Reality check: Even if you do everything I’ve suggested so far, point-by-point perfectly, you will still get people who respond with some variation of “I’m not interested” or “We’re happy with what we’re doing.”

Expect it, prepare for it, and don’t be deterred by it.

Resistance to an opening statement from an unknown caller is a natural, conditioned reaction for many people. I call this the Resistant Reflex Response (RRR). And it usually works in attempts to blow sales reps off the phone. The key to keeping the call alive is to get the prospect talking using some conversational techniques.

Trying to counter them with logic is tough because they don’t offer anything of substance; they’re instinctive. And you don’t want to use a goofy retort that some sales books suggest: “Well, of course you aren’t interested—I haven’t given you anything to be interested in yet!”

Instead, get them talking. It moves their mind away from their reflexive response and on to something of substance.

Use a Pattern Interrupt

A model of communication called neurolinguistic programming espouses a technique called a pattern interrupt. Let me simplify it for our purposes: When people do or say something automatically, it’s called a pattern. Something that stops that pattern and gets them talking or thinking about something else is a pattern interrupt. In what city were you born?

That last question was a pattern interrupt. You were reading along, and I interrupted you with a question that probably caused you to think about the answer (or wonder if I had gone off the deep end). Either way, using a pattern interrupt when you hear an RRR causes someone to answer a question. For example:

Prospect: “I’m not interested.”

Sales rep: “I see. Where are you now getting your compressors?”

Here’s another:

Prospect: “We’re all set.”

Sales rep: “I understand. When is your next project coming up?”

One more:

Prospect: “We wouldn’t need that.”

Sales rep: “Oh. How are you now handling written-off receivables?”

This is not difficult to execute. You simply need to anticipate the RRRs you are likely to hear then prepare your response.

Your tone plays a vital role in determining the success of your reply. Use a soft, almost surprised—maybe even disappointed—tone of voice. By no means do you want to seem confrontational. We want them to open up and drop their shield.

You might think that you’re likely to hear something like “Look, what part of ‘I’m not interested’ do you not understand?” after your response, and you would be right. This certainly won’t work every time; nothing does. However, you may at least be able to salvage some opportunities that you would not have gotten otherwise—possible sales you can cash in on either now or in the future. Your return on your minuscule time investment is huge, and you have nothing to lose.

The Softening Statement

You might have noticed that before asking the question in each of the examples, I used a few words such as “Oh,” “I see,” and “I understand” to diffuse tension and soften the question. I suggest you do the same. Founder of the prospecting system Unlock the Game, Ari Galper, suggests a great softening statement: “That’s not a problem.” Then he recommends diffusing the tension with something like “I’m not trying to replace your current vendor. Would you be open to some different ideas that you might not be using now?”

Sound Dumb

After your opening you might hear some resistance with reasoning that doesn’t make sense, so react accordingly. Act confused. For example:

Prospect: “Yeah, I’ve heard of you guys before. It just wouldn’t be right for us.”

Sales rep: “I’m not following. Could you explain?”

We want them to continue talking, since the more they say, the less their initial resistance will make sense—and the more you will have to work with. Other examples include:

• “Mr. Davis, I’m not sure I fully understood what you just said. Will you please repeat that for me?”
• “Pat, I heard what you said, but I’m not following the reasoning. Would you mind explaining it for me?”

Responding When They Are Happy with Their Present Supplier

Here are a few suggestions on how to handle variations of “We’re happy with our present supplier.”

Sales manager Ben Hyman has his reps say,

“That’s fine, Mr. Prospect; we realize that you’re most likely satisfied at the current time. We would still like to keep in touch as we provide information and education to those companies that are a good fit for our technology. We are producing some webinars and white papers on the newest supply chain solutions—would you like to receive them?”

If prospects say yes, the reps say,

“Great! May I ask you just a few questions so that when we send you information, it will be tailored to your organization?”

Ben says that this often results in receiving numerous calls from companies wanting to receive more info and several that want to look at his offerings because they are not satisfied with their current provider.

Sales pro Evonne Weinhaus suggests saying, “Teach me if you would, what kind of [service, product, things] would it take for you to feel better than satisfied?”

If they have trouble answering the question at first, that is okay. You can restate your point and use different words. Just make sure you recognize what you are accomplishing by asking this one simple question:

• You put the notion of “I’m satisfied” in a totally new framework. It is now positioned as second best, without you trying to prove that point.
• By using the phase “teach me,” you switch the balance of power. They are in the driver’s seat teaching you, and you are learning from them.

Rick Kendall says that he requests a chance to quote his comparative product anyway—just to make sure that prospects are getting the most value for their money. They very rarely refuse a quote, so he gets further in the call, and quite often he wins a sale since his quotes are very competitive.

Inside sales rep Jeff Wirsing responds, “That’s fine, Mr. Client. In the event that something changes with your current service/supplier, would it be all right if I stay in touch?” Then he questions what would need to change, placing him into a sales conversation.

Michael Bechtel said,

“In my industry, there tend to be a lot of shortages, especially in the newest of the products. I like to find something that the prospect uses that I know is hard to find—say, a hot new video card, for example—and then ask if he ever has problems getting that item. When he says yes, I mention that if nothing else, I would love to be his second source. After all, who wants to rely on one person only for their products during an allocations period? I like to always start off with the second source method; it sounds like you aren’t trying to break up their current relationships with other vendors.”

Jared Olson says,

“When someone tells me they are ‘happy with their present set-up,’ I respect that answer and simply follow up with ‘How often or when will you next evaluate the present set-up?’ Depending on the answer I receive, I will follow up with ‘Under what circumstances would you consider switching your present set-up?’ (Which I believe was in your books.) If they open up and questioning can continue, I do so. However, I can usually get at least those two questions answered—which helps me figure out when I should call back again. I deal primarily with CFOs, so I want to be respectful of their answer when they tell me that they’re currently happy.”

