Getting ghosted usually is not the buyer's fault. It is what happens when nobody agreed on a date, an owner, or what happens next.
James Buckley sat down with Hannah Ajikawo, CEO and founder of Revenue Funnel, and Elmer Lopez, founder of Contento. Hannah's opening question resets it: are you being ghosted, or reacting to ambiguity you created?
The exercise worth doing today
Hannah called this hundred-thousand-dollar coaching. Take a sheet of paper, draw a line down the middle, write research on the left and review on the right. Plot every open deal by the language the buyer actually used.
Research sounds like exploring the market, figuring out our needs, a few internal meetings. Those people cannot buy. Review sounds like we shortlisted four vendors, we tried building it ourselves, we tried AI and it did not work. Those are your real deals.
Her recent loss went dark three and a half weeks. She knew it was research, and when she sent a breakup message they said Q4, because they need to try it themselves first.
Elmer's critical event test
Same filter, different angle. No critical event, no close. A merger means two messy CRMs, so a data tool becomes urgent next month. A conference makes a badge scanner urgent. Without one, he questions opening the opportunity at all.
The breakup email that keeps working
Elmer's, and he says it gets him hate mail. Subject line: giving up on this project? Body: I have tried text, email, and calls and cannot reach you, are you giving up on this project? That is the entire message.
He starts a new thread rather than replying into the dead one, because the subject line does the work. James's reaction was the tell. He would not want to be the person who gave up on a project.
Send something with no ask attached
Elmer ties the value send to whatever happens next inside their company. Taking it to finance? Send the ROI calculator. Hannah has sent prospects a competitor comparison including where rivals are genuinely strong, which saves the buyer real work and occasionally costs her the deal.
You are probably not being ghosted
Seventy-two percent of deals are lost to no decision, so you are usually in the majority rather than singled out. Hannah's caveat: many were never deals. Her old manager told her the big logos she kept meeting liked her and learned from her, but were never qualified.
Her closing line: stop asking why you are being ghosted, start asking why the buyer thinks it is fine not to reply.
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