Rebalance Daily

When I first started in sales, I was making over a hundred cold calls every day selling internet advertising to SMB business owners in Arkansas (read: selling a tech product to a non-tech-savvy clientele).

Some prospects would hang up when they heard the name of my company. Others would yell about how they had already received multiple calls from my co-workers.

I was hearing “no” a lot.

There were some days that I didn’t want to come to work in the morning. More than half of my co-workers quit in the first two months.

Dealing with rejection is one of the hardest parts of a sales career. But like anything else, it’s a skill that can be learned.

Here are three strategies that salespeople can use when dealing with rejection:

1. Expect to hear “no” by default.

2. Don’t take it personally.

3. Remember: “On to the next one.”

These strategies will not only bring you more success, but they’ll also make you feel better.

1. Expect to hear “no” by default.

This is a good strategy for two reasons. One, it will keep you from getting your hopes up. Two, it will give you time to prepare your next move.

Some sales leaders say that the selling doesn’t really start until you get your first objection.

Hearing “no” is a fact of life in sales. Instead of being surprised by it, you should learn to expect it.

This will help to keep your emotions in check. I’ve noticed that rookie reps often become very excited when they think they’re about to close a deal. They start bouncing around in their seat and smiling ear-to-ear. And then, when the deal doesn’t close, they’re crushed. They get discouraged and slack off on their calls for the rest of the day.

This is emotional immaturity. It clouds your judgment and causes a salesperson to lose control of the sale. You should be controlling the emotional state of your prospect, not the other way around.

Instead of dreaming about your prospect saying “yes,” focus on your plan for when your prospect says “no.” What objections are you anticipating? What responses have you prepared for those objections?

If your prospect says “yes” right away, it should seem almost too easy.

If your prospect says “no,” then you’re prepared to handle their objection and ask for the sale again.

2. Don’t take it personally.

You can’t get a “yes” every time. It’s not possible. There are circumstances beyond your control.

Some deals just won’t close, and it could have nothing to do with your talent as a salesperson.

Work with your manager to parse out any opportunities for improvement, distill these into action items, and then set up a system for measuring and monitoring improvement.

No ego necessary.

3. Remember: “On to the next one.”

This is something my old sales manager would tell me whenever I was fixating on a lost deal.

It’s like having a hundred fishing poles in the water at the same time. Who cares if ninety of the lines aren’t getting bites? You’ve got your hands full reeling in the other ten.

With this mindset, you don’t have to worry as much about each individual encounter. When you hear a “no,” just remember all the other deals that you have in the works.

If you spend too much time worrying about what you could have done differently on a deal that didn’t close, or you let the rejection affect you emotionally and hurt your productivity as a result, then you are wasting precious time and energy that you could be using to make progress with other deals.

In a previous article, we talked about Mehrabian’s “7-38-55” rule and why the tone of your voice, in some cases, is more important than the actual words you are saying. You can read the full article here. 

In this article, we’ll focus on how to master your tone (the sound of your voice) to ensure that what you are saying (and the meaning that you are trying to get across) aligns with how you are saying it.

We’ll focus on four main parts of tone:

• The tempo of your words (fast or slow)
• The pauses between those words
• The pitch of your voice (high or low)
• The volume at which you speak (loud or soft)

All of these, together, comprise the non-verbal part of your communication on a phone call.

1. Tempo

A fast tempo is like electronic dance music, it gets you excited. It seems like you’re building up to something and you want to keep moving forward. 

There is one main part of any sales encounter where you want to have a fast tempo, and that’s when you’re showing value. This is the perfect time for your prospect to be getting excited about your product. This is also a time when you want to raise your volume. 

A slow tempo is like smooth jazz, it calms you down. You feel like you can lean back in your chair and relax and mull over your thoughts. 

A part of the sales encounter where you want to maintain a slow tempo is during objection handling. During this part of the call, your prospect is usually trying to rush off the phone (especially if they think they’ve made up their mind that they’re not going to buy).

As a result, your prospect will start to talk fast: “I don’t know … I can’t really think about this right now … Can you just call me tomorrow?”

If you start talking fast right along with them, then the encounter will spiral out of your control, like a snowball rolling downhill and gaining speed.

Instead, if you begin to talk with a slower tempo, this will have a calming effect on your prospect, and they may be willing to stay on the phone a little longer.

2. Pauses

Pauses are related to tempo. Because tempo is the speed at which a passage of music is played. Pausing stops the tempo.

In a sales conversation, these pauses play a crucial role during transitions (points in the conversation when the opportunity to speak switches from one person to the other).

One of the most common transitions occurs right after you’ve asked your prospect a question.

For example, at the end of the call, when you ask for the sale, that’s a great opportunity for a long pause. 

Or, when you’ve asked your prospect an open-ended qualifying question, a long pause gives your prospect the necessary space in the conversation to provide a detailed answer. 

A more subtle opportunity for a pause is when your prospect has finished talking, but they actually still have more to say. This often happens when your prospect is giving objections.

I’m generally a proponent of punctuating all transitions during a sales conversation with long pauses—it’s a signal of confidence and grants you control over the tempo of the conversation. If you need to slow things down, a long pause will do the trick.

The only exception would be during a part of the conversation when you want to keep up a fast tempo, like when you are showing value. 

You can read more here about the power of the pause on a sales call.

3. Pitch

A high pitch (tenor, flute) is sweet and whimsical. It’s hard to get mad at someone when they’re using a high pitch. 

For this reason, you can use a higher pitch when you’re joking with your prospect, building rapport, or being sarcastic. 

A low pitch (bass, drum) is more direct and commanding. It can come off wrong if used incorrectly, but is very helpful for exuding confidence and establishing control over a conversation. 

A lower pitch is most useful when you want to come across as confident and convicted, reasonable and thoughtful, or when you want to show your prospect that you care and that you truly understand where they’re coming from.

On the topic of pitch, it’s also important to be conscious of upspeak and downspeak. 

Upspeak occurs when your pitch increases as you approach the end of a sentence or a word. 

This is typically used by a speaker to indicate that they are asking a question. One often unintentional side effect of upspeak is that the speaker seems like they are unsure of what they are saying.

Downspeak is the opposite. It occurs when your pitch bends downwards as you approach the end of a sentence or a word. 

It’s very important to avoid upspeak during a part of the sales conversation when you want to be inspiring belief in your prospect. Instead, use downspeak as a more convincing tone. 

If you are asking a question, say, during qualifying, then upspeak might be helpful to signal non-verbally to your prospect that it is their turn to respond with an answer.

4. Volume

Loud volume usually goes along with a fast tempo when you’re building excitement. 

Loud volume should be used sparingly during rapport building (when you’re laughing loudly at your prospect’s jokes, for example) or when you’re showing value (saying something like, “THIS is what sets us apart from our competitors”).

At any other time, you risk sounding like you’re trying to “bulldoze” or talk over your prospect. 

Especially if your prospect has a soft volume, make sure to bring your volume down to match theirs. 

Soft volume usually goes with a slow tempo when you’re speaking with confidence.

It’s a bit like telling a secret. You know that the information you have is valuable.

A particularly good time to talk with a soft volume is when you’re offering a discount: “This is actually the deal we had running last month, [pause here] but I talked with my manager [pause here] and she told me that we can extend it for one more day.”

It should almost sound like you have your hand over the receiver on your phone and you’re talking quietly so that not even your co-workers can hear you.  

Now, we’ve reviewed the four main parts of tone:

• The tempo of your words
• The pauses between those words
• The pitch of your voice
• The volume at which you speak

Last, but not least: tone-matching (a.k.a., mirroring) is the trump card when it comes to tone. 

Tone-matching is exactly what its name suggests: matching your tone with your prospect’s. 

If your prospect is bubbly and chirpy, then you should raise the pitch of your voice to meet theirs. If your prospect speaks quietly, then make sure to avoid speaking loudly at risk of drowning out your prospect’s voice. 

In all of the examples that we discussed above as we were reviewing the four main parts of tone, you as the salesperson were controlling the conversation with your tone. 

When we’re tone-matching, we voluntarily give up this control. 

There are two situations in which to use tone-matching:

1. When you’re building rapport (at the very beginning of the call)
2. When your prospect isn’t following along (at any point in the call)

When you begin the sale, you should match your prospect’s tone as best as you can. 

This is because we want to avoid any possible friction at the beginning of the call. Especially during rapport building, you want your prospect to think, “Hey, this person is like me.”

Studies show that people like other people who are like themselves. 

Once you are both speaking in harmony, then you can start to adjust your tone to see if your prospect will follow along. 

For example, when you’re showing value and talking with a faster tempo and louder volume, your prospect should start talking faster and louder with you. 

If your prospect is still speaking slow and soft, this might mean they’re uninterested or not paying attention (or at least not getting excited about what you’re saying). 

If this happens, you need to return to tone-matching to check-in with your prospect. 

If done correctly, you’ll start the encounter by matching your prospect’s tone, meeting them where they are. 

Then, as you begin to use your mastery of tone to control the conversation, your prospect will start to follow along, matching your tone, without even being consciously aware that they’re doing it. 

This control of tone will allow you to speak to your prospect’s emotional decision-making, while your literal words speak to their logical side. 

You can click here to see different tonal patterns written on staves according to music theory.

The “7-38-55” rule, originally researched by UCLA professor Albert Mehrabian in the 1960s, suggests that communication is 7% words, 38% tone of voice, and 55% body language. 

The actual numbers are up for debate, but the principle remains true: in communication, the literal words being spoken are only a fraction of what is being understood by the listener. 

In some cases, non-verbal messages (tone and body language) can communicate a completely different meaning than what is being said verbally. 

For example, if a salesperson says to their prospect:

“Trust me, Bob, this is a really great product.” 

But the salesperson has slumped shoulders, he’s avoiding eye contact, and his tone of voice is high-pitched. 

Then Bob might cue in to the salesperson’s body language and tone, instead of listening to what the salesperson is saying.

As a result, instead of trusting the salesperson and believing that the product is great, Bob might get the sense that the salesperson is lying or that they don’t really believe what they are saying.

Body language is especially important in outside sales where you might be going door-to-door or traveling to vendor locations to pitch your product in-person.

But for inside sales (over the phone), body language is a non-factor. Because the salesperson and the prospect can’t see each other.

Therefore, tone (the sound of your voice) becomes that much more important. 

