I was recently chatting with an acquaintance on LinkedIn about some of the challenges they are facing during their sales cycle.
“Not right now,” seemed to be popping up more and more frequently when chatting with potential clients. SUPER frustrating, for sure.
I have often held the belief that the second-best answer one can hear in sales is “no” (certainly “yes” is the best!). “Maybes” and “not right nows” are just not helpful. At least with a solid “no” one can move on.
So when I heard the frustration coming up during my conversation the other day, I instantly thought of Josh Braun. (Not because he is frustrating, because he is awesome and has great insights into these types of challenges.)
If you consider your role to be even tangentially related to sales in any capacity. You should follow him on LinkedIn and subscribe to his Badass B2B Growth Guide. Just TONS of valuable material there.
So this is what Josh has to say about overcoming the “not right now” objection:
______
“Can you get back to me?”
Have you ever had a prospect say that to you?
When you hear this objection, your instinct might be to ask for a time to follow up.
But often when you follow up, you get ghosted or end up chasing.
When prospects ask you to get back to them, they mean one of two things:
1. They really need more time.
2. They aren’t interested at this time but don’t know how to bow out gracefully without hurting your feelings.
So what you need is an approach that seeks to understand the truth rather than to take the objection at face value.
Here’s how:
Step 1. Defuse: Happy to.
Step 2. Isolate the truth: Can I ask you a quick question before we end the call? (Pause). Thanks. Sometimes when people tell me to get back at a later time, they’re concerned about price, timing, my receding hairline. Do any of those strike a chord with you?
This simple question lets you get real with the prospect so you don’t waste time chasing.
Oftentimes, you’ll hear the real issue when you ask this question.
If it’s the price, you can now address the real issue by saying something like, “How do you suggest we resolve this?” or “Is it price or paying for this all at once?”
If it’s all at once, you can break up payments.
When you get an objection, get real — don’t respond.
______
How can you diffuse the “not right now” response the next time it presents itself?
