Have you ever pitched your product or service to a prospect and when you get to asking for the sale they respond with “let me think about it”?
It’s absolutely demoralising isn’t it?
The reason it feels so bad is because you know that what they are really saying is “no thanks” but they haven’t actually said that.
So, you hold on in some hope that you may have gotten the deal across the line.
Hope no more
Let’s be honest, if your prospect has said “let me think about it” they really do mean no thanks, but they don’t want to hurt your feelings.
Remember that in sales there are basically two outcomes at play.
Either you are closing the prospect on why they should buy your products or services, or they are closing you on why they should not.
Telling you that they will think about it is another way they are closing you on why they will not buy from you.
What you want to do is wherever possible remove their ability to close you
You want to take that power away from the very outset.
Let’s look at two ways you can deal with the ‘I want to think about it’ response.
Here’s the first way to respond
Firstly you have to dig a little deeper into the response.
Asking them what they have to think about is one way but it opens the door to a non specific response which will see you stuck and the conversation potentially grinding to a halt.
Instead of actually digging into the response what if you were instead to dig into the response in a more global sense?
In other words, instead of scraping the surface of their specific response, let’s scrape the surface of any ‘let me think about it’ response.
What your prospect is saying in that response is either that they don’t see the value in what you are trying to sell them or they don’t see the urgency in making a decision today.
Either way you need to be able to disarm both possibilities.
If they are not seeing the value then you have to look at whether your sales pitch has focussed on the value your product or service brings.
Take them back to the beginning and make sure you are selling from a value basis.
Remind them of why they were talking to you in the first place.
Taking them back to their real “why’ should move past the objection.
This will remind them of the value and the urgency.
Use two positives followed by a negative.
Something like “You have achieved ‘this’ and done ‘that’, wouldn’t it be a shame if you missed out on ‘this’.
Of course this is how to deal with the response after you get it.
What if you could get in first and prevent the response from happening?
Here is the prevention approach
One of the secrets to a successful sales conversation is to be in control.
You want to be closing your prospect on why they should buy from you, not have them closing you on why they shouldn’t.
The easiest way to stay in control is to set the ground rules at the very outset.
In our Business Accelerator Mastermind, we show our members how to set the ground rules by setting a simple agenda at the start of the conversation.
A simple statement and question like ‘here is the agenda I have set out g=for this conversation, if that sounds okay with you, let’s get started” works really well.
What does that agenda look like?
Well, in this case the purpose of the agenda is to keep control in your hands and to prevent the “I need to think about it “response.
What I would say is something like “ We are going to go through some things and I am going to ask you a bunch of questions and at the end of that I am going to ask you to make a decision.
What you will decide is either ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
Is that okay?”
Next you can pre-empt the “ I need to think about it “ response even further with something like “ If you decide ‘no’ that’s perfectly okay, there’s no need to tell me you need to think about it if you mean ‘no’.
I am perfectly fine with the ‘no’ and will appreciate the chance to have had a chat with you.”
Sales Trainer Dan Lok says that you can be up front and tell your prospect that a ‘I need to think about it’ answer is only used by people who actually mean ‘no’ but don’t want to hurt his feelings.
That way he takes the thinking about it response off the table completely.
Whether you get in first and remove the option or take the prospect back through the sales journey, you have to stay in control and narrow the responses to either a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’.
Happy converting!