This includes the tempo of your words (fast or slow), the pitch of your voice (high or low), the volume at which you speak (loud or soft), and the pauses between words—all of which, together, comprise the non-verbal part of your communication on a phone call.

You can read more here about how to master your tone on a sales phone call.

I’m often met with blank stares when I tell rookie reps that they need to build rapport with a prospect. Mostly because they don’t know where to start.

One definition of rapport is “a close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned understand each other’s feelings or ideas and communicate well.”

That sounds like something that would take years to develop! So how can you possibly get into rapport with a prospect in the first few minutes of a phone call? 

A lot of sales reps overcomplicate rapport building. 

They try to search for something in common with their prospect. They look up the weather in their zip code or read up on their local news—this is trying too hard. 

It’s actually much easier than that, and it starts with a simple question: “How are you doing?” 

I was recently catching up with one of my friends from college and he was telling me about how he admires his girlfriend’s ability to maintain a close network of friends. 

I asked him, “What do you think makes Lauren such a good friend?” 

He thought for a second, and to my surprise, he had a very clear three-bullet-point answer:

1. Regularly and consistently asking, “How are you?” 
2. Listening deeply and empathetically to their answer
3. Following up and checking in on updates in their feelings

He gave an example of one time when Lauren had asked how he was doing and he said that his back hurt. 

She then checked in with him every half hour or so about how his back was feeling and offered different ways that she could help. 

She didn’t stop checking in with him until he finally said that his back was feeling better. 

Now, switching gears back to sales, our relationships with our prospects are rarely as intimate as this. But the principle remains the same.

1. Ask your prospect how they’re doing
2. Listen (really listen) to their answer
3. Build rapport from there

#1 is something most salespeople already do automatically. 

#2 is where improvement is needed.

For example, let’s imagine you’re calling a prospect for a pre-scheduled appointment to pitch them your product.

Salesperson: “Hey Karen, this is Cole from ABC company, how are you doing today?”

Prospect: “I’m alright, just been so busy.”

[Now, here is the golden opportunity to build rapport by asking a follow-up question with a caring tone. Let’s look at the wrong way to respond and the right way to respond.]

“I don’t care” salesperson: “That’s great to hear, so like I mentioned last week today we’ll be going over …” 

[If you respond like the “I don’t care” salesperson, you’ve already missed a huge opportunity to build rapport. Instead, respond like this …]

Rapport-building salesperson: “Oh, busy in a good way or busy in a bad way?”

Prospect: “Well, I guess it’s good, but it’s getting really hard to keep up with our growing clientele and I don’t really feel like we’re making much money from these projects.” 

Rapport-building salesperson: “Wow, that sounds tough, are you doing anything to solve it?”

Our main goal is to build rapport, but you’re also gaining valuable qualifying information.

For example, if you’re trying to sell an advertising product, and Karen is already saying they have too much business and low margins, that’s a red flag. 

On the other hand, if you’re selling a POS system that increases Karen’s margins and helps her business handle more volume, then this is a green light.

But, I digress. This is about rapport building, not qualifying. You can read more about qualifying here.

Now, we’ve established a “point of rapport” with Karen to which we can continue to return throughout the rest of the sales encounter.

For example, when you’re ending the phone call you can say, “Good luck with all those projects!”

Or, if you have to make a follow-up call, you can start that call by asking, “Still crazy busy over there?”

And it all starts with a simple question: “How are you doing?”

The underlying principles of this rapport-building system come from four of Dale Carnegie’s “six ways to make people like you.”

1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Be a good listener.
3. Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.
4. Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely.

Prospects buy from salespeople that they like. Rapport building is key to getting your prospect to like you. 

At the beginning of the conversation, follow where your prospect leads you. Meet them where they are. Mirror their tonality and mood. Have an honest and genuine conversation about something other than the product or service you are trying to sell. 

If you do these things, closing the deal gets a lot easier.

As a salesperson, your time is valuable. If you’re spending time on a deal that’s NOT going to close, this is costing you time that you could otherwise spend on a deal that WILL close. 

A longer sales cycle exacerbates this problem. Because the amount of time at risk of loss grows in proportion to the amount of time invested into a longer sales cycle. 

Assuming you have a large market of prospect’s to pick from, you should start with the prospects that have the highest chances of closing, in order to get the greatest return on investment for your sales time and effort. 

“Mini-closing” is a strategy that can be used at any point in the sales cycle (short or long cycle) to help you achieve this higher ROI by weeding out prospect’s who have lower potential to become customers.

It’s similar to Sandler’s “up-front contact” in that its purpose is to “avoid surprises.” But while Sandler’s UFC is primarily used to get on the same page with a prospect in terms of expectations before a meeting, a mini-close can be used at any time to make sure that your prospect is still moving in the direction of the sale. 

A mini-close is defined as “any question, before the final ask for the sale, by which a salesperson aims to determine if their prospect is still planning to become a customer.”

In other words, asking your prospect if they’re still planning to buy, at any point before you actually ask them to buy. 

What does a mini-close sound like?

The most direct and brutally honest form of a mini-close sounds like this:

“Are you still planning to buy my product?”

But that’s too rough, and will likely cause an end to the sales encounter. So we need to add a little filler and fluff on the front-end. Something like this:

“I want to take a second to check in here, Bob, just to make sure we’re being respectful of each other’s time, are you still planning to buy my product?”

But still, the question itself is too direct. And the topic of being “respectful of each other’s time” can be emotionally-charged and misinterpreted. 

My preferred language sounds like this:

“I want to take a second to check in here, Bob, just to make sure we’re on the same page, if I can offer you a product that fits all your requirements, would you be comfortable moving forward today?”

It’s polite; it has filler and fluff so that you can save face from the true question. 

It’s specific, because the question asks about moving forward “today.” 

And there is also a little trickery woven in with the line “fits all your requirements.” 

Because if a product fits ALL your requirements, then of course you would be willing to buy. In this way, the question is designed to encourage a “yes” answer.

It also sets the salesperson up for a perfect rebuttal if the prospect answers “no” to this question. 

You can rephrase your question to make it sounds like your prospect is saying they’re no longer interested in that which they already told you that they were interested in, earlier, during qualifying. 

You could say, “You mean to tell me, Bob, that if I found you a product for half of what you’re paying currently that does twice as much as the product you already have, AND you didn’t have to even lift a finger to get it started, that’s not something you would be interested in?” 

This is a good trick to save yourself if you’ve mini-closed too early and need to buy yourself some more time to show your prospect some more value. The idea is to keep getting yes’s as you move along in your pitch, leading up to a “yes” in response to your final ask for the sale. 

When is the best time to use a mini-close? 

As a salesperson, you are responsible for bringing value to the encounter. This is what entices your prospect to stay engaged.

But you don’t want to give away this value for free. 

In the same way that you wouldn’t give away your product for free when you ask for the final sale, you also want to ask a price for the perceived value of your product throughout the pitch—and that price is buying expectation from your prospect. 

This is the high-level principle that underlies mini-closing: trading buying expectation for value. 

As a salesperson, you are asking for buying expectation and offering value. While a prospect asks for value and offers buying expectation. 

By “buying expectation,” we mean the expectation that the prospect will buy your product. And by “value,” of course, we mean the value of your product. 

Throughout the pitch, if you’re doing it right, the perceived value of your product should increase in the eyes of your prospect. This allows you, in turn, to ask for more buying expectation. The prospect is willing to oblige, because they fear ending the encounter and missing out on the value that you have to offer. In other words, they have F.O.M.O.

The formality and directness of your mini-close depends on the stage of the sales process. In the earlier stages, your mini-closes should be informal and less direct. In the later stages, your mini-closes should be formal and direct. 

This is in accordance with the graph below. A salesperson should ask for less buying expectation while they have still yet to show their product’s full value. 

But in the later stages of the sales encounter, as the salesperson is almost finished showing all the value that they have to offer in their product, then it is time to start asking for maximal buying expectation.

Notice that the red line above is both straight and has a slope equal to one.

The line is straight because we want the sales encounter to be a smooth ride for our prospect. We don’t want to ask for very little buying expectation throughout the encounter, and then all of a sudden ask our prospect for the final sale, as if by surprise. 

This is bad for the customer, because it may be jarring and unexpected. And this is bad for the salesperson, because they won’t have a sense of whether or not their prospect will say “yes,” and have thus lost control of the sale. 

The line has a slope equal to one because a line more shallow than this would mean that the salesperson is offering too much value without asking for enough buying expectation in return. If the line were more steep, then this would mean the salesperson is asking for too much buying expectation without offering enough value. 

The mini-close is our GPS which allows us to determine if we are still on-line. 

If we ask for a mini-close, and our prospect responds in the negative, then we know we need to show some more value before asking another mini-close to check again to see if our prospect is back on-line. 

If we ask for a mini-close, and our prospect responds in the positive, then we know we can keep some value in our back pockets in the meantime, until later in the pitch when we might need to recover from a negative response to a mini-close. 

Here’s an example:

This is a particularly useful strategy if you’ve predicted an objection early on and want to see if it can be handled before you spend the time and effort to go through your entire pitch. 

For example, let’s say you’re selling HR software. 

You’re qualifying at the beginning of the call, and you ask about your prospect’s timeline. 

Your prospect says, “We won’t be able to get anything started until January next year. That’s when our contract with [other HR software company] renews and we want to get everything started on the first of the new year.”

Uh-oh. That’s a non-starter. 

Because you’re having this conversation in June and January is six months away. It’s your company’s policy that you can’t sign any contracts with a start date more than a month in the future. 

So you ask for a mini-close: 

“Susan, if I showed you an HR software that was a dream-come-true for your organization and could relieve a lot of your pain points, would you be willing to get something like that started sooner than January?”

If Susan says “yes,” then you can proceed with your pitch, but you want to continue mini-closing throughout to make sure Susan continues to see that your product really is a ‘dream-come-true’ that they would be willing to start before January. 

If Susan says “no,” then you have a decision to make. 

You can either (1) dig deeper on the mini-close and possibly decide that the prospect isn’t worth pitching any further because their probability of closing is low, or (2) show a little more value in an effort to show Susan that your product really is a ‘dream-come-true’ and then ask the mini-close question again to see if she’s changed her mind about getting started before January. If Susan still hasn’t changed her mind, then it might be time to move on to the next prospect. 

