Sales 101: Rule #4 - Be ready for objection
Remember Rule #3? Ask for 60 seconds of a person’s time? That ’sixty seconds’ question is the trust building question which is the foundation of your entire conversation. When the person on the phone gives you any objection which tells you they don’t want to meet with you tell them: “[name], I understand that you probably get tens of these types of calls daily and your time is valuable. I also value my time. I would not call if I did not think that I can offer you something of value. When I say ten minutes, I mean TEN minutes, not twenty or forty like others do. I even put my watch down to make sure that I stop exactly at ten minutes and will setup a followup meeting if you think there is a possibility of doing business. Again, all I am asking for is ten minutes.” STOP. SAY NOTHING MORE no matter how long the pause is.
Why should he not give you ten minutes?
- He has to trust you that you mean 10 minutes because you asked him permission to speak for 60 seconds and as far as you’re concerned you spent exactly that amount or less telling him who you are and why you are calling; any seconds over that time are his personal doing, which means he approves.
- You are not forcing yourself by ending the conversation the old ‘Glengerry Glen Ross’ way (which by the way is a great movie with some of the best actors in the biz), “I’ll be in your neighborhood on Tuesday at 11, I ‘ll drop by for a minute”.
- You’re putting an image in his head of you taking off your watch and placing it on the desk. Funny, different, curious if you really will do it.
If the objection continues to be that of time, “offer to come-in very early in the morning, 8am for example. and tell him that you will bring coffee.” That usually does the trick.
Time is not the only objection. There can be others. I will go over them in detail in the next post. You must understand, the rule is that it can take 5-9 closes before you get a definite reply. But at least then you know for sure.
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