How do you respond when a prospect says "I want to think about it"?

By eliminating it from being an option!

Late 2010, I responded to a sales question on one of the LinkedIn Sales Groups that I'm a member of.

The question was: "How do you respond when a prospect says "I want to think about it"? and my response was "If you follow the right sales process, you should never get the "I want to think about it" response". Most sales reps vehemently responded to my post saying that it's impossible to eliminate this objection from happening.

Enter: Jeffrey Gitomer

My response even caught the attention and interest of Jeffrey Gitomer (Author of the best seller: Little Red Book of Selling) and led to a one-on-one conference call between Jeffrey and I where I explained the exact steps to take in order to eliminate this objection from happening to begin with.

The call was turned into a podcast that you can listen to learn how following a strategic sales process will eliminate this objection from derailing your sale.

Listen to the podcast here.

To date, there are 196 (and counting) responses to the:

What do I do when a prospect says, "I want to think about it"? question via a LinkedIn discussion group that I am apart of.

Over 99% of the responses are the same old flawed sales tactics that cause prospects to become defensive while evaporating the trust and rapport a sales person needs in order to have long-term success and loses more deals then it wins.

Here are the three (3) top NON-RECOMMENDED responses that are being given as “advice”:

• What do you need to think about? (or some version of the question)
• Go ahead, I’ll hold.
• Setting a date to call them back after they’ve “thought about it”

Asking the prospect what they "need to think about" is confrontational.

Saying, "go ahead, I'll hold" dismantles any rapport you've built.

Giving them "more information" and then setting a day / time to follow back up with them leads to chasing dead wood.

Instead of having “rebuttals” prepared for the “I want to think about it” stall / objection, maybe it’s time to realize that the way you were taught to sell…they way we were all taught to sell (contact, present, handle objections, close) is part of the problem.

By knowing what questions to ask, why to ask them, when to ask them, who to ask them to and how / what to do with the responses given, you will eliminate 90% or more of the false stalls / objections before they happen.

Don’t misunderstand me… Objections will never go away and I absolutely love objections because I know that once I identify a true objection, all I have to do is solve it to the prospects satisfaction and I’ll have a deal to write up.

But “I want to think about it” is a stall / blow-off and not an objection. And it’s one that if your prospects are giving it to you, take it as an "air raid siren" letting you know that it’s time to update your sales process. Something to think about.

Sincerely,

Michael Pedone
President/CEO
SalesBuzz.com
(888) 264-0562 Ext. 1
http://www.salesbuzz.com/blog/