After all, this is the purpose of mini-closing: to conserve your time and energy once you’ve determined a prospect is not a buyer, so that you can then spend that time and energy on a higher-conversion prospect.

This article is longer than usual, because pricing is a particularly important part of sales. Before diving into a step-by-step example, here’s a high-level overview of what we’ll cover:

1. Start with a higher price point.
2. Handle any non-price objections first.
3. Handle the price objection indirectly.
4. Determine what your prospect is willing to pay.
5. How to lower your price.

Let’s imagine you’re a SaaS salesperson selling a VoIP solution. 

You’ve got three different packages: 

• Basic ($500 per year)
• Standard ($1,000 per year)
• Premium ($2,000 per year)

And each package has features that can be added or removed (which raises or lowers the price).

Which one do you present to the prospect? 

Not the Basic package.

Because then you have nowhere to go. The Basic package is your cheapest offering. If the prospect says “that’s too expensive,” then you’re stuck. You can’t go any lower. 

The best shot you have at that point is to overcome the price objection, but even then, your best case scenario is closing the prospect on your lowest package.

But if you start with the Standard or the Premium and the prospect says “that’s too expensive,” then you have some wiggle room. In other words, you maintain your ability to offer a discount. 

Whether you choose the Standard or the Premium depends on what you learned about your prospect during qualifying and throughout the pitch.

Maybe you learned that their current VoIP solution doesn’t include call tracking and this is something they would really like—then you should offer a package that includes call tracking.

You also learned that their current solution costs $750 for the year.

In this case, you definitely don’t want to start with your bare-bones Basic package. Your prospect’s current solution is already costing them almost as much as your Standard package, and they want to add new features.

For a prospect like this (one who sees the value in what you’re offering and has a current price point that’s not too far off from your top-shelf offering), you should start with your fully-loaded Premium package. 

Now, in a sales encounter like this, there are two unsuccessful mindsets that will cause a junior rep to start with a lower price point than they should: 

(I) If their current price is $750, I can offer them our solution at $500 and they’ll be sure to buy. My commission won’t be as much, but at least I’ll get a guaranteed sale.

(II) I don’t want to offer something too much higher than what they’re already paying (or expecting to pay). They might get mad or scoff at me and tell me it’s ridiculous.

Successful salespeople don’t have either of these mindsets. A successful salesperson thinks like this:

(III) This is the best prospect I’ve had all week. They’re perfectly qualified and seem to resonate with the value from my pitch. I’m going to take this opportunity to bring in a bigger account. If they balk at the price, I’ll remind them of the value that they saw earlier.

Other than having the flexibility to go lower if your prospect objects, there’s also a psychological reason that it’s best to start with a higher price. It’s called anchoring. 

Put simply, anchoring bias is the tendency that people have to “give too much weight to the first number put forth in a discussion and then inadequately adjust from that starting point.” You can read more about anchoring from Harvard Law School here. 

For the purpose of sales, anchoring means that starting with a higher price point sets your prospect’s “anchor” higher, so that any lower prices mentioned thereafter seem like a “deal” compared to the price point that was first mentioned. 

Quick summary. There are two reasons a salesperson should start by offering their prospect a higher price point. First, they maintain their ability to discount. Second, they take advantage of the psychological effect of anchoring.

So, for our example, we know we’re going to ask for the sale on the fully-loaded Premium package. Now, what happens next? There are three possibilities: 

(A) Your prospect buys.

Woohoo! Go hit the gong. You just brought in a whale. 

(B) Your prospect objects about something other than price.

Interesting. There still might be a price objection coming, but it wasn’t your prospect’s first thought. This is usually a good sign, as it means your prospect is not blown away by the high price. Proceed with handling objections as usual. Read more about that here (smokescreen objections) and here (real objections).

(C) Your prospect objects about price.

This is what we’re expecting. It makes sense, especially if we offered a price that is above what our prospect is currently paying or was expecting to pay. 

But we don’t want to lower our price right away. Instead, we want to start out by handling the price objection as if coming down on our price wasn’t an option. 

For this specific example, we don’t want to address the price objection head-on. Instead, we want to “deflect” the objection. I learned this strategy from Jordan Belfort. Read more about it here. 

For this case, we want to respond something like, “I hear what you’re saying. Let me ask you this Roger, do you think our VoIP offering will be better than what you have currently?” 

And then you want to listen very carefully.

(i) If your prospect says “no,” well, then you have a bigger problem. Because your prospect doesn’t see value in what you’re selling. Maybe your pitch was bad, but that’s a separate issue.  

(ii) If your prospect says “yes,” then you want to circle in for the close. Build more value and ask for the sale again at the same price point.

(iii) If your prospect says “yes, but …” then what comes after the “but” will probably be another objection. It will either be a different objection or the same objection (price).

If it’s a different objection, then price might not be the real issue. You’ll need to handle this objection first, before handling the price objection. 

If it’s the same objection (price), then price might be the real issue. 

You can try deflecting and looping one more time to close at the same price point, but then you want to start addressing the price objection more directly. 

Still, don’t come down on your price point yet. Before doing so, you want to get your prospect to tell you the price that they’re willing to pay. 

This strategy is similar to Sandler’s “up-front contract.” Its purpose is to avoid surprises (e.g., your prospect having a much smaller budget than you expected). Read more about it here. 

Before getting into a price negotiation, up-front contract with a question such as, “For the package we’ve discussed, what price point would you need to be comfortable moving forward today?” 

Hopefully your prospect names a price point that’s higher than your lowest offering. If you qualified for budget at the beginning of the encounter, this should always be the case.

From there, it’s finally time to come down on your price. But your work isn’t done yet. Exactly how you present your lower price is vitally important. 

It can’t appear too easy, because then it seems fake, like the salesperson who tells you that the discount is going to expire tomorrow, even though you know there will always be a discount. 

In other words, you don’t want your prospect to think that all your other customers end up getting the lower price in the end or, worse, that you had the lower price all along but wanted to see if you could get some more money out of your prospect. 

If your prospect gets the slightest inkling of either of these feelings, it might end the encounter.

Instead, you want your prospect to believe they’re getting a deal—the highest possible value for the lowest possible price. This intensifies the “anchoring” effect from before. 

In some companies, you’ll have to get manager approval to offer a discount or sell a lower package. Even if that’s not the case at your company, I still recommend doing something similar. 

You can say, “Okay, can you give me one second, Roger? I’m going to put you on hold and try to figure this out with my manager.”

This creates the perception that you’re really working hard to get your prospect a deal. 

Even if you don’t have a manager, act as your own manager. Take your time to prepare your next offering for the prospect. Add and remove features to create the package that fits both the needs and budget of your prospect.

When you get back on the phone, say something like, “Okay Roger, here’s what we can do …”

You might have to do this one or two more times before you reach a price with which your prospect is comfortable, but hopefully this means you’ll be making a sale on the call.

But let’s not forget all the important steps we had to go through to get to this point. We didn’t just lower the price right away. Here’s a summary:

1. Start with a price point that’s slightly higher than your prospect’s budget (maintaining your ability to discount and taking advantage of anchoring).
2. Handle any non-price objections first.
3. Handle the price objection indirectly (using Belfort’s strategies, “deflect” and “loop”).
4. Use Sandler’s “up-front contract” to determine what your prospect is willing to pay.
5. Handle the price objection directly by coming down on your price (make sure to present the lower price in a way that convinces the prospect they’re getting a deal).

It’s possible for your prospect to buy at any point throughout steps 1-5. 

If you start right away with lowering the price and your prospect doesn’t buy, then you’re dead in the water. 

But if you use this strategy, you’ll give yourself every possible chance to close the deal before playing your final trump card—offering a lower price. 

In an earlier article, I wrote about how to handle objections. But not all objections are created equal. And there are some objections that shouldn’t be handled. 

In fact, there are some objections that you’re better off ignoring. 

Crazy, right? When have you ever heard sales advice that tells you to ignore your prospect? 

Never, hopefully. Because it’s a terrible sales strategy, most of the time. But for this specific situation, it’s the right strategy. 

There are two main types of objections that we’ll talk about in this article: (1) real objections and (2) “smokescreen” objections. 

Real objections are like brick walls. Smokescreen objections are like clouds of smoke. 

If you were faced with a brick wall and you needed to get to the other side, what would you do? 

You’d have to deconstruct the wall, break through it, build a door, or find a way around. But you couldn’t just walk through it without breaking your nose. 

With a cloud of smoke on the other hand, if you needed to get to the other side, what would you do? 

Just walk through. 

This isn’t always a natural reaction. Most people are cautious around clouds of smoke. And for good reason: it can be scary because you can’t see and you don’t know what’s on the other side. 

And it’s the same with objections. 

When a junior sales rep gets a smokescreen objection, they don’t know how to handle it. 

Often they’ll try to address the objection head-on in an attempt to overcome it by winning the prospect over to their way of thinking by force. Their response often starts with the word “but” and ends with a statement. Argumentative. Confrontational. All wrong.

A pro salesperson, on the other hand, knows that a smokescreen objection is just that, smoke. 

“They’re not real,” my old sales director used to say. “Just walk through them.”

So, you understand the general concept, now there are two things we need to learn:

1. How to differentiate between real objections and smokescreen objections
2. How to “walk through” a smokescreen objection

First, how can you tell if an objection is real or just a smokescreen? 

If a prospect has been repeating the same objection throughout the sales encounter, it’s probably a real objection. 

For example, let’s say you’re selling a recruiting solution to a sales manager. And that sales manager has been telling you, “I’ll need to talk with our CEO to get approval on budget before we can get anything started.” 

There are a few key reasons why this might be a real objection:

• The prospect has mentioned the objection more than once.
• The prospect has been mentioning the objection since the beginning of the sales encounter. 
• The objection makes logical sense (maybe because you’ve heard a similar objection from other prospect’s before or it just seems to fit the prospect’s situation).

If it’s a real objection, then there’s a real problem that needs to be solved before you can close the deal. You can read more about how to handle real objections here. 

On the other hand, there are some objections that should NOT be handled. As we mentioned before, these are called “smokescreen” objections. 

It’s not always easy, and there’s no universal rule, but there are a couple clear indicators that an objection is a smokescreen:

• The prospect gives you an objection that was not mentioned at all in the sales encounter previously, despite your rigorous and exhaustive qualifying.
• The prospect starts to give you one objection after the other, and the objections are not related, nor do they follow a logical line of thought. Even if you handle one objection successfully, the prospect will give you another, and another. This is called “kettle logic” and you can read more about it here. 

