Yes, that title was tongue in cheek, as I’m sure people don’t intend to disrespect their fellow team members, but I see and hear about it enough that I thought it was worth discussing.  Salespeople of multifamily, please chime in below if you have seen the same thing happen.

Part of all operations is talking with different service providers to solve challenges, provide new tools, and overall improve the operations of the company.  At the start of this relationship, there is often a call with a team member to determine whether the service provider is a good fit and worth looking into more.  The call goes great, and they ask that the sales rep talk with their coworker about it to get their opinion.  They send an email looping in the team member, the sales rep replies saying happy to meet you, and then…   silence.

I’m guessing a lot of service providers are nodding along right now – they have seen this play out before.  This mysterious decision maker simply ghosts the conversation.  No reply, nothing. 

A week goes by and the salesperson hits the good old Reply All button and again tries to set up the conversation.  Still no response.  Another week goes by, and the salesperson turns back to their original contact, asking if they should do something different.  The original contact is embarrassed and frustrated, and tries to make excuses for the lack of contact.  “Oh, he has just been really busy with ____”. 

The reality is that the 2^nd contact probably is very busy.  He or she is probably swamped by a thousand different things, and the thought of another meeting is probably the last thing they want to consider.  It’s understandable, right?  What they don’t realize, however, is that by ghosting the conversation, they have shown incredible disrespect to their team member.  Imagine it being a real-world scenario where Jim brings Nancy over to meet Greg:  “Greg, I’d like you to meet Nancy.  We’ve had some really good conversations and I’d love to get your opinion.”  Imagine if at that point Greg just turns and walks away. 

What’s incredible is that I’ve heard stories of this happening in both directions – A CEO asks one of their team members to meet up with someone, and then crickets.  Do they realize how disrespectful they were to their boss?

Fortunately, this scenario isn’t the norm, but it is common enough that a little awareness could make a big difference.  Hope that helps to show a new perspective!