frustrating, right? You spend all that time creating the proposal, you've had a great conversation with someone, you felt like it was promising, then you send off the proposal, then you get ghosted.

00:30 I get it. It's frustrating. It's the last thing you want and let's be honest, most of us would prefer just to be told no or not for now.

00:39 So, yes, getting ghosted is frustrating and it has an emotional impact on us, right? There's that self-doubt. So, did we do something wrong?

00:51 Could we have done something differently in order to get the proposal accepted to get the sale? Then there's the frustration.

00:59 Again, like I've just said, you send off the proposal, you don't hear back. It is frustrating. Why aren't they telling you where you stand?

01:09 And it's also tempting to blame the client. Why haven't they come back to you? What an a*******! They've just been wasting your time.

01:17 And maybe you even lied to yourself. I wouldn't have worked with them anyway. And all these negative, well, negative, all these reactions, they're absolutely fine.

01:27 They're normal. They're human. But they don't change the fact that your proposal has been ghosted. Now the first thing to say before we get into why proposals can be ignored, ghosting isn't always a rejection.

01:41 It isn't always, no, I don't want to work with you. Sometimes it's just a delay. Sometimes you've sent off the proposal, you haven't heard back because they are busy doing something else.

01:52 Maybe they've gone too long on sick, maybe they're on holiday, who knows? Alternatively, maybe they got distracted with something, right?

01:59 At the time of speaking to you, getting that problem solved was top of the priorities. But then something else pops up, that's more important, your proposal gets pushed to the side.

02:09 Or, finally, ghosting could happen because of confusion. For some reason, you've sent through the proposal, they don't understand what it is.

02:17 And some people, they just won't come back to you and say, hey, what does this mean I don't understand? They will just ghost you, they'll just procrastinate.

02:25 They'll move on to something else, they won't think about it. So, no, ghosting is not always a rejection. But, proposals do get ghosted, and there are certain reasons why.

02:39 there are five reasons, arguably, why proposals get ignored. Firstly, the proposal was too expensive, right? If you've not had a conversation during the call where you've agreed budgeting, then there is a great possibility that when you've sent through the proposal, it's too expensive.

02:57 That doesn't mean that you're too expensive, it just means that the budgets aren't aligned. The client, or potential client in this case, thought they would be getting one price, you've come in a lot more expensive.

03:09 Again, that doesn't mean that you're too expensive, it just means that they weren't willing to pay that much to get the solution.

03:18 The second reason why proposals get ignored is because there is unclear value. So the client doesn't, well the client, the prospective client doesn't fully understand what they're getting or why your solution is worth the investment.

03:31 So that could be that you focus too much on what you do, rather than the actual outcome of the that they'll achieve.

03:38 So perhaps you've spoken more about the facts that, about what you would implement into their business, rather than talking about the fact that absence will be reduced.

03:49 third reason why proposals get ignored is that there's no urgency, right? So the client doesn't feel motivated to take action now.

04:00 means that the client will potentially, The potential client thinks that they can deal with this problem some over time. They don't understand the urgency.

04:08 They don't understand the reason why they should reply to your proposal and say, yes, get started right now. So either A, you didn't highlight the cost of delaying the decision.

04:17 So continued HR issues or grievances are going to be pouring in, or they're going to end up in tribunal, or you didn't offer some sort of discount if they decided to invest with you by the end of the day or something along those third reason why a proposal might get ignored is because of internal issues

04:37 . So again, this isn't something that you can control, but the potential client, they might be busy waiting for budget approval or stuff like that, and stuck in decision-making limbo.

04:46 And this can really, really happen quite easily when you're dealing with, ah, bigger businesses, right? We've all been there in the Monday to Friday, the 9 to 5, in the, in the client world.

04:58 And, yeah, I think we've all experienced that beauty. We've an erocracy gone mad, where we think something's being approved, but then all of a sudden, someone in some other department has come along and questioned it, and now it needs to go back to the board to get signed off on or something.

05:13 So, yeah, despite the fact that the… potential client seemed enthusiastic, maybe there's sign-off from a director who's not on leave, or who is on leave, who's not a, who's not in the business.

05:23 And the we why a proposal gets ignored is because of proposal fatigue. So perhaps your proposal was too lengthy or overwhelming and that caused the client to put it aside.