Here are a few examples of smokescreen objections that you might have heard before:

• I’m busy.
• Can I call you back tomorrow?
• I want to think about it.
• I need to talk to my partner.

Now, we must be careful. Because these objections are not always smokescreens. They are only smokescreens if they also fit one of the two indicators mentioned above (the objection has come out of the blue or it’s not logical). 

When a prospect gives you a smokescreen objection, we know one thing for sure: they’re not ready to buy. But why?

It’s almost always because there is a deeper objection, a real objection, behind the smokescreen. 

So the goal now becomes getting past the smokescreen so that the prospect can tell us their real objection. 

Now, how do you “walk through” a smokescreen objection? 

In the most polite way possible, carry on the conversation without addressing the smokescreen directly.

To avoid making your prospect feel like they’ve been ignored, make sure to use an empathy statement. Here are some of my favorites:

• No worries.
• I totally understand.
• That makes sense.
• I see where you’re coming from.
• I appreciate you sharing that. 

But then move right along without skipping a beat. 

The best way to keep the conversation going is to ask a question after your empathy statement. But if the smokescreen objection is particularly weak, you might be a little more aggressive and just rephrase your ask for the close. 

Here’s an example of a more aggressive approach to a weak smokescreen objection: 

Salesperson: “Awesome, so all we need to get started today is just to put a credit card on file and then you’ll be all set.” 

Prospect: (First pauses for a while, and seems like they’re considering it, and then says …) “I want to wait until my partner gets back to the office this afternoon.”

Salesperson: “No worries, Bob. What we can do then is I’ll just take the credit card from you now and then you can call me back once you’ve talked with your partner if you guys aren’t wanting to move forward. How does that sound?” 

(I would especially use this approach in a case where I know Bob is the 100% owner of the company and his “partner” is actually just his son that started working for him.)

Here’s an example of a more conservative approach to a stronger smokescreen objection: 

Salesperson: “Awesome, so all we need to get started today is just to put a credit card on file and then you’ll be all set.” 

Prospect: “I don’t know, Cole. I’m not sure. I’m also pretty busy right now. Actually, I just pulled up to a job. Can I call you back later?”

Salesperson: “No worries, Bob. You’re a busy guy. I bet there are ten guys waiting for your instructions on that job site. Tell me this at least, do you think the program could work for your business?”

Prospect: (Pauses, let’s his fear subside for a second, and actually thinks of an answer to your intelligent question, and then says …) “You know, it just might. I particularly liked what you said about XYZ feature. But I’m just so busy right now” (exhales audibly). 

Salesperson: “I understand, Bob, and I appreciate you sharing that with me. How about this? I know you’re busy right now so I’m going to send the contract over to your email so you can review later. If you think the program could work, I think you’re right, so we could start you on our 30-day trial and then review the results together after that. How does that sound?”

But whatever you do, don’t try to handle the smokescreen objection directly, like this:

Salesperson: “Awesome, so all we need to get started today is just to put a credit card on file and then you’ll be all set.” 

Prospect: “I don’t know, Cole. I’m not sure. I’m also pretty busy right now. Actually, I just pulled up to a job. Can I call you back later?”

Salesperson: “Yea, it does sound like you’re busy. What times are you available later today?”

Prospect: “I can talk again at 4pm …”

And the rest doesn’t matter, you’ve already lost control of the sales encounter.

You let Bob start to steer the conversion as soon as you granted legitimacy to his “busy” objection by asking for times to call back later. Chances that Bob picks up the phone for your 4pm follow-up are low. 

So there you have it, a step-by-step guide for identifying smokescreen objections and handling appropriately. Here’s a review of what we’ve discussed:

1. How to differentiate between real objections and smokescreen objections
2. How to “walk through” a smokescreen objection
3. Different strategies based on whether the smokescreen is weak or strong

Remember, real objections are like brick walls. Smokescreen objections are like clouds of smoke. Real objections need to be handled. Smokescreen objections can be walked through.

Sales isn’t for everyone. My goal with this article is to convince you NOT to do sales. If you get to the end and still think that sales is the right career path for you, then I think there’s a pretty good chance that you’re right. 

Whether you’re a recent grad who’s been told “you would be good in sales,” a career-changer looking to make the move into sales, or a new hire in your first sales role, here are ten things to double check before you go any farther down a sales career path.

1. You’re afraid of rejection.

You will get hung up on. You will get yelled at (just for doing your job). And you will hear “no” a lot (like more than 90% of the time). If this scares you, sales isn’t for you. Sales is about staying hungry while chasing after the 10% of your prospects that will say “yes.” And letting rejections roll off your back like rain rolls off a roof.

2. You’re overly emotional.

Some emotion is a good thing. You need to have empathy for your prospect’s situation. You should even be able to feel their pain point. But you can’t let your own emotions get in the way. You can’t get angry when a deal doesn’t close. You can’t get sad when you miss quota. There’s a difference between having emotional intelligence and being emotional.

3. You take things personally.

At some point in history, everyone decided it’s socially acceptable to be rude to salespeople. It’s not because you’re you; it’s just because you’re in sales. You’ll also be getting feedback from your manager constantly and some of it will seem personal (like the tone of your voice). If you can’t separate your ego from your sales performance, you won’t survive in sales.

4. You’re low-energy.

This is important not only for talking to prospects, but also for being surrounded by sales co-workers. You can count on caffeine-loving Energizer bunnies sitting to the left and right of you. If this sounds exhausting, you probably won’t enjoy working on a sales team.

5. You hate meeting new people.

Every new prospect you meet will be a “stranger” and you’ll have to make them like you. Cold calling through a list of leads is a bit like speed dating. Building rapport is similar to small talk at a cocktail party. This one should seem obvious, but antisocial homebodies should steer clear of a sales role.

6. You love the sound of your own voice.

If your favorite thing is to talk about yourself, sales isn’t right for you. A common misconception is that sales is about making a big convincing speech (like Don Draper from Mad Men). It’s not. Sales is about asking the right questions and listening. For example, think of the classic “sell me this pen” sales test. An amateur will start talking about the pen. A pro will ask their prospect a question.

7. You’re an over-thinker.

Sales isn’t rocket science … unless you’re selling rockets (in which case you should probably bring a scientist to the pitch with you). There are parts of sales that can get complicated (like your CRM software). But when it comes to actually talking with a prospect, simple is best. Shooting from the hip will win out over going down rabbit holes.

8. You prefer project-based work.

Some people enjoy working for months on end on a single project—building a model in excel, writing code for a new feature, or putting together a pitch deck. This type of work allows you to put in your headphones and get lost in your computer screen. Sales is the opposite. You’re constantly going from one thing to another: checking email, picking up the phone, preparing for a pitch, picking up the phone again, game-planning with your manager, and talking to your co-workers.

9. You prefer email over phone.

Salespeople pick up the phone. They love talking to people so much that they sometimes do it even when it’s not necessary (like calling a restaurant to check if they’re open when a quick Google search would show their hours). If you plan to beat quota using your email game, you should be in marketing instead of sales.

10. You’re uncomfortable with volatility in your paycheck.

This problem will decrease over time, as your sales skills improve and you’re consistently hitting your commission targets. But in the beginning you might have a few months where you miss quota and have to rely on your base salary. If you prefer a steady paycheck over betting on yourself to hit a bigger financial goal, you would be better off in a role without variable compensation.

By now, hopefully you’ve already stopped reading if you’ve decided sales isn’t for you.

If you made it this far, I’m going to assume that you identify strongly with the opposites of all the bad-for-sales characteristics listed above. If so, then it’s safe for me to tell you, in good faith, how I really feel … sales is awesome! 

Here are a few quick reasons why I love sales:

• Ability to control your career trajectory and earning potential
• Learning a fundamental component of a strong business acumen
• Talking to people for a living

This article would double in size if I wrote out the full list. If you’re just starting on your sales career path, godspeed and don’t hesitate to reach out!

Let’s say you had a pitch last week. You didn’t close the deal on the call because the prospect gave you an objection that you couldn’t handle. So you were forced to set a follow-up appointment and hope for the best.

Now it’s time for the follow-up. The phone rings and the prospect picks up. You say hello and build some rapport, and then what?

Whatever you do, don’t remind the prospect of their objection. This gives the prospect an easy way out. Instead, ask for the sale again, as if you had never heard their objection in the first place.

If the prospect picked up the phone for the follow-up, this means they’re at least thinking about buying. Don’t put doubt back into their mind by bringing up their objection again.

For example, let’s say you got this objection: I need to talk to my partner first.

When you call for the follow up, DO NOT say, “Hey Bob, have you had a chance to talk to your partner yet?”

This is what I mean by “assuming the objection.” Don’t do it.

Because if Bob says “no,” then the follow-up is over before it’s even started.

Instead, after you’ve said hello and built rapport, say, “So Bob, I know last time we talked it seemed like you were pretty interested in our product. Are you ready to get everything going?”

Here’s why: your prospect will take the path of least resistance. If you feed them an objection, they’re going to use it.

Instead, if you ask for the sale again in an open-ended way, then there are three possibilities:

1. They buy.
2. They come up with a new objection.
3. They repeat their objection from the last call.

And here’s what you can do in each situation:

1. Great! Money in the bank.
2. This might be a “smokescreen” objection. In other words, if a prospect keeps switching their objections, then they might not be real. There might be a deeper objection (or it could just be fear), so you need to dig in.
3. This usually confirms that the objection is legitimate. You should come to the follow-up prepared to handle the objection if it does turn out to be real.

Don’t assume the objection. Ask for the sale in an open-ended way. Then take one of the three paths above based on how your prospect responds.

This is one of my favorite lines in phone sales.

It’s perfect for when your prospect is giving you any of the following excuses for why they need to get off the phone:

• Can I call you back in five minutes? 
• My wallet’s in the car. 
• I have a customer in front of me. 
• I need to talk to my partner.

Your chances of closing decrease dramatically once you let your prospect off of the phone.

Oftentimes, a prospect just needs a chance to breathe before they make a buying decision. If you’re on the phone with them the whole time, it feels like a high-pressured sales call.