In my Smart Calling Report letter I suggested a response to “I’m satisfied with what we’re doing,” which was “What would it take to get you from ‘just satisfied’ to absolutely thrilled?”

While listening to recorded calls in preparation for client training, I heard a rep successfully use a variation of that with a prospect. The rep responded with, “When you first decided to go with the solution you have now, were you looking to be ‘just satisfied,’ or were you hoping for something better?” That got the prospect to open up, and the rep was then able to engage him and ultimately move the process to the next step.

Chris Gardner, author of The Pursuit of Happyness, shares what he said when a prospect stated they were satisfied with their current broker: “I understand you’ve got a broker. Now we’re not interested in interfering with that relationship. However, we would like to be able to complement that relationship by showing you one or two special situations here.” That’s pretty good and can be adapted to most industries.

How to Answer “Send Me Some Literature on That”

If this statement occurs later in the call, it might be a legitimate request—and indeed be worth your while to send information. (You can find an in-depth article that helps you determine when it is worthwhile in your Smart Calling Companion Course in Chapter 11, SmartCallingBook.com.)

However, when the information request occurs early in a call, it often is an attempt at a brush-off. You want to try to move to the questioning. Reply with “I’ll be happy to provide you with some information. So that I can tailor it for your situation, I’d like to ask a few questions.”

This is similar to how you should respond when a prospect asks right away that you send a proposal. Episode 29 of The Art of Sales podcast is “CEO Guest: Dan Hoemke Shares How to Sell to the Top.” Dan began his career in sales, worked his way up to selling to the C-suite before working as a CEO in several major healthcare organizations. With experience on both sides of the desk, Dan knows what it takes to sell to that level. One of the many gems he shared in that episode was how to respond when we are hit with a proposal request that is too early to be warranted. He suggests saying, “The last thing I would want to do is put a proposal in front of you that was not worthy of your consideration.” That’s powerful. It’s a great way to further qualify someone as serious and get them to continue with questioning. (You can hear all my podcast episodes at TheArtOfSales.com.)

“Why Should I Consider You?”

Here’s a trap that prospects sometimes set and sales reps walk right into. After the opening, the prospect says something like “Why should I use your company?” The wrong answer is to actually name your reasons, which simply provides them with more reasons to get you off the phone. Instead, you want to move to the questioning. Here are possible responses:

• “There might be a few reasons. I’ll need to find out more about your situation before I’m sure.”
• “That’s the reason for my call: to find out specifically how we could help. I’ll need to ask you a few questions to learn more.”

Responding When They Try to Rush You

You might sometimes hear something like “Okay, you’ve got two minutes.” Do not become flustered. You’ll spill your entire presentation as fast as it can be sprayed from your lips. Here are two different approaches:

1. Ignore the time limit. Assuming you have captured and maintained their interest, they will also forget what they said about time.
2. Address the time factor immediately. “I’ll be happy to call back when you have more time, since there are several details I need to learn about your situation before I can determine how much we could save you.”

Similar to the previous two points, some prospects try to get you into a quick pitch by saying something like “Okay, quickly just tell me what you have.” Here are some possible responses for that:

• “Trying to tell you what I could do for you, without knowing anything about you would probably waste your time and mine. By learning a little about your situation regarding _____, I’ll be in a better position to discuss what the mutual value might be …”
• “Giving you a presentation without having any information about you would be like buying a birthday present for someone I don’t know—it likely wouldn’t be appropriate. By asking you a few questions …”
• “I likely do have something to offer you, but until I know specifically about your situation in the area of _____, I won’t know how you’d benefit. Let’s discuss how you …”

Simple Response to a Quick “Not Interested”

Here’s a simple, effective way to reply to an immediate “Not interested”: “Does that mean never, or just not now?” This often keeps the conversation and the door open with prospects who admit that situations could change.

What to Do When They Hang Up on You

At a training seminar I was asked what to do with a prospect who blows you off the phone even before you can get your opening statement out of your mouth. “Should you just call back right away and act like you were disconnected?” he asked.

Well, you could, but I doubt that’s going to convince them you’re clever.

If this truly is a prospect that you want to pursue, here are some alternatives. First, consider that the prospect might be having a bad day, or has just experienced an office emergency requiring immediate attention. Therefore, another contact might be worth the investment, just not right now.

And instead of calling, try an email, or a brief note, stating, “I have the feeling I called you at a bad time the other day. I apologize. The purpose for my call was to run an idea by you that could potentially help you to [fill in the blank with some result they would be interested in]. I’d like to ask you a few questions to determine if we have the basis for a conversation. I will call you again on Friday, or you can reach me at 800-555-2922.”

Is this likely to get a high response rate? No, but any response you get would be better than a flat out no, and the upside return on the investment could be huge.

Another alternative would be to simply place them back in your calling rotation for a few weeks down the road. They likely won’t remember hanging up on you.

Handling the Early Price Question

Once you’ve given your opening statement, the response you might hear is “What does it cost?”

You do not want to involve yourself in a price discussion before you’ve asked any questions, identified needs, and identified the specific value you could deliver. Therefore, you want to defer answering, while giving them some satisfaction. For example: “It depends on several variables. Let me ask you a few questions so I can quote you the best price for your situation.”

If they insist, “Just give me the price,” you could try, “Well, it could be as low as $_____, or up to $_____. Let’s take a look at your situation.” Another option that could work is: “I imagine you want the best price, right? To determine that, we’ll need to take a look at your situation.”