Client Says "I'm Busy!" and You Say ...

[Guest]

This is a bit old school, sounds a bit condescending "if saving money isn't important to you" and how about your competitor?"

Has it worked well and turned around/interested the client?

I truly understand Mr. White but unfortunately I only have so much time to spread myself around saving people money, so if saving money isn;t that important to you now that's o.k., maybe it will be a little later on, in the meantime how about your competitor Mr. Smith do you think he's too busy or would he have some time for me?

 

[Guest]

This is a bit old school, sounds a bit condescending "if saving money isn't important to you" and how about your competitor?"

Has it worked well and turned around/interested the client?

Rob I AM old school. I'm in my late 50's and STILL go d2d sometimes(need the exercise. Sounding condescending is determined by your tonal quality, inflection and speech patterns. That said however, you left out the rest of what I said which was "now". You're a business owner. I believe you just said in your blog that you didn;t even answer the phone for awhile the other night because you were so busy. So were you too busy right then to think about saving/losing money? It's possible that if I had called you then you might have said that. It may not be important to them right this second. They may be putting out a fire and don;t have time to think about it just now. The word "now" gives them an out. I have had p's tell me you're right I don;t have time right now but call me back tomorrow at 10. It's designed to wake them up just enough to cross their conciousness threshhold to see if it's important or can become important to them right NOW, this minute, while I'm talking to them.

The part about their competition is in there for 2 reasons.

1. Everyone wants to have what someone else has(Lemming effect/followers/me to syndrome/keep up with the Jones). Let me ask you Rob, you suddenly discovered your biggest competitor was getting a super duper whiz bang gadget that could effectively multiply their sales by 300% and thereby decrease YOUR competiveness you'd naturally want to know about it wouldn't you? Well, anytime you mention seeing a business owner's competitor they are going to pay more attention becasue they are IN competition and want to know as much as they can about their competition, industrial espionage at it's finest.

2. If you are a traditional, as opposed to consultative sales, sales person like me, then you believe that whoever controls/directs the conversation wins the sale. When a p tells you they are 2 busy, it's really a knee jerk reaction they use that they have become accustomed to using over the years to take control of the conversation. They would not be 2 busy if you told them you were with the fire department and their house was on fire? Everything is relative. So by bringing in their competition suddenly they are no longer in control of the conversation or it;s outcome. You ARE going to talk to their competition, whether they want you to or not. Their competition MAY NOT be as supposedly busy as they are right now. This puts your p on the defensive and also serves to wake him up a little.

All of the above though is NOT to say you tell the p in loud obnoxious pain in the ass voice basically that he's being a jerk and needs to listen to you. You speak in a calm natural happy assured tone of voice as if you were explaining these are the rules and if you want to play in my sandbox then you have to follow the rules.

The bottom line is this, after all these years I've discovered that no one client is going to make or break me and so long as I am confident in my products, my skills and the law of probability I will be successful.

Whew, took longer to explain it than it takes to use in person. Tell you what, take the next 20 p's that tell you initially they're too busy/not right now, call me back(I call these all Put Offs because they happen in the beginning of your introduction and not while you're in or finished with the presentation and I feel they're just trying to put you off for right now) and try it. It always happens right at the beginning, sometimes they won;t even let you get your name out before they're trying to get rid of you.

It's kind of like copywriting and you're hitting them with your Headline which is an ad for them to read/listen to the rest of your ad/presentation/appointment setting etc.

To put it in football terms it works for me, but I am assertive(not aggressive) and I usually have certain 1st down yard markers I want to reach on my way to the goal line. The p is a somtimes unwilling, but an always needed team member so if I'm on my 20 and I want to get another 1st and 10 I HAVE to get their attention so they know what direction we're moving the ball and what play we're going to be using.

Anyway just my tuppence.

snowman

 

[briko3]

The ultimate question is...when you call them back, are they responsive, and how often do these prospects result in eventual sales?