This is the reason they’re giving you the objection in the first place. It’s not a real objection. It’s code for: “You’ve just given me a lot of information, and I’m not quite ready to make a decision.” They might be feeling a little nervous or scared. 

Being put on hold is the perfect middle-ground. The phone call continues. But the prospect gets a chance to take a deep breath and gather their thoughts.

In some cases, the objection is legitimate. Maybe the prospect’s wallet really is out in their car. And they have to walk out of their office to go and grab it. 

In either case, whether it’s a fake or legitimate objection, your chances of closing go way down if you allow your prospect to end the phone call.

Because prospects are busy. They’ve likely got a dozen other things going on during the middle of their business day, and even though they might promise to call you back in five minutes, they’re going to get distracted by an email or another urgent issue.

And then you have to spend your valuable sales effort re-engaging them. Even if they do come back later and close the deal, you’ve lost time that you could have otherwise spent closing other deals.

Not to mention, if you’ve done a good job of building momentum throughout the call, all the value and excitement is top of mind for the prospect at the end of the call (this is when they’re in the best emotional state to buy). If they have too much time to think about it on their own, they might talk themselves out of it. 

Using the “put me on hold” trick gets it done on the call, which (1) saves you the time that you would need to spend following up to re-engage the prospect, and (2) increases your chances of closing the deal using the momentum you’ve already built up on the call.

When I listen to junior sales reps that are still learning to qualify, it often sounds “robotic.”

I notice this particularly in the transitions between questions. After a prospect gives an answer, a junior rep will go straight on to the next question, like a receptionist collecting info at the DMV.

There are some answers during qualifying that require “digging in.” This includes any answer that is ambiguous, confusing, or seems like it might be just the tip of the iceberg.

An experienced sales rep will ask follow-up questions to dig deeper into surface-level answers.

For example, if you ask a prospect, “So, Carol, when would you like to get this program started?”

And Carol answers, “Sometime in the next couple months.”

That’s a surface-level answer. 

Junior reps will often accept this answer and move on to their next qualifying question. Because they don’t know what they should be listening for. 

A senior sales rep, on the other hand, knows that when it comes time (at the end of the call) to battle objections and hold the prospect accountable to their qualifying answers, you need something specific and well-explained so that you can set clear buying expectations and action items. 

Knowing this, a senior sales rep is going to dig in for a more specific answer … 

Salesperson: “Carol, did you have a more specific date in mind?”

Carol: “No, not really.”

Salesperson: “I know you mentioned you need to have the program in place before your grand opening. Remind me again, when is the opening?”

Carol: “Oh, that’s right. Yea, it’s on July 4th.”

Salesperson: “Got it, so would you say we should have the program started by July 4th?” 

Carol: “Yea, we should actually start it the week before the opening.”

Salesperson: “What about July 1st?” 

Carol: “Yea, that sounds good.”

It’s a lot easier to get this information at the beginning of the phone call (during qualifying), than it is at the end of the call (when you’re battling objections). 

Because at the end of the call, Carol will be more shy about sharing information that she knows might be used against her to close the deal. 

Now that you’ve asked follow-up questions to dig deeper in qualifying, you’ll have a better response prepared when Carol gives you an objection. 

For example, at the end of the call, Carol says, “I want to think about it.”

If all you knew was that Carol wanted to get started sometime in the next couple months, you might have trouble battling this objection (because Carol’s sense of urgency is ambiguous).

But because you dug deeper and asked follow-up questions during qualifying, now you’re prepared to handle the objection by expediting Carol’s timeline and setting firm next steps … 

Salesperson: “No worries, and remind me, when was your grand opening again? 

Carol: “July 4th.”

Salesperson: “Okay, and you said you wanted to have the program start the week before the opening, right?”

Carol: “That’s right.” 

Salesperson: “Okay, well today is June 22nd. And it will take a couple days for our operations team to have everything set up. So what if we set our onboarding appointment for June 27th.”

Carol: “That sounds fine.”

Salesperson: “One other option would be to get everything out of the way right now, that way I won’t be wasting your time with another meeting. All we would need is to put a credit card on file … ”

Being able to handle an objection like this at the end of the call, is only possible if you qualify correctly at the beginning of the call. 

If you dig into shallow answers with follow-up questions during qualifying, you will have all the ammo you need to battle objections when you ask for the sale. 

During rapport building, you become your prospect’s friend. 

During qualifying and pitching, you start to act more as a trusted professional. 

But when it comes to asking for the sale, you clearly become a salesperson.

And the mood on the call will change. Even if your prospect liked and trusted you before, they may become skeptical (even stand-offish) when you ask them to make a buying decision. 

At this point, it becomes far more difficult to keep your prospect on the phone, especially if they’ve made up their mind that they don’t want to buy.

So you need to make sure of a few things before you ask for the sale:

1. You’ve shown all your product’s value (and the prospect understands)
2. You’re prepared with all your qualifying ammo (to battle objections) 
3. You’ve already handled any anticipated objections 

It will be much more difficult to backtrack and do these things after you’ve already asked for the sale. 

Your prospect will be less open-minded about seeing value (because they are now more focused on thinking of and defending their objections).

They will be more shy and protective of their qualifying info (because it’s obvious now that you are going to try and use it against them to close the sale).

And they will now use all of their objections against you (even if you anticipated them), if you don’t verbally address them and put them to bed before asking for the sale.

If you’ve done all this before asking for the sale, then there should only be two possibilities when you ask for the sale: either the client gives you their credit card, or they give you an unanticipated objection. 

Even if you get an unanticipated objection, you’ll still be able to handle it with the value you’ve shown (#1) and the qualifying info you’ve gathered (#2).

Also, because you already handled all their anticipated objections earlier in the call, the prospect will have enough patience to go through two or three objection handling “loops” (whereas it’s much harder to handle all the anticipated AND unanticipated objections at the very end of the call). 

So remember, before you ask for the sale, make sure you’ve (1) shown value, (2) qualified, and (3) handled any anticipated objections. Doing these three things will dramatically increase your chances of closing the deal on the call.

As a brief refresher, qualifying is the process of determining whether a lead has the potential to become a customer. This is achieved by asking questions to identify certain “buying” characteristics in a lead (e.g., budget, timeline, pain point).

There are multiple scenarios where you might be going into a sales encounter with pre-qualified info:

• Your marketing system captured some info from the customer on a landing page. 
• Your SDR qualified for you and took notes on the appointment-setting call. 
• You already talked to one decision maker and now you’re talking to the other. 
• You did your own research before the call.
• You qualified at the beginning of a long demo/pitch and need to re-qualify before asking for the sale. 

In these cases, you’ll always want to re-qualify.

In other words, you don’t want to take the pre-qualified info at face value. Things may have changed. The prospect could have inputted false info into the form on the landing page. Your SDR may have misunderstood the prospect. One DM could have a different view of things than a different DM. A prospect could change their qualifying answers during the course of a demo/pitch. For these reasons, you want to make sure and confirm any pre-qualified info you already have—I call this re-qualifying.

Now, there’s a right way and a wrong way to re-qualify. When listening to my reps, I notice one bad habit most often, and that’s the tendency to ask leading questions (i.e., assuming the answer within the question).

For example, “Bob, you wanted to get this started today, right?” That’s a leading question. That’s the wrong way to re-qualify.

Qualifying should never feel like an interrogation (whether it’s pre-qualifying, re-qualifying, or any other type of qualifying). You shouldn’t be asking leading questions like your customer is on the witness stand. This makes it obvious to the customer that you’re trying to get them to go in a certain direction, which causes the encounter to feel forced and inauthentic.

Instead, ask open-ended questions.

For example, “Bob, when did you want to get this started?”

Notice the subtle difference between those two questions. The first (the wrong way) is a “yes” or “no” question that assumes the answer. The second (the right way) is an open-ended question that invites Bob to give a more detailed answer.

Even if you think you already know the answer, don’t let the customer know that.

It’s a common expression in product management that users will often “take the path of least resistance.” It’s the same for your customers. If you offer up an easy answer to a leading question, they’re just going to say, “Yea, that sounds right.”

Instead, an open-ended question requires some thought. “Yes” and “no” aren’t options. There has to be more specificity and explanation in response to an open-ended question.

This gives your customer an opportunity to update you with any new information. It also gives you the chance to confirm information that you already know. 

Oftentimes I’ll find that my customers will change their answers in the time between pre-qualifying and re-qualifying. This tells me that they’re not sure and it might be an area where I need to dig in.

All in all, this topic is fairly deep in the treasure chest of sales knowledge. But if you’re already a master qualifier, re-qualifying is an area where you can take your qualifying game to the next level.

You don’t want to be the salesperson that “steamrolls” your prospect by talking over them.

If you go back and listen to your calls, there should never be a moment where you are talking at the same time that your prospect is talking. 

Your prospect’s words are like honey. They are rich with information about your prospect’s thought process and vitally important to closing the sale.

It’s also just rude and annoying to have someone talking over you. It will cause your prospect to clam up or just end the encounter altogether. 

There are three ways to ensure you’re not talking over your prospect: talk less in general, talk for shorter periods of time, and allow for long pauses. 

1. Talk less in general.

40:60 is a good ratio. In other words, you as the salesperson should be talking less than half the time during a sales conversation. If you could talk 30% of the conversation, while still saying enough to convey your value proposition, that would be even better.

The underlying principle here is described in more detail in Dale Carnegie’s book How to Win Friends and Influence People. He says, “Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.”

2. Talk for shorter periods of time.

This achieves two things. First, it makes your words more powerful. Like a rare resource becomes more valuable because of scarcity, so should it be for your words.

Second, it gives your prospect an opportunity to talk. If your prospect has a thought about something you’re saying, you need to hear it. In other words, you want to bring your prospect’s internal dialogue out loud on the phone call. 

For example, let’s say an amateur sales rep is talking too much, and they make a three-part statement all in one breath. 

But what if the prospect had a thought about the first part? It would be awkward to bring it up after the third part, because now the topic has changed. So the prospect just keeps quiet and the amateur sales rep never hears that thought from their prospect.

On the other hand, imagine a pro sales rep who splits that long-winded, three-part statement into three separate, short statements with long pauses in between. Voila! The prospect starts talking after the first part of the statement and the salesperson gets an insight into the prospect’s thought process that would have otherwise gone unsaid. 

