I Met My First Tire Kicker Today…

Prospect signed a contract two weeks ago claiming to be the decision-maker (turns out they weren’t). Now I have to deal with the landlord.

Got her number, sent a polite text explaining the situation. She came back with (verbatim):

• “You’re a veeeery smooth salesman, telling me what I want to hear to take advantage of me, haha… So basically, the more I listen, the more you manipulate me. You think I’m crazy? I’ll only do business if you send a proposal. I want zero pressure, because you people ruin people’s lives, PERIOD!”

Then I tried to get her on the phone and calm her down. She ended it with: “I can’t deal with this. Good luck manipulating someone else.”

All the time, I kept thinking, “No tire kickers. Don’t let her win.” Then sent this text after the call dropped:

Hey <client>, I wanted to follow up and make sure there were no hard feelings from our last conversation. I completely understand that you prefer to review proposals on your own time, and I totally respect that.

Just to clarify, what we’re offering is a fully funded lighting upgrade through <government entity> program, meaning:

- <core value bullet points>

It’s a straightforward process and a time-sensitive opportunity. Before I send over a formal proposal, I just need to confirm the following:

If everything checks out and aligns with what your team needs, are you open to moving forward?

I’m happy to provide the details, but I want to make sure this is something being seriously considered.

Let me know how you’d like to proceed!

What could I have done better? I used every tactical empathy move, and she called them out. That’s why I phrased the final message the way I did, to say, “You can play games, but you won’t win.”

I know sales wisdom says to avoid prospects like this, but…