The Un-customer.

Like the un-dead, they wander the world aimlessly looking for blood—er, the perfect deal.

You only get one chance to make a sale — one chance to turn a prospect into a customer, after that they’re no longer a prospect. They’ve become what I like to call the un-customer. Like the undead who are neither living or dead, but caught somewhere in between, the un-customer is neither a prospect nor a money-paying customer, but rather somewhere in between. And rather than sucking your blood, they just may be sucking your wallet dry, because the un-customer is now much harder to sell than a typical prospect.

The un-customer already knows your sales pitch. They already know all about your product or service. They weren’t impressed the first time, so now you have to work twice as hard — and probably spend twice as much in time, energy, and money, or all three — to impress them a second time. That is, if you even get the chance to, because just getting another chance is yet another challenge now added to the mix.

Again, twice as hard.

Like the undead, un-customers wander the world aimlessly, but rather than looking for blood, they’re looking for that solution — you know, the solution you could have sold them had you made it fascinating enough to them; ; had you been prepared to handle their objections; or had you shown them they couldn’t possibly leave — or live— without it. But now they’ll wander shop-to-shop, to each one of your competitors searching for the deal they want, and chances are, one of your competitors will be happy to give it to them — even if it just means taking business away from you.

You had your chance and you blew it the first time — so what can you do to win them back? Some people will argue to simply compromise on your price — just call them back and offer them what they wanted at the price they wanted to pay, and thus make them an offer they can’t refuse. The only problem with that is it usually means making little or no money on the deal — and if you’re like me, you’re not in business to make little or no money.

My advice then, is to simply let them go.

That’s right, just let them go. Don’t worry about the sales you lost, focus instead on the sales to come. Instead of trying to rid the world of your un-customers, defeat them at the source — sell them the first time. Don’t let them walk out the door and transform from prospect to un-customer. Instead, work with them until they’re happy — until they have no other choice but to say yes — and let them walk out as customers. Even if it means taking a bit of a hit on price, it’s far cheaper to do that now, then have to chase them down and convert them later.

Customers good.
Un-Customers, no good.

— P.