How to avoid ‘Zombie’ customers

Is that deal dead or alive? Here’s how to spot, kill, or just avoid these time-wasters.

Inc.
Inc.
Locked · 22 Mar 2012 · 2 min read
Above How to avoid ‘Zombie’ customers. Dynamic Business

Is that deal dead or alive? Here’s how to spot, kill, or just avoid these time-wasters.

So here’s the scenario: Your customer has given a verbal go-ahead, but there’s still one final step–approval from a boss (who’s out of the office), paperwork from the finance group, something like that. Time is passing, but if you ping the customer too many times, you’ll come across as desperate or pushy.  On the other hand, if you don’t do something, suddenly two months will have passed and you find out the deal is dead.

How do you keep the deal alive?

That scenario comes from entrepreneur Travis Van, founder of ITDatabase, and a longtime reader of my blog. It’s a common problem, but fortunately one that is easily addressed.

Meet the Zombie

What you’ve probably got is a zombie customer: a deal that looks alive, but in reality is already dead.  Zombie customers are always the result of sloppy selling.  You created a zombie by:

…to read this article in full, visit leading US small business resource, Inc.

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