“Please send me some information” is usually a dodge. So how can we still get a commitment when we hear that response?
Ever had a target for an Initial Appointment respond by asking you to send them some information first on your solution when you ask them for an appointment? If you’ve been setting appointments for any period of time, you have because it works on most sales professionals. As a matter of fact, most think they’ve got a ‘hot one’ when someone asks for information.
Actually, we love this particular Conditioned Response because it gives us the opportunity to ask a special kind of one of our Bridge Questions™, which is how we get the target to go from this ‘knee jerk’ reaction of trying to get us off the phone to opening their mind to a short conversation where we can apply our value proposition for the appointment. There are two parts to this Counter. This blog covers the ‘Counter’ itself and how to still try to get the appointment on the call. The second blog covers what happens if the ‘Counter’ doesn’t work and we have to actually send something.
First of all, since they asked us to send information, we always reply, “I’d love to. To help me determine what to send, though, do you mind if I ask you a quick question?” They can’t really say no to that—which is why we love this response so much. The Bridge Question is then crafted so that we can respond to their answer with, “That’s exactly why we should get together!”
You can read more about Bridge Questions here, but the following is an example of this special type of Bridge Question I use in this situation.
After asking the question above and getting a positive response, I ask: “My clients generally decide to ask us for help for one of the following three reasons:
- Too many of their overall group of sales professionals were not hitting their new business goals;
- Too many newly hired sales professionals failed to become successful or took too long to get there; and/or
- They had no visibility into what their sales professionals were doing each day in terms of prospecting and appointment setting so it was difficult to coach them appropriately.
I’m just curious, which of these three would you say is most important to you?”
The reason this is a special type of Bridge Question is that it must truly be crafted in a way that sounds like we’re trying to determine what to send (even though I can send the same thing regardless of which one or combination they choose as it covers all three).
After their response, I finish with:
“You know what, that’s exactly why I think it would just make more sense for us to get together! It’s been my experience that many times the documentation raises as many questions as it answers so it would probably take less time if we just went ahead and got together.
Would you be available Tuesday afternoon at 2:00?” (Assuming that is the time I suggested when I asked for the appointment the first time.) I’d love to show you how our clients have been able to systematically increase their number of new clients by doubling or better the number of initial appointments their sales professionals were setting each week.
If you’d like more information on why no team of sales professionals has ever failed to at least double the number of Initial Appointments they were setting after going through one of our programs, give us a call or drop us a line. We love talking about the challenges of appointment making!
Caponi Performance Group and Contact Science jointly market the telephone prospecting and cold calling solution called Coldcalling101™. It is the only comprehensive solution to solving the biggest barrier to success in most selling organizations—the inability to secure enough Initial Appointments to begin the selling process. We accomplish that through simultaneously addressing both the efficiency and effectiveness of the process. We can be reached at 817 224-9900 or at bcaponi@caponipg.com. You can also find answers to many of your challenges in our books: Contrary to Popular Belief, Cold Calling DOES Work! Volume I: Effectiveness, The Art of Appointment Making and Volume II: Efficiency, the Science of Appointment Making.
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