The ‘stall’ is your golden opportunity

One of the most frustrating things for a salesperson is when a customer tells you they want to ‘think about it’ or they ‘need some time to think it over’.

You feel helpless or, if you’ve been poorly trained, you lapse into some manipulative dialogue that proves you’re both a crappy salesperson and you’re only there for the money.

There’s a better way.

I’m about to give you the ultimate response to ‘I want to think about it’ – one of the oldest sales stalls known to mankind.

The paradox of ‘I want to think about it’ has always been that the salesperson wants to make the sale right away, and the customer has not yet seen the value or the reduced risk in doing business with the salesperson.

Often the customer has already made up their mind, but does not want to share that with the salesperson (you). The salesperson gets frustrated and blames the customer for their inability to decide, rather than taking responsibility for his/her own lack of sales ability and lack of preparation.

Stop blaming. Start taking responsibility. Be prepared for the objection way before you get to the sales call.

Here is what to say, here’s what to offer, and here’s how to offer it.

You say: ‘I’m an expert at what I do. You’re an expert at what you do. Let me share with you the questions you need to ask yourself, and ask of others, as you think about it.’ These are questions way beyond ‘How much is it?’ and ‘When do I really want to start?’

Hand over a list of questions about the intricacies and the value of your stuff. For example, if you’re selling IT services and data protection, here’s a list of questions that you might want to ask your customer as he or she is deciding.

• How much is your data worth?

• Who is protecting your data daily?

• How much spam do you get? How much time do you spend dealing with it? What is your time worth?

• What happened the last time you lost data?

• What’s the difference between 99 per cent guaranteed up-time and 100 per cent guaranteed up-time? It’s 3.65 days of downtime. What is the extra 1 per cent worth?

Hand the questions to the customer and read them out loud. Then ask them whether they would like to think about these questions and/or discuss them with you.

Keep in mind, you are the expert. The customer is depending on you for answers that he or she cannot create for themselves. Whether you’re selling life insurance, refrigerators, accounting services, new cars, or a million dollar home, most likely the customer is making a purchase one time, but for you it may be your 1,000th time to make the presentation. It’s critical that you transfer confidence, not just information.

‘I want to think about it’ is your golden opportunity to give value, prove value, make the prospect think about themselves and their options, and still have an opportunity to make the sale.

The secret: You must prepare for the ‘I want to think it over’ stall before you make the sales call. You have to positively accept the stall when it occurs. The more positive you are, the more surprised the prospect will be. And you must present my solution in exactly the manner I have described above.

When presenting this answer to the prospect, your tone must be both friendly and calm. The prospect will see that you’re prepared and at the very least be impressed – and at the very most, be both engaged and willing.

You are in complete control when you’re prepared.

You have totally lost control when you’re not prepared.

This solution will not work all the time, but it will work. How often it works will be determined by how often you try it. The more you prepare for it, the better you will become at overcoming.

Do you want try it? Or do you want to think about it? It’s your choice.

Jeffrey Gitomer is an American author, professional speaker and business trainer, who writes and lectures internationally on sales, customer loyalty and personal development. © 2017 All rights reserved. Don’t reproduce this document without written permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.