3. Allow for longer pauses.

The pause should be long, like longer than you would think. Long enough that it’s almost awkward. Between 3-5 seconds is usually a good pause.

You should allow for these pauses after you’re done talking, as well as after your prospect is done talking. 

Sometimes your prospect stops to take a breath, but they still have more to say. We don’t want to cut their train of thought short. We need to hear everything that’s on their mind. 

As for when you finish talking, you want to hear your prospect’s reaction. 

Sometimes it’s as subtle as just a barely audible noise. It might sound like hmph, ahhh, or ohhh—all of these sounds have different meanings and are important clues for how your prospect is feeling.

Single-word answers (like okay, fine, and great) also have very different and important meanings. Make sure you are listening to these and not talking over them. 

Summary:

If you are doing all the talking, your prospect will just think to themselves, instead of sharing their thoughts with you. 

If you say too many things in quick succession, the prospect will only be able to respond to the last thing you said. And you won’t get to hear their thoughts about the first or second things that you said.

If there is a long pause, the prospect will tell you their thoughts about what you just said (or continue with their own train of thought). 

Talk less, sell more.

The other day I was walking on the sidewalk and I saw a “No Parking” sign posted on a garage door. But it wasn’t an ordinary “No Parking” sign—it also said “Visualize Being Towed.” 

And I visualized it! I started to think about how terrible it would be to realize that my car was gone. I was even getting stressed about having to call the impound lots. 

Before reading the sign, I wasn’t even thinking about parking. I wasn’t even in a car! I was just walking on the sidewalk. But I still visualized being towed. 

That’s the power of visualization—to make you feel something that isn’t real. 

Which got me thinking about visualization, more generally. There are a ton of applications, but of course, I was thinking about sales. 

It made me remember something that a veteran rep had taught me when I started in my first sales role. He said, “You have to sell the dream. You have to make them live the dream before they’ve even bought it.”

Living the dream—this is visualization. The dream is a life with your product or service. And the nightmare is just one more day living with their pain point (without your product or service). 

But just talking about it isn’t enough. Visualization is about making it visceral. They have to see, hear, and feel their dream. 

The goal is to get your prospect to feel the dopamine hit from their dream. And that’s when people buy.

This could be anything. For example, maybe you’re selling a POS system to an old-fashioned restaurant. The restaurant owner has told you how stressful it’s been to keep track of all their orders on paper tickets. 

So you say, “Picture this, Jan. All your servers will take down orders on their iPads and the orders will automatically pop up on a monitor for the kitchen staff. No more paper! No more sifting through stacks of receipts when doing accounting. No more losing track of orders and having customers get upset with you and your waitstaff. Doesn’t that sound a lot less stressful, Jan?”

The goal is to get into Jan’s world. You want to see the problem from her perspective. This way you’re not missing the mark when you try to walk through a visualization exercise. You want it to be as close to Jan’s reality as possible, so the emotions she feels are real. 

Now, visualization can seem a little over-the-top. If executed poorly, it will just be awkward. Your prospect will feel shy about sharing their imagination with you. 

But consider this: your prospect will be visualizing either way. Without your guidance, they’ll be visualizing the negative—their wallet getting lighter, how angry their boss will be if this doesn’t work, etc.

You need to walk them through a visualization of the positive—how great life will be once they’ve bought your product and finally get some relief from their pain point. 

Take control of the power of visualization to help your prospect imagine a positive buying scenario. Otherwise, visualization will work against you as your prospect privately imagines a negative scenario and convinces themselves not to buy.

It’s like you and your prospect are sitting across from each other in a card game. Your prospect has their handful of cards and you have yours. Whoever lays down all their cards first loses.

As a salesperson, some of the main cards you hold are value and pricing. The prospect’s cards are answers to your qualifying questions: budget, timeline, pain point, decision-making authority, etc.

The prospect holds more cards than the salesperson (which is why making a sale is always an uphill battle). 

To increase your chances of closing the sale, you as the salesperson have to find out more than you divulge (which is why you have to control the conversation and be the one asking the questions). 

The trick is to get the prospect to play all of their cards before you put down your own (ideally, you can get ALL of your prospect’s cards before you play ANY of your own).

Example #1:

For example, a prospect might ask you in the first few minutes of a pitch:

“To be honest, Cole, I don’t have time for the pitch. Can you just tell me how much it costs?”

If you play your pricing card too early by answering this question, then the prospect might get sticker shock and end the encounter. At the very least, your prospect will have their guard up and resist allowing themselves to fall in love with a product that they think is too expensive. 

Instead, you have to answer a question with a question. 

“That’s why I’m asking you these questions, Susan. I need to know more about your situation before I can recommend a price point. Can you tell me a little more about [insert pain point]?”

Example #2:

Here’s another question you might hear from a prospect:

“Cole, I’ve heard the same pitch from five different vendors. Can you just give me a quick 30-second summary of what you’re offering?” 

Especially if you’re selling a more complicated SaaS product, you can’t summarize your value like this. You have to go slowly through your pitch/demo and it’s going to require some patience from your prospect. Even if they don’t like it, your prospect will be forced to be patient if they think there might be value in what you’re offering. 

The salesperson could respond with something like this:

“I wish my job were that easy, Susan, but it’s going to take a little longer than 30 seconds. We are the #1 vendor in this space so I think you’ll find it worth your time to hear about some of our unique features. Could you tell me a little more about what features are most important to you?”

Imagine playing poker against someone where you got to see their cards and you didn’t have to show them yours. That would be easy winnings. You could bet when you had the better hand and wait when not. 

This is the situation we want to set up for ourselves on a sales call. 

If we can get the prospect to play their pain point card, we can bet big on our specific value that solves this pain point. 

For example, if we know that our prospect has cash flow problems and can’t afford a big down-payment, we can bet big on our pay-as-you-go option. 

This way, instead of unloading your whole arsenal of value and wasting your prospect’s time with unnecessary information, you’re selling them on the exact value that will be most convincing for their specific situation. You can only do this if the prospect plays their cards first.

People like comedians because they’re funny. People like talk show hosts because they’re witty. People like professors because they’re smart. 

Different people have different qualities that make them likable. 

Similarly, customers buy from salespeople for different reasons. In other words, there’s more than one way to sell.

Your high emotional intelligence might make the customer more comfortable opening up about their true objections. Your professionalism might make them confident in your recommendation. Your contagious laugh might make them care-free and spendthrift. 

It’s important to remember this especially if you work on a larger sales team. It’s easy to start comparing yourself to everyone else, especially the top performers. 

Whenever you’re trying to learn from top performers, remember that whatever natural skill they have might be different than yours. 

Stay true to your own natural strengths, especially as you take advice from the veterans on your sales team.

Remember, there’s more than one way to sell.

As you proceed through each step of the sales encounter with your prospect, your levels of urgency, formality, and excitement should increase, little by little. 

It’s like going on a first date. You don’t want to come on too strong, but you also don’t want to seem bored. 

The intro starts out calm and casual. You want to build rapport at this point, making the prospect feel comfortable talking with you.

If the prospect wants to go on a 5-minute tangent about something irrelevant during rapport building, let them go. It’s worth your time to let them talk. It’s a weird thing that people like you more, the more they talk to you (even if you say nothing). 

As you start to qualify, your questions should be a little more direct and clear. It shouldn’t feel like an interrogation for the prospect, but you need to dig in if they give an unclear answer. 

When you start to pitch, it should get a little hotter. You might stand up from your chair and start to use hand motions. Especially when you’re selling value, you want to get excited and raise your voice just a little bit.

But make sure you don’t “steamroll” your prospect. You can’t keep increasing urgency and raising your voice if they’re not along for the ride. If you’re getting more excited and they’re staying monotone and flat—that’s a bad sign.

The key is to listen. Similar to a musician that can hear a note and tell you what key on the piano is being played, a salesperson needs to be able to discern a prospect’s emotion from the tone of their voice. Make sure you’re matching your prospect’s tone with your own voice.

This all builds up to asking for the sale. You should be able to hear a pin drop for the first few seconds after you’ve asked for the sale for the first time. 

If the prospect viewed you as a friend during rapport building, they should now see you as a professional that has the power to help them and their business. 

After we’ve asked for the close, we won’t let the prospect go off on any more tangents. We don’t want to let them blow wind into the sails of their own objections. Our answers are short and stern, almost like a parent talking to a child, without being offensive. 

If you do all of this correctly, your prospect will both like you and respect you—a winning combination for making the sale. 

I hear it over and over in the pit and on recorded calls. The client asks for one answer, and the salesperson gives two (sometimes three or four). 

Oftentimes, this happens with rookie reps that don’t know what to say, so they end up saying everything. But it also happens with veteran reps that get lazy and loose-lipped. 

Example #1:

Prospect: “I’ll get everything set up today, right?”

Wrong answer: “That’s right. And I’ll also give you the number to our customer support team so you can reach them anytime just in case you have any questions. And I’ll also be available in case our customer support team doesn’t answer.”

Right answer: “That’s right.”

Example #2:

Prospect: “How much does it cost to get started?”

Wrong answer: “Well, it’s $99 per month. But it used to be $120 per month and you had to pay for the whole year. Now we make it way more affordable and you can pay monthly.”

Right answer: “It’s $99 per month.” 

There are two main problems with answering unasked questions:

1. Overtalking – prospect gets bored
2. Overexplaining – prospect gets confused

When the salesperson volunteers answers to unasked questions, it opens up a can of worms. This invites the prospect to think of questions that they previously weren’t worried about. It over-complicates the sale and increases the chances that you’ll get the “Let me think about it” objection when you ask for the sale.

The client already has enough questions on their mind: What if I can’t cancel? What if it doesn’t work? What if this is a scam? What if my business fails?

We don’t want to add even more questions to that mix. 

Prospects buy when they understand. They buy when they feel that all their questions have been answered. So we want to answer all the questions that they have, but not one more. 

The only exception to this rule is at specific parts of the pitch when you are selling value. 

Example #3: 

Prospect: “What about this feature?”

Salesperson: That actually solves for the specific pain point you mentioned earlier. Here’s how it works … [the salesperson can be a little long-winded here because it’s a very important part of the pitch].

But after showing value in the main parts of the pitch, especially during the closing part of the call—less is more. Keep your answers brief and don’t answer unasked questions.  