05:39 So if you've sent through a 12-page document full of words, it's like war and peace, then, yeah, the client, potential client, is going to be reading through it and they're going to thinking, ugh, this is too much effort, and they just close the document down, move on to something easier on their to-do

05:56 list. And again, then that negative You reaction that they've had will bury through into their brain. Every time they think about opening up your proposal and dealing with it, they'll think to themselves, Jesus, I don't want to have to deal with that.

06:10 I want something easier to do. So, yeah, be careful if you're sending through, 12, 20 page documents, whatever it is, full of words that is difficult for the potential client to understand.

06:25 those are all the reasons why a proposal could be ignored. Now you can look at your proposal process and you can check whether or not you're guilty of any of those issues.

06:35 But before you do follow up, the next time you send off a proposal and you get Before you follow up, let's have a little check with the proposal that you've sent.

06:44 Was it clear and concise? Did it focus on the client's goals and outcomes, not just your process? So, was the proposal fit for purpose?

06:55 Next, did you outline the clear next steps? So, clients may not respond because they're unsure what to do next. So, you know, they don't, some of them need specifically telling reply with yes, and I will send over my invoice or something along those lines.

07:10 You know, was there a clear next steps in terms of, I've sent the proposal, now you need to do this, then we can get to work.

07:18 So, yeah, just because you've been ghosted, it might just be because the client doesn't understand what they should be doing next.

07:27 finally, did you confirm the potential client's readiness before sending the proposal? So, if you've sent the proposal off too early, you can often get ignored.

07:37 is one of those things that I spoke about in one of the previous podcast episodes. But ideally, before we get on the phone with anybody, we'd be checking three things.

07:48 One, are they ready and willing to invest in a solution? Two, do they have a solvable problem? Three, do you want to help them?

07:58 So that first one there, are they financially ready and willing to invest in the solution? If you haven't found that out, then sending off a proposal could potentially be a massive waste of time because they may not be ready and willing to invest in a solution.

08:14 So sending off a proposal, yeah, pointless.

08:19 so what do you do when you've sent off the proposal and you've been ghosted? How do you react? The first thing that I would say is you make sure that you're doing it while the proposal is still fresh.

08:32 So within three, four, five days maximum, if you haven't heard back, it's time to chase the potential client. So consider using multiple channels, maybe email, maybe LinkedIn message.

08:46 Maybe you could get round to calling at a certain point if you'd like to, on the phone or even in person.

08:51 That's your choice. But for the first response, i.e. when you haven't heard back within three to four days, send them a nice polite email.

09:00 Just a very simple email that you could get ChatGPT to create for you. And you can literally say along the lines of, Hey, I sent you the proposal on XYZ.

09:10 Have you had a chance to review it yet? Do you have any concerns, questions? Happy to talk things through. Let me know your thoughts.

09:16 Best wishes, Stephanie. Now, if you still don't hear back and you've sent them that email or you've sent them a LinkedIn or you sent them a text or you've called them, if you still haven't heard back, use this message.

09:30 Say to them, Hey, Naomi. Have you given up on trying? to resolve your absence issues? if it was something about employment tribunal avoidance, you could say, Hey, Dave, have you decided you don't want to try and avoid that tribunal?

09:47 This is quite direct, but it will get you response. Because nobody wants to admit to the fact that they've given up trying to get a better world, trying to avoid a potential problem.

10:00 They don't want to admit it. Equally, why would they have wanted to why would they want to, uh, give up on trying to resolve a problem?

10:08 They're more likely going to come back to you and say, no, we've not given up on it. We just need to do X, Y, Z.

10:14 It will provoke a response. At no point are they ever going to ignore that message. That being said, if they do, this is when you send off the next message.

10:27 So you've sent a message within three to four days. You followed it up two or three days later, asking a direct question.

10:33 Have you given up trying to resolve XYZ issue? Finally, three, four or five days later, whatever it is, you can send them a message along the lines of, hey, Dave, we've been discussing your business recently, but I haven't heard back from you.

10:47 I know life and business are different. It gets in the way of the best slide plans. So that's absolutely fine, but I don't want to be the sad little bunny who won't take no for an answer as such.

