Just for fun Google “when prospects won’t return your calls” and see what happens.  My search returned 33,700,000 results in 0.32 seconds.

Do you think this is an issue for everyone?  All you have to do is look at the advice found in my search:

• 8 reasons why your prospects are not returning your calls
• 7 best practices to connect with your prospects
• How to get your prospects to return your calls
• And I love this one….”how to get your prospects to APPOLOGIZE for not returning your calls……

So I think we can all agree that this is a frustration with anyone engaged in influencing others.  You would think in this “To Sell is Human”, (author Dan Pink; recommended reading for all) information parity world that a simple “no thank you” would be offered.

As we advise our clients, success of any selling initiative always involves human beings.  Human beings are unpredictable and emotional which means that even with the best intended advice offered by all of the Google search results will, most likely, not be able to give you a “silver bullet” answer to the unreturned call dilemma.

Avoidance, as defined in human behavior terms, refers to the practice or an instance of keeping away from particular situations, activities, environments, individuals, things, or subjects of thought because of either (a) the anticipated negative consequences of such or (b) the anticipated anxious or painful feelings associated with those things or events.

When a prospective client does not return your calls you are experiencing avoidance.

OK, so now we know what it is, how do we address it?  Since we are dealing with the unpredictable human factor, we recommend that you use avoidance to persuade your prospect to do something by giving them a choice.  “If you genuinely say to someone, ‘You don’t have to do that, it’s your choice,’ their resistance melts away and they start thinking about their own thought processes, instead of yours,” says Michael Pantalon, Ph.D., author of Instant Influence: How to Get Anyone to Do Anything—Fast.

This “because you want to and not because someone told you to do it” trait is ingrained in all of us.  To move prospective clients to take action when they are resistant, you might consider employing reverse psychology to reinforcing autonomy by  applying Motivational Interviewing (developed by Drs. William Miller & Stephen Rollnick in 1991), which is a structured way of talking to people that gets them thinking about the reasons they might want to change.

Using reverse psychology to reinforce autonomy  means that you must argue against the person trying to influence (that’s you) and for the person being influenced (your prospective client) to do, instead of telling them what you want them to do (buy your product or services, return your call, give you an answer on your proposal, etc).   The conversation goes something like this – “I completely understand why you would not want o introduce the changes I have recommended.  You are fine and don’t need to change.  The decision is yours.  It is up to you whether you return my call (answer my proposal, move forward with my recommendations, etc) or not; the choice is yours; I cannot force you to (take my offer, proposal, call, etc).  Studies have shown that more times than not the person being influenced will argue in favor of your (proposal, recommendation, returning your call, etc).

I am not suggesting that this method works all the time.  It is, however, one of the few scientifically supported methodologies for persuading resistant prospective clients to act.  It shifts the playing field and may provide you with an opening to re-engage the conversation.