Kettle logic is when contradictory statements are used to win an argument. Freud used this example in his writings:

A man is accused by his neighbor of returning a kettle in damaged condition. The man offers three arguments as to why:

1. He had returned the kettle undamaged.
2. It was already damaged when he borrowed it.
3. He had never borrowed it in the first place.

It’s obvious that the culprit is lying about at least one of these statements (he may even be lying about all of them).

It’s the same with a prospect giving “smokescreen” objections during the closing part of a sales call. 

At the end of a sales call, you ask your client to sign the contract and you get an objection:

“I really want to sign this, but I just can’t because it’s not in our budget.” 

You remind the prospect about the return-on-investment that you discussed together earlier. “The program will pay for itself, remember?” The client seems satisfied with this response. 

But then they give you another objection …

“I just can’t sign this because I need to talk to my partner first.”

Well, which one is it? Do they not have a budget? Or, do they have to talk to their partner first?

A prospect will use kettle logic like this when they’re nervous, scared, or just unsure. When this happens, the best thing to do as a salesperson is to switch gears, from logical to emotional.

Because dismantling the logic part of kettle logic does nothing to get you closer to what the prospect really needs to talk about. Instead, it will force the prospect to clam up.

Take some of the pressure off and ask a broad question that invites the prospect to start speaking freely. 

“I get it, Bob. Let’s take a step back. How do you feel about the deal in general?”

If you’ve built rapport and trust early on, then the prospect will open up and tell you the real objection. Sometimes there isn’t one. If they really trust you, they’ll admit they’re just a little scared or unsure. Then you need to dig in.

“That makes sense, Bob. A lot of my customers have felt the same way. What part do you think you’re most scared/unsure about?”

Once you get down to the root of the real objection, then you can start reselling value there.

You won’t win every sale. And sometimes the prospect just needs some time to think. The key here is that you don’t take objections at face-value when they’re really just smokescreens to mask a deeper objection (that may end up being an emotional objection like fear or uncertainty).

There are ups and downs in sales.

The ups are when you can barely keep up with all your interested prospects. Every pitch seems to be closing. All your warm leads that have been radio silent for weeks seem to come out of hiding all at once. You’re riding an emotional high and dreaming of your commission check. 

The downs, on the other hand, are when you can hear crickets in the sales pit and revenue has ground to a halt. Your phone isn’t ringing with inbound, there are no new inquiries in your inbox, and nobody’s signing up using the self-checkout links.

The downs are when it’s time to get to work. 

When my reps are a little behind their pacing number, I have them send me daily recaps with the following: 

• Daily pacing number to hit their monthly quota 
• How much revenue they closed today
• What they’re going to do differently tomorrow (if they didn’t hit their pacing number today)

In her daily recap from yesterday, one of my reps said, “Sales is all about ebb and flow and I know that, following a low day, there’s a storm of revenue brewing.”

I smiled ear to ear when I read this. First, because she’s already giving herself the same feedback that I would have given her (a strong sign for a future manager). And because it’s SO true! 

When revenue dips, don’t focus on revenue. One of my old bosses used to call this “gripping the bat too tight.” This is when you’re going into every closing call like it might be your last. The prospect feels the unhealthy pressure and you end up burning some of your best leads. 

Instead, focus on the preliminary steps to revenue. Focus on your activity metrics (dials and emails) and pipeline management. These are the foundation of your sales process. When you’re in a slump, you have to build from the ground up. 

It’s a natural undulation in sales. There will be times when you need to inject new leads, dial down, and rebuild your pipeline. Then you need to spend time focusing on getting all those leads through the sales cycle and closing them at the end. Then it’s back to the front of the pipe to set yourself up with more leads.

Where amateurs fail, is they will focus on the revenue number as their only metric of success. So they get down on themselves and lose steam when it’s really just time to switch gears and focus on the front end of their pipeline. A pro takes the lull in revenue as an opportunity to inject new leads and rebuild their pipeline.

Now, all the above advice applies to short-term dips in revenue. If your revenue performance declines consistently, there is a point when you might need to take a look at the later stages in your sales cycle (mainly pitching and closing). This depends on the length of your sales cycle. 

(Side note: sales cycle length is the amount of time between your first touchpoint with a prospect and when the deal closes.)

For our org, the average sales cycle length is 3-5 days (we sell an insurance product, so our customers are usually only shopping when they have a short timeline).

For our sales cycle, if one of my rep’s has a revenue slump for one day, there’s no need for alarm. If their revenue dips for more than five days in a row, then we need to make a change. 

This is because 5 days is the maximum amount of time that a rep would need to inject a batch of new leads into their pipeline and complete a full sales cycle with them.

For an org with a longer sales cycle (like a SaaS product with a 6-month or 1-year cycle), it’s even more difficult to analyze revenue on a shorter timeline. It may take 6 months or a year to determine if revenue has actually slumped, or if there might just be a backlog of good prospects in the pipeline. 

But it’s also too risky to wait 6 months or a year, so you need to make an analysis of potential revenue that is currently in your pipeline. You can do so by multiplying potential deal value by conversion % (based on historical metrics). 

In summary, if you’re a salesperson and your revenue dips, start by getting back to basics. Control the controllables and make sure you’re hitting your dial expectations and maintaining an organized pipeline. 

Do this until your revenue performance has been low for more than one sales cycle. Then bubble up to your manager and ask for feedback on your pitching and closing. 

There is a night-and-day change in energy during a sales encounter before and after the salesperson unveils the price of their product/service to the prospect. 

If you reveal the price too early, your prospect might get sticker shock and end the encounter before you’ve even had a chance to pitch. 

The best antidote for sticker shock is value. Here are a couple examples: 

Price: If I told you a property in San Francisco costs $500k, you might say, “Wow, that’s expensive.” 

Value: If I then told you that that same property will generate $1.5m in rental revenue over the next three years, then you might say, “Dang, that’s a great investment.”

It’s the same thing for a business owner with a quantifiable pain point. 

Price: If you tell Bob your advertising program is going to cost him $500 per month, that might sound expensive. 

Value: If Bob also understands that he’ll be missing out on $2,000 in revenue per month if he chooses to forego the advertising opportunity, then it sounds a lot more affordable. It would be expensive NOT to buy the advertising program. 

If you reveal the price before your prospect sees value, then the prospect is likely to get sticker shock and rush off the phone. 

Even if you manage to keep them on the phone, they’ll be repeating a non-buying narrative in their head: “There’s no way I could pay that much for this.”

You can’t reveal the price until your prospect sees value. And you can’t show value until you’ve qualified (because the value you show needs to be tailored to the prospect’s answers in qualifying). 

So the order goes like this:

1. Qualify
2. Show value
3. Reveal price
4. Ask for sale

In summary, always qualify AND show value BEFORE you reveal price. 

Before is the key word here. A salesperson must qualify before they ask for the sale. 

First things first, in case you’re new to sales, qualifying is the process of determining whether a lead has the potential to become a customer. This is achieved by asking questions to identify certain “buying” characteristics in a lead (e.g., budget, timeline, pain point). 

BANT is a popular acronym used by sales orgs to easily remember qualifying questions:

• Budget: How much is the prospect willing to spend?
• Authority: Who makes the buying decision? 
• Need: What is the prospect’s pain point? Quantify this if possible. 
• Timeline: When is the prospect planning to buy?

If answers to these questions indicate that the lead is NOT a buyer, then you shouldn’t waste your time. Not every lead is a good fit for your product or service, and part of being a great salesperson is quickly differentiating between the buyers and the time-wasters. 

(Side note: this is also true of life in general. Not every date is good for you. There are plenty of fish in the sea. Not every job is good for you. Find one that’s right for you. Not every book is a good book. Stop reading and pick up another.)

There are a few key benefits from qualifying your sales leads:

1. Save time – by qualifying out non-buyers, tire kickers, and bad fits 
2. Learn what the client cares about – to tailor your pitch and value accordingly 
3. Gather “ammo” – to battle objections when you ask for the close

For the rest of this article, I want to talk specifically about #3.

When you’re qualifying a lead at the beginning of a sales encounter and scribbling down their answers on a piece of paper, don’t throw away that piece of paper – you’re going to need it. 

Better yet, get in the habit of typing qualifying Q&A’s into your CRM for each lead right when you’re on the phone asking the questions. 

Then, when it comes time to ask for the close, you should have those qualifying notes in front of you. 

Here are two examples of how you can use qualifying info to battle objections.

Objection #1: I need to talk to my spouse / partner / boyfriend / girlfriend / cat / dog (Authority)

Salesperson: Alright Joe, I’m ready for that credit card when you are.

(Long pause.)

Prospect: I don’t know, Cole. I think I need to talk to my business partner about this first.

(There’s the objection.)

Salesperson: I totally understand, Joe. And I might be misremembering, but didn’t you mention your partner was just a 10% owner in the company?

(Asking this question is redundant. You should already know the answer from qualifying earlier. But we want to see if the prospect changes their answer.)

Prospect: Yea … 

(Make sure you pause here in case the prospect has more to say.)

Salesperson: And he lives in Japan, so you won’t be able to get in touch with him until tomorrow at the earliest? 

Prospect: That’s right …

(And pause here again.)

Salesperson: Hmm … well here’s what I’m thinking, Joe. Since you said you need this set up and ready to go before tomorrow for your big opening, let’s get it started now and then we can make any necessary adjustments after you’ve talked to your partner. How does that sound?

Prospect: Well, I guess that sounds alright.

Salesperson: Great, so all we’ll need to get started is your first month’s payment. 

Objection #2: It’s too expensive (Budget)

Salesperson: Alright Joe, I’m ready for that credit card when you are.

(Long pause.)

Prospect: No way, it’s too expensive for me. 

(There’s the objection.)

Salesperson: I totally understand, Joe. Finances are tight for a small business like yours. Let me ask you this, how much did you say [insert pain point] was costing your business per year?

(Asking this question is redundant. You should already know the answer from qualifying earlier. But we want to see if the prospect changes their answer.)

Prospect: Well, we already talked about that earlier. You said it was costing me $2,000 per year or something. 

(Make sure you pause here in case the prospect has more to say.)

Salesperson: Exactly. And this service is costing you $750 per year. So I know it seems expensive, Joe, but you’d really be saving over a thousand bucks per year. What do you think? 

Prospect: I guess that makes sense … 

(And pause here again.)