10:56 I'm going to close the folder on us potentially working together from my end. If you, things ever change and you want to start the conversation again, then you know where I am.

11:06 Otherwise, I genuinely wish you the best in your business. Best wishes, Nick. The point of sending this message is that you have not been ghosted at this moment in time.

11:17 You've taken back control. Just because they've ghosted you, you've now gone back to them and said, listen, I'm closing the door on this.

11:25 I'm closing the folder. You're doing it politely. You're doing it directly. But you're doing it in an assertive way that says, hey, I'm the expert and I'm going to close the door on this project.

11:36 And if you want to come back to me, great. But otherwise, I'm not going to keep chasing you. I'm just going to accept that you've moved on.

11:43 No problem whatsoever. This puts a different little bit of a spin on things. Rather than you sending chaser email after chaser email after chaser email, you are telling them that it's over.

11:56 Much the same as I dumped you, you didn't dump me. Yes, it is that childish, but it's also important because you're an a professional, you're the one in charge, that's why you're closing the folder on the project.

12:11 closes the loop, and it wraps things up professionally. not desperate, you're not eager. You're saying, I'm in control, I've decided to close the project, but equally, if they want to come back to you, they can do.

12:26 You have decided to close the project, you're letting go. It feels a hell of a lot better, psychologically and professionally, to know that you're not just chasing after them like an eager little beaver, desperate for them to give you some money.

12:45 moving on from that professionalism piece, how do we prevent being ghosted in the future? What can we do to be proactive to avoid proposal ghosting?

12:56 Firstly, you need to qualify clients properly. Well, you need to qualify leads properly. If somebody comes to you or you go to them and you start talking about business and how you might be able to help, you don't get on the phone with them at the drop of a hat just because they fluttered their eyelashes

13:14 at you. They say they've got some sort of problem. They acknowledge that. Then it's up to you to do a bit of fact-finding.

13:20 What have they done before they've got in touch with you or before you're having this conversation? Why can't they resolve this problem themselves?

13:28 What have they tried to do to resolve this problem themselves? How long have they had this problem? What we're trying to figure out is, how big of a problem is it?

13:37 Are they actually bothered or are they just making a bit of conversation? This is super important because we're finding out that while we're DMing, rather than putting a date in the diary and then getting a meeting with them, burning off half an hour, an hour of your time, then sending off some proposal

13:53 , and they may never have had any intention whatsoever of getting an actual, uh, resolution to this issue. We all know how it is in the corporate world.

14:02 Sometimes people don't have anything better to do. Now, that generally isn't always the case with smaller organizations. Sometimes they could just be, yeah, sometimes they could just be talking to you about these things, then all of a sudden, they're on a call, and they're getting swept up in your process

14:18 . And then the only way that they know how to get out of it is to ghost you. So before you do all that, qualify them.

14:25 Can you help them? Do you want to help them? Are they financially ready and willing to make an investment in the solution?

14:31 Obviously, that only can only really be done when it comes to inbound leads, not so much with outbound leads, although that can happen.

14:42 even then, when it's an outbound lead of some form or another, there are questions that you can kind of, you can get an impression, you can ask a few questions, you can get an understanding of what's whether or not this is a big problem for them that needs resolving.

14:55 So make sure to qualify clients properly before you get on the phone with them, before you share your diary, before you invest any time or effort into if you're not selling your proposal, if you're not presenting the proposal, if you're just going to send it through email, make sure that you've set clear

15:14 expectations. In fact, whatever happens, make sure that you've set clear expectations. So, once you've qualified them, you've got on a call with them, you've understood their world, you're saying you're going to go away and prepare a presentation, you agree on what the next steps are, i.e.

15:29 you'll be presenting it to them, you'll be selling it to them, or you'll be sending it to them, and that's it.

15:35 They will come back to you with an answer. Make sure that they know what you're expecting, and get verbal commitment before sending it.

15:43 So, if I put together a proposal that addresses everything we've discussed, would you be ready to move forward? You're not.

15:51 You're not gonna ghost me, are you? You're not that type of business owner. Now, this is really important because it's part of commitment, it's part of psychology.

15:59 If somebody says that they will not ghost you, that they are ready to move forward, they will, yeah, their brains will try and inform you.

