The Sale Begins With The First No
When you walk into a retail store and you’re approach by the sales person, they ask, “May I help you”. The conditioned response is generally, “No I’m just looking”. The same thing happens at the front door when a canvasser intrudes upon the homeowner’s time, their response is typically, “I’m not interested”; in essence, a no. This response will shut down the unprepared canvasser, even though you can expect this resistance most of the time.
So how do you handle it? As the canvasser approaches the house they must take an inventory of the property and assess what the homeowner needs based on what they see or based on what they’ve learned from other homes visited in the neighborhood. This snapshot will help when they receive the anticipated objection.
When a prospect gives any objection the untrained salesperson or telemarketer would continue to sell features and benefits, which will only further alienate the prospect, raising their defenses. When the homeowner says, “No thanks, I’m not interested”, or gives any objection or resistance, you state, “No problem, let me ask you a question. Have you ever had an estimate before?” Sounds like a harmless question. But there’s a lot behind it.
I’ll break the question down play-by-play.
“No Problem, let me ask you a question. Have you ever had an estimate before?”:
This communicates to the prospect that you’re listening. These two words immediately indicate you’re not going to continue to try to sell them, preventing the prospect from entering a defensive mode and keeping them open-minded.
“No Problem, let me ask you a question. Have you ever had an estimate before?”:
While the prospect’s defense is still down, you ask a non-threatening question designed to obtain a ‘yes’ response. Virtually no one will respond negatively to this question. It’s like approaching an entrance door with your hands full and you ask a stranger to help you by opening the door. The stranger will be compelled to help every time.
Secondly, their curiosity will get the best of them and they’ll want to know what the question is. There still is no defensive position from the prospect at this point.
“No Problem, let me ask you a question. Have you ever had an estimate before?”:
Now the prospect has to talk. 99% of the time you’ll get a yes or a no. Now the conversation takes an entirely different direction. The key is you’re having a conversation with the prospect rather than a sales presentation. In that conversation you’ll uncover the prospect’s needs and wants.
There is a scripted rebuttal for both the yes and no answers. And I’ll cover those in the next issues. Next month I’ll detail the NO response and in November the yes rebuttal.
The approach is direct and there’s no fluff. You may be hesitant with this approach, but once you try it you’ll see how effectively it works.
To learn the advanced principles behind the Introduction, as well as the other techniques behind my successful canvassing methods call me at 216-588-1337.