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O.K. You now have your prospect(s) qualified, meaning they verbally answered they are the ones to ‘handle’ or make the call on the product. Congrat’s, you’re half the way there!
Now all you have to do is “de-procrastinate them!” And as mentioned earlier, THIS ONE IS THE GRANDDADDY OF OBJECTIONS. It is definitely the MOST challenging one to overcome. You might read through how to do this and not feel the most comfortable. Don’t worry, that’s o.k. Almost anything new (worth trying) can be a little uncomfortable at first. But remember- this technique can solve SO MANY frustrations that you’d be CRAZY not to at least try it! And also remember, this is NOT about PRESSURE. We DO NOT promote a high-pressured sale. In fact, pressure simply doesn’t work. And who would want to put ANY pressure on a prospect. That would be VERY WRONG.
But as a note- if you don’t do the “de-procrastination” objection the right way, you can apply some pressure. But don’t worry. Just practice it and you’ll become proficient! And when you master this one, LOOK OUT! You’ll be VERY EXCITED!!!
Again, you’ll need a verbal affirmation, you MUST have built incredibly strong
name-based rapport, and you MUST have set up a great buying atmosphere by letting them off the hook! Let’s use an example to show how to do this:
Assumptions… You have:
A Great prospect with a need and interest
Tones of Names, names, names (you both know)
You let him/her “off the hook” by telling them it’s o.k. to say NO!
You then successfully qualified your d.m.
“GREAT! John, tell you what, let’s take a look at the XYZ product now. My schedule gets pretty crazy this time of year. What with me working with Bob, Terry, Paul, and Tom, you can see how I’m already getting busy. But let me ask you this. If you ended up being as excited about XYZ as Terry, Mike, and Bob were, and it didn’t cost an arm and a leg, is there anyway you might even be able to give me a yeah or neah on it today?
Dead Air.
If you ask it nice and slow, and with a ton of credible names behind you, and you get a “Sure! Let’s take a look at it…”
Then congratulations. You more than likely just got a sale
And you also just practiced the MOST POWERFUL technique in sales. Successfully getting rid of the “Procrastination Objection!”
But wait. What if John said, “No way. I always research stuff before I make a decision.” Or what if he says, “I don’t know. I can’t guarantee anything.?”
You just encountered what selling REALLY is! It’s this Pivot Point that separates the Men from the Boys, the Woman from the girls! This is where it’s all at!
But let’s say you can’t get the d.m. “de-procrastinated.” Then try the following:
1) Go back and try to build more name-based rapport. Chances REALLY ARE you just haven’t hooked onto the right name yet. Remember, you’re not asking John to say YES. You’re just asking him to give you a yeah OR neah (ONLY IF he’s either VERY EXCITED about it or not!)
2) Once you feel you’ve hit on a few more names that matter, Re-ask the question again, JUST LIKE BEFORE. This is called recycling. And don’t worry, you’re
d.m. will not know what you’re doing!
3) If you get an affirmative this time, proceed to the product or service demo. If not, go to number four!
4) Say you’ve tried to “de-procrastinate” your d.m. two or three times without success. Try this. “O.K. John, that’s o.k. But let me ask you this. If I show you the XYZ and you DEFINITELY WERE NOT INTERESTED in it, could you at least let me know that?”
This is kind of an ‘upside-down’ way to do this, but it still helps. You’ve at least gotten the commitment that John will feel o.k. giving you a “No.”
Now you can proceed to the product demo (although there’s still a good chance you’ll get put-off.) Our most experienced sales people will keep trying to get the affirmative to the Procrastination Objection throughout the entire demo!
If you CAN’T get an affirmative to the Procrastination Objection, AT LEAST YOU KNOW WHERE YOU STAND! Whenever I’m with a group or person that I can’t get “de-procrastinated,” I finally move on to the demo, but I ALWAYS leave something on the table, meaning I give them a reason to at least call me back one time before making their final decision. The easiest thing to use is price. I’ll say something like “O.K. That’s pretty much the product. And you now know how much it costs, etc. But tell you what. Before you guys make your final call, give me a buzz. I’ll go back to my manager to see if there’s anything else we can do to ‘sharpen the pencil’ a little more. So before you go with anybody, at least give me one last shot!
By saying this, I hopefully can stay in the running up until the last second.
And to prevent having to call these people back 80 times, here’s how I ‘train’ the to call me instead.
“Again, thanks for your time. Now, I’m not like most sales people. In fact, you can count on me to NOT call you back 80 times to bug you for an answer. Frankly, I’m pretty busy and I don’t like feeling like I bug people anyway. So here’s what I’ll do. I’ll leave my business card. If you guys decide you want to move forward, just give me a ring or fire over an email and I’ll contact you. But I would at least give me a ring before you decide to go with someone else. Like I said, prices fluctuate in this market, so I might be able to do something for you! Thanks for your time!”
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