16:07 You're not them to act in accordance with what they've said. I think we've all done it, you know, in our history, where we've said one thing and then therefore we, our behaviours, have been in line with that.

16:20 And this works, this, the idea is basically that people are more likely to follow through with actions that align with previous commitments, especially if those commitments were made publicly or in writing, right?

16:33 So people like to be seen as consistent. Consistent in their thoughts, their beliefs, and their actions. So once they've committed to doing something, whatever it is, that small step, they're more likely to continue in that direction, to stay consistent with what they've said that they will do.

16:50 what that means is that you are less likely to get ghosted.

16:56 before I end today's show, I just want to talk about a couple of quick things. Firstly, hopefully whatever has happened with this lead, whether or not they've ghosted you or not, they're on your email list.

17:08 That way you can stay in touch with them without thinking about it, without any effort on a, you know, however often you're emailing out, you are still building that relationship with them.

17:19 So that when they are ready and willing, they can reply to your email and say, Hey, we were talking about X, Y, Z.

17:25 I'm ready to get involved now. Now, if that happens, you make sure that you get a payment before you get on the phone with them or have some DMs, conversations.

17:35 Qualify them before you get on the phone with them. Just because they've put their hand up and fluttered their eyelashes at you and said hello, doesn't mean that you should drop everything and get on the phone with them again.

17:45 But these kind of things can happen where they will re-engage with you, especially if they're on your email if they're not on your email list, you can just manually reconnect with them.

17:57 They can be two, three, four months later, or anything along those lines, and you can drop them a quick message and say, hey, how's it going with pain?

18:04 The point that they're told you about. So, hey, uh, we were talking three or four months ago about those absence issues.

18:11 How are they going for you? This is important because it brings the pain back to life for them. They're going to explain, oh, yeah, we never got it sorted.

18:20 Actually, are you available for a quick chat? Again, whatever happens, if they say to you, yeah, let's have a quick chat, let's get talking.

18:27 Make sure to qualify them. And if they turn around and say, yeah, all sorted, no problems whatsoever. Let's, And say, great, great to hear that.

18:35 Hope all is well with you and the conversation, no problem. you are actually following up with them, manual it, and you're saying, hey, how did it go with pain point, you're meh- I want to share some valuable resource with them that could help them with their challenge.

18:49 So if you know that they are going through, or were going through, absence issues, and you've created some sort of lead magnet about it, you can send them a link to it.

18:57 If they weren't on your mailing list, perhaps they'll join your mailing list. If they- If you don't have a mailing list and you just send them some sort of resource, perhaps that'll provoke the conversation again. It's a strategic little nudge along the lines of, hey I'm still here, if you still have

19:11 that issue, let's chat. Again, if they do reply and say that that's It's a good idea. And let's chat, go through some conversation with them before you get on the phone with them.

19:22 DM them back and forth. Make sure that it's worth your time to get on a phone with them.

19:28 it. That's everything you need to know about what to do if your proposal gets ignored. As a quick reminder, being ghosted, it's not personal.

19:36 Often, it's just a timing thing or a communication issue. So either A, they're not ready to pull the trigger, and get you working, or they're just really bad at communicating, and they just haven't got around to telling you that they have some sort of issue that they need to resolve internally.

19:53 in terms of actually being ghosted, let's focus on improving proposals. So, making sure that you are resolving the issue that they've spoken to you about.

20:03 Then, when, or if, your proposal is ever gets ignored, it's time to follow up strategically. So, friendly message at first, then a direct question, and then, closing the loop from your end, being the expert, and saying, hey, I'm closing the door on this project from my step, in terms of making sure that

20:24 your proposals don't get ghosted, is lead qualification. So, making sure, before you ever get on the phone with them, you are DMing them, you're making sure you understand their world a little bit.

20:35 is super important and it'll save you a hell of a lot of time. can find out the basics about their situation.

20:43 And it may not even be worth you getting on the phone with them. As a final word, if you want to know anything more about proposals or qualifying leads before you get on the phone with them, Then make sure to go and grab a copy of my book.

20:54 It's available to buy on my website and it costs less than a bottle of And it'll tell you everything you need to know about building a HR consultancy that earns 70k or being said, as ever, get marketing.

21:06 Because without marketing, there's no sales. And without sales, there's no business. So get marketing.