When we talk about Confidence at SELLability we talk about the ability to “read” prospects (their true intentions, desires and fears) and understand the immense role human emotions have in the sales process.
We refer to these emotional roller-coasters as a “reactive” process with each party “pushing the other’s buttons.” This reactive process is a conscious (aware) and unconscious (unaware) process that is present in every sales situation (and life in general) whether either party believes it or not.
After all, if these emotions are present in every relationship between two or more people, why wouldn’t it be the same in a sales situation?
For example, just knowing an appointment with a salesperson is coming soon is enough to make any prospect consciously list in his mind all the reasons why he does not plan to buy the product or service that day.
Similar to building a “wall of resistance,” hard to penetrate but accessible only to those who know what they’re doing.
Ironically the weak salesperson continues to ignore the presence of this resistance. They will pitch, pitch and pitch again and assume it’s part of selling when the prospect tells them “…thank you so much, very informative, let me think it over and I’ll get back to you.”
What the prospect is really saying to the salesperson is they have a reason not to move forward but at the same time they don’t want to hurt your feelings by telling you. They will keep it to themselves.
What the salesperson is really saying by accepting this comment from the prospect is that “I’m going to let you get away with telling me something (“I’ll get back to you”) that I know is unlikely to ever happen but I’m too afraid to confront it.”
So, if faced with this statement, don’t be afraid, you’ve absolutely nothing to lose. What he is really telling you is he has no plans to talk to you again.
So, ask the prospect this question, in a friendly, confident voice tone:
“Michael I understand, but would you mind if I asked you a question? And believe me you won’t hurt my feelings no matter what answer you give.”
(Prospect: No of course not, go ahead.)
“Generally clients don’t move forward with me for three reasons; the price is too high, the product (or service) wasn’t what they thought it would be, or it might have been something I said or didn’t say. If you don’t mind me asking, which one of those three is it for you?”   
Now, catching them unawares, wait for their answer.
Believe me any answer is better than walking away hoping they will ever call you.
© 2013 SELLability Technologies LLC. All Rights Reserved.