Go with the flow, when you hear “No.”
That is the title of our podcast today.
In this audio only addition of the podcast, I wanted to talk to you about something that
is so important.
I just talked to a sales rep, got off the phone with maybe a 25 to 30 minute conversation.
One of the problems this particular sales rep was having was one that a lot of people
have, which is they have a good sales pitch.
They have a smooth closing process, but they get stopped in the middle of their closing
process and derailed because there is an excuse.
“Hey, I’m interested, but I need a few days to think about it,” or “I really
need to talk to Susan about this because she is also involved in the decision making process,”
and of course any number of other possible derailments that are going to occur.
What you want to do in that situation, what feels right to do as a sales rep in that situation
is to rebuttal.
“Oh my, what do you mean you are not interested?
I thought we had answered all your questions.
What other questions could you possibly have?”
It’s tempting to do that.
I’m not saying that’s always the wrong strategy either.
There are a lot of times where that can work, but one thing that you can try, if you are
getting stopped by that a lot is you can try to go with the flow, when you hear “No.”
It’s something that is easy to remember.
The reason that I use that is because what I try to do is when a prospect tells me, “No,”
or “I want to think about it,” or “I need to talk to somebody.”
I try to start off by going with the flow.
Let me explain the way that I visualize it in my mind, and maybe it will help you.
Imagine if you have, actually this is funny.
I have a really good visualization because this actually happened to me the other day
when I was driving somewhere.
I think it was in Ohio.
I was driving down this four lane, five lane, I don’t know what it was, highway.
I’m driving along and I see on google maps that there is a roadblock ahead.
There literally was like an accident.
You know google maps.
Don’t you all hate this.
I have airpods in my ear.
You are on a trip and you hear, “Traffic has increased.
Your estimated arrival time is now…”
You always hate that.
You are like, “Oh, come on!
There goes 20 minutes of my life I’m never going to get back.”
I always hate that.
That’s going to happen.
Here is the crazy thing though.
I pull up google maps and I look at it for a second.
I’m like, “Oh, wait a second.
This accident is like right at an overpass for an exit.
Google maps had routed me off of this exit and so I got off of the exit on the little
off ramp.
I go down the off ramp.
Go down to like a hotel, pull in the parking lot, pull a U -turn, pull back out, back on
the on ramp and I passed almost the entire thing.
It only cost me maybe like three minutes instead of 20 or 30 minutes because I got off of the
ramp and got back on.
I kind of did a little detour to get around that.
I look at that the same way, when I’m doing the sales pitch and somebody says something
like, “I really need to talk to Susan.
She is involved in the decision.”
What’s going to happen is, that person is basically trying to take the off ramp.
That’s what they are trying to do.
You are trying to keep them on the highway to make a big sale.
There are two things you can do.
One thing you can do is you can try to block the off ramp.
You can try to tow them back to the main road.
Those things are pretty difficult to do.
A lot of times what is easier to do is to say, “Sure, let’s take the off ramp.
Why not?”
We take the off ramp together.
I’m still leading the way.
I lead them on the off ramp.
I lead them around the U-turn and I lead them right back to the on ramp, and right back
into the sales flow.
That’s just a lot easier in a lot of cases.
What does that actually look like in a sale?
The way it works is really this.
They say, “I really need to talk to Susan.
She is involved in the decision as well.”
You say, “Well, of course, I would never want you to make a decision that you are not
comfortable with 100%.
I understand that of course.
We need to get all the decision makers involved.
So now, of course, as a professional, just like you go talk to a lawyer and get legal
advice, if you and Susan are making a legal decision, you would both want to talk to a
lawyer because the lawyer has all the relevant information for his profession.
I’m the same way with payment processing.
I’m the payment processing expert.
So I certainly want to make sure I’m there to help you make an informed decision.
Let’s get together me, you and Susan.
Will you tell me a good time and place and I will be there?
How about Thursday of this week?
Is there a time when I can get together with the two of you?”
At this point, we’ve just taken the off ramp, and the great thing about that is that
your prospect is feeling great.
They are like, “Oh, what a nice guy.
He is not trying to push me.
He is taking the off ramp with me here.
He is not trying to push me at all, or get me back on there.
He is agreeing and that makes sense.
He is a professional just like a lawyer is a professional.
Sure, let’s talk Thursday at 2:00 then James, I’m really looking forward to it.”
I say, “Great, I will look forward to talking with you then.
Now just so that I can be prepared, I always like to be prepared for these meetings.
In your mind right now, what would you say is maybe the one or two crucial points that
are going to be important to making the right decision?
Just so I can make sure I have all the relevant information, what are the main things you
are kind of thinking through right now to make sure you make the right decision with
this?”
What is that?
That line, that’s the on ramp.
Now they are going to say either, “Well, I actually really like it.
I think we are ready to move forward.
I just want to talk to Susan and make sure I have her go ahead.”
I’m like, “Okay, great, I’ll see you Thursday at 2:00.”
Or what happens more often than not is they give you the real objection.
They say something like, “Well, I’m just really I thought the savings was going to
be more than that,” or something along those lines.
What do I do?
Now I say, “Oh sure, let’s walk through that right now just to make sure we are kind
of moving forward with this.
Let me talk about the savings.”
Now you go right back into it.
Forget about Susan.
Forget about Thursday at 2:00.
You go back in and try to close the deal.
Because now you know that it really doesn’t have anything to do with Susan.
Now it has to do with the savings, but the great thing is because of your little detour,
if you don’t close the deal and if you can’t get the deal done with this individual, well
then you just say, “All right, no problem at all.
I’ll see you Thursday at 2:00.”
If I had tried to push forward and I put the barriers up so they couldn’t get off on
the off ramp and they are frustrated and trying to get off the off ramp and I won’t let
them get the off ramp, and then I try to my meeting with Susan at 2:00 on Thursday, what
is going to happen?
They are going to say, “No, that’s fine.
I’ll talk to Susan.
We’ll let you know if we are interested.”
Why?
Because you blocked the off ramp and they are ticked at you.
They don’t want to give you any information.
Instead, if you go with them on the off ramp, go with the flow when they say, “No,”
then you can get back on the on ramp just as easily many times as not.
My name is James Shepherd.
I hope that you enjoyed that quick little sales tip today, and I hope that you have
a wonderful day.