- You know you did a great job,
but I want to think it over.
Every salesperson has heard that dreaded phrase of,
"I want to think it over."
And it is one of the worst responses
that we can receive from a prospect.
Because of course it's not a yes, but it's also not a no.
And so what tends to happen is that a lot of these,
I-want-to-think-it-over sales situations
tend to ultimately fall apart.
They end up in that never, never land of sales situations
and we never get full closure.
And this can be really frustrating.
And what's amazing is that it's also really avoidable.
We can both avoid hearing that phrase in the first place
and then if we actually do hear it,
we can use the information that we get from them
to make sure that we hold that sale together.
In this video, I'm going to show you how to deal with,
"I want to think it over."
Check it out.
(clicking)
Number one, avoid this in the first place with value.
When a customer says to you, "I want to think it over,"
in many cases what they're really saying is,
"I haven't seen enough value from this conversation
"to be confident to move forward right now."
And so of course we can deal with that phrase of,
"I want to think it over," once we hear it.
But the most important part of the sale
is to actually avoid hearing it in the first place.
Avoidance is more effective
than actually handling that objection.
So when you are in the sales situation,
you want to be sure to use a sales process
that demonstrates real value
by having a third discovery conversation.
Understanding exactly what are the biggest challenges
that the customer is facing around your area of expertise.
And then making sure that you're getting
all of that information on the table
and that you understand the cost of those challenges
that the customer is facing.
Once you have that,
now you have real value to actually present to.
So that way at the end of the sale,
they're much less likely to say, "Let me think about it."
Number two, avoid this by asking
about decision-making up front.
One of the biggest mistakes that many salespeople make
is that they don't discuss the decision-making process
of the prospect early on in the sales conversation.
So when they go for the close,
they're caught completely off-guard by some additional steps
that the prospect wants to make.
We can avoid many, "I want to think it overs,"
simply by having a thorough decision-making conversation
earlier on in the sales process.
Well before we actually give the presentation
and way before we go for the close.
So having that decision-making conversation,
where we're simply trying to understand
what's their decision-making process
for figuring all of this out,
once we have that, now early on we can navigate
what are some of those steps so that way we can avoid this,
"I want to think it over," situation
that hits us over the head like a two by four
at the close of the sale.
Number three, don't react, pause.
So let's say you did a strong job up front
and you created lots of value
and you discuss the decision-making process.
But they still say they want to think it over.
Don't react.
Instead, slow it down.
What the data shows
is that many bottom and average-performing reps
react to objections like this
with long, aggressive monologues and they react right away.
And so they keep on talking and talking,
rather than slowing down the situation.
Top-performing reps take a pause.
In fact, the data shows around four seconds
when you hear an objection like this.
So you hear I want to think it over,
slow the interaction down, don't react emotionally.
Instead, slow the conversation down.
Don't be thrown off by it,
but instead, make it part of the conversation.
First step here is to pause.
Number four, acknowledge with a softener.
Now, when we hear an objection like,
"I want to think it over,"
the prospect is expecting us to push back.
They've been in sales situations enough,
they have bought enough times to know
that when they tell a salesperson,
"I want to think it over," they're likely to enter
into some kind of a confrontation.
And so what we want to do is actually flip
that entire expected interaction, on its head.
And so the first thing we do after the pause
is we want to acknowledge what they said
with what we call a softener.
Or basically a compliment.
Something that just simply acknowledges
that what they've just said is not unreasonable.
And that it's okay.
This is going to disarm them a lot.
And I know a lot of sales people think that,
"Hey I shouldn't acknowledge,
"I shouldn't say that what they said is good,
"'cause what they said is bad."
But the reality is that this is the only way
that you can truly disarm the prospect.
So you might say something like, "Totally fair,"
or "Totally makes sense," or "No problem at all."
It's just a little softening statement
that's going to now allow us to dig into this last piece
by truly disarming the prospect and making them feel okay
about what they just said.
Number five, clarify their why.
We want to understand why they want to think it over.
Again, most salespeople are going to push back
on think-it-overs with discounted pricing
or they're going to say something really salesy and cheesy
like, "Well, I can only hold the pricing for today,"
or "I can only hold the pricing for the next few days."
Prospects see right through that stuff.
That is complete junk.
And it's going to hurt your sale.
Instead of pushing back and trying to push them to close,
first understand why they want to think it over
in the first place.
This sounds so basic
but it's actually profound and brilliant.
Because most sales reps aren't doing it.
So you pause, you soften
and then you're going to clarify their why,
to understand why they said it.
So it might sound something like this, after the pause:
"That totally make sense,
"can you help me understand why you say that?"
Or another way of saying it would be, "Totally fair,
"help me understand what are going to be your next steps
"in figuring out whether this is a fit or not."
Now you've taken all the pressure off them,
they don't feel like they're in a confrontational situation,
now you give them an opportunity to explain
why they want to think it over, and more importantly,
you're going to get some clarity
into what are their next steps.
If you haven't already talked about this,
which, you should have, but let's just pretend you,
maybe you missed something.
Now you can get more clarity
and this is where you want to dig.
You don't want to immediately come up
with some resolution for the objection,
you really want to ask a number of follow-up questions here
to really understand what are those next steps,
what are their concerns.
Maybe there is the concern or a worry
that they have about moving forward.
You want to get that on the table.
And really isolate those
and then you can either solve that concern
in this conversation
or you can at least hold the sale together
with some clear next steps.
So there is how to deal with, "I want to think it over."
And if you enjoyed this video,
I have an awesome free training on the data-driven approach
to help you crush your sales goals.
Just click right here to get registered instantly.
Seriously just click right here,
this is an in-depth training that will help you
close more sales at higher prices
all while generating more meetings.
Also, if you got some value,
please like this video below on YouTube
and be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel
by clicking my face, it should be right about here
to get access to a new video just like this one, each week.