Salesperson: So here’s what I’m thinking, Joe. Let’s get you started on our 3-month program, and if you’re not saving more than it’s costing you in that time, we’ll shut it off. How does that sound? 

Prospect: Well, I guess that sounds alright.

Salesperson: Great, so all we’ll need to get started is your first month’s payment. 

>>>

Without having gathered this qualifying info ahead of time, an amateur sales rep will try to play catch-up after they hear an objection. 

When they hear the Authority objection (#1), an amateur rep will think to themselves, “Oh shoot, who’s this partner?” Then they’ll fumble with asking the prospect about their partner and be forced to schedule another call (with all the decision-makers this time).

When they hear the Budget objection (#2), an amateur rep might even believe it. They’ll think to themselves, “Well, $750 is a lot of money.” But if you quantify the prospect’s pain point and how much your service could save him, the value of your service becomes clear.

The point of qualifying is that you’re not caught off-guard when the objections come. Everything is laid out in front of you like a chess board and you know your next move no matter what your opponent does. 

This is why qualifying has to happen before you ask for the sale. 

When you ask a question, pause immediately afterward. Pause until your client responds. Sometimes this will take 3-5 seconds, maybe longer. 

Let the silence add some healthy pressure to the conversation. There’s a fine line here — between being awkward and being regarded as a professional salesperson.

Whatever you do, don’t be the first one to talk again after you’ve asked the question. 

A deep exhale (e.g., ugh, hmm, hmph) or a one word response (e.g., Great, Okay, Alright, Interesting) do not qualify as a response from the client. 

A short response like this is often a sign that the client feels the pressure and felt the need to say something (this is good). It also means that the client is still thinking. And you, as the salesperson, shouldn’t interrupt that thought process.

Wait until the client gives you a full and direct response to your question (if you’re asking for the sale, that response can only be one of two things: an objection, or a credit card number). 

Don’t worry about waiting too long. I’ve waited so long on some calls that my client asks, Are you still there? And my response is always the same: Yes I’m here, I’m just listening. 

Now, it’s also important that the question itself is crisp and clear. This is equally, if not more important than pausing after you’ve asked the question. 

It’s similar to a famous person coming onto stage in front of an audience. Depending on how famous the person is, they can often stand on stage for 15-30 seconds in silence while the audience applauds. If a stranger comes onto the stage (like one of the sound technicians) and grabs the microphone, there would be crickets in the audience. 

Your question needs to be like the famous person. It needs to be deserving of a response. 

Here are the three main characteristics of a good question:

1. Direct: short and to the point
2. Clear: no umm’s or filler words
3. Intelligent: it fits in the conversation

Bad question: Well, I mean, what do you think … umm … could we maybe get this started? 

Good question: Awesome, do you have a credit card that I can put on file?

This works on both phone calls and emails. I always end my emails with a short question. It’s usually asking for times to hop on the phone.

Do you have a few times that you’re available to talk on the phone this Friday, February 7?

If a phone call doesn’t make sense, or I’m asking for someone’s advice. I use this question: What do you think?

The natural human response to a question is to answer. In this way, a question invites a reaction. And it’s important to ask for this reaction at the very end, when your client (or coworker) is either going to click onto the next email or click the reply button to answer your question.

The first step is realizing that questions are the key to sales. The second step is mastering how to ask questions. 

Here are the two main takeaways:

1. Pause after you ask a question.
2. Make your questions direct, clear, and intelligent.

Everything has led up to this point. Marketing has spent money on the lead. Your SDR set the appointment. You spent an hour on the pitch. Now it’s time to ask for the close.

And you get your first objection … 

“You know Cole, this sounds really good, but I want to take some time to think about it.” 

Now, an amateur salesperson is going to respond with a statement. If they’re really bad, they’ll start by saying, “But …” 

If they’re kinda bad, but not terrible, they’ll try to re-sell value from earlier in the call, “Bob, my product is going to solve your paint point. It’s great for x, y, and z reasons.” 

Answering an objection with a statement creates confrontation. It feels like your bumping heads with your client. No sales are made this way. 

Instead, respond to objections with a question.

And don’t forget to use an empathy statement before you even ask the question. Here are some examples of empathy statements:

• No worries. 

• I totally understand.

• That makes sense to me. 

• I appreciate you sharing that. 

All together, it should sound like this:

“No worries, Bob! Remind me, when were you looking to get your project started?”

If you’ve qualified well, you already know the answer to this question because you asked about the client’s timeline earlier in the call. But you ask again anyway because:

1. It makes the conversation flow.

It gets the client talking at a time in the conversation that would otherwise be very awkward. 

The client is usually emotional when they’re giving an objection. They’re scared about spending a lot of money. They’re nervous about upsetting the salesperson that has spent a lot of time with them on the phone. They’re stressed about the pain point that has caused them to be on the call in the first place. 

The last thing you want to do as a salesperson is add more emotion to the conversation by creating confrontation / argument / anger with your client – this is what happens when you respond to objections with a statement. 

2. It keeps the conversation going.

The client likely wants to get off the phone at this point. If that’s the case, hearing the salesperson talk more is not going to inspire them to stay on the phone longer. But everyone loves to talk, especially when it’s about themselves or their company. Make your question good enough that the client is happy and comfortable to continue the conversation. 

3. It forces the client to remind themselves of their pain point, in their own words.

If you’ve pitched well, your client might even bring up some of the value that you mentioned earlier in the call in response to your question. They’ll make the value statements for you!

4. It gives you another turn in the conversation.

Question, statement, question, statement – this is the natural flow of conversation. Have you ever watched two self-absorbed people try to have a conversation? One person talks about themselves, then the other person talks about themselves. Two boats passing in the night. It’s painful to watch. 

But when you ask someone a question, and then listen respectfully for a while, it feels natural that you can take a turn to talk. The client might even ask you a question in return. If so, this is your opportunity to re-sell value and ask for the close again. 

In summary, the process looks like this:

1. Ask for sale
2. Objection
3. Ask question
4. Listen
5. Re-sell value
6. Ask for sale

Jordan Belfort calls this process “looping,” where you loop back to asking for the sale over and over again until the client buys. This seems aggressive, but if you follow this strategy correctly, the client won’t even notice you’ve asked for their credit card 4-5 times. 

Anybody can close a deal when the client has already made up their mind to buy. But this is only 10% of sales, and somebody in marketing should really be the one getting paid commission for cases like these. 

Sales isn’t about searching for yes’s. It’s about turning no’s into yes’s. And the only way to do this is by developing the skill of objection handling.

We used to play a game at my old company called “the question game.” Two opponents would stand up in front of the rest of the sales team and take turns asking each other questions. The first person to give an answer loses. 

The best strategy was to come up with a question so cunning that your opponent was forced to answer (because there’s a natural human reaction to answering a good question).

On a sales call, whoever is asking the questions is controlling the conversation. 

The opposite of asking questions is overtalking. I hear this most often during the closing part of a call. When it comes time to ask for the close, an amateur sales rep will start rambling. 

They’ll overtalk about product features, client testimonials, and on and on with information that they think is helping them to convince the client and close the sale.

In reality, all this extra information is just confusing the client and making the sale more complicated. The more complicated a sale becomes, the more likely you are to get the “Let me think about it” objection. 

A sales pro, on the other hand, will have already made all his statements while selling value earlier in the call. When it comes time to ask for the close, he will be concise and direct. 

Even when he gets an objection, he will ask a question in response. He will get the client talking to find out their true objection, and then when the time comes (after listening to the client talk), he will make a short statement to resell value, and then ask for the close again.

When your client does ask you questions, keep your answers short and to the point. 

But never answer an unasked question. I’m going to type that out again because it’s important: Never answer an unasked question. One of my favorite sales bosses used to tell me this over and over. 

It’s bad enough to overtalk when the client has asked you a question and you’re rambling on, when a short, concise answer would have been sufficient. It’s even worse when you’re going on with an answer that the client didn’t even ask for.

Here are the key takeaways:

1. Ask intelligent questions and listen.
2. Keep your answers short and to the point.
3. Never answer unasked questions. 

On a sales call, you want to avoid going toe-to-toe with your potential client. You never want your client to see you as an opposing force to the direction they’re trying to go.

The customer is always right.

But what happens when the customer is wrong? What happens when the client doesn’t want to buy your product even though you truly believe they are a great fit?

Most of the time, you are going to be on the opposite side of the table from your client.

Your client wants a discount and you want to sell them on the premium package. Your client wants to keep the product that they’ve had for years instead of buying your new cutting-edge product, Your client wants to wait another week to make their buying decision and you want them to buy right away.

But you can’t let your client FEEL this opposition. You have to be on the same team with your client working toward the same goal, THEIR goal. Like you’ve talked to a thousand other customers that were in their exact same situation and you understand.

Now, there will be very specific points in the language of the call where this plays out.

For example, if a client says, “I want to do it MY way.”

In your head, you know doing it their way won’t lead to the sale. But you can’t say that. You can’t respond to the client with any of these words: no, unfortunately, sorry. Because then you become an opposing force. Then you’re clearly on the other side of the table.

You have to say, “Okay, I totally understand. We’re going to do it YOUR way.”

And then the magic is that you have to make your client’s way and your way seem like one and the same. For example, your client doesn’t want to pay until Monday (and it’s currently Friday).

“No worries, I can collect your payment details right now and then wait to charge your card until Monday.”

Or, your client doesn’t want to sit through your 30-minute pitch.

“You’re right, you’re busy. That’s way too long. How about this? Can I just ask you a few questions.”

And then you can work in the key pieces of value from your pitch after your client has opened up and spoken a little about themselves.

The best way to summarize this whole idea is this way: you have to round the corners. Your client is going straight and you need them to make a right turn. You can’t put a STOP sign in the middle of the road and make your client turn at a ninety degree angle.

Instead, you have to slowly build a curve into the road over the entire sales encounter. The curve is subtle in the same way that the round earth looks flat. Before the client knows it, they’ve ended up where you wanted them to go all along, but at any given moment they thought they were going straight on their own path.

You have two options: hold firm or go ahead and give the discount. Sometimes you don’t have the option, if your company has a rigid pricing model.

If you do have the option, it comes down to what you know about your client from qualifying, and how well you’ve shown value.

There are two pieces of information you need to know from qualifying:

1. Need: How strong is the client’s pain point? Are they going to buy your product (or a product like yours) no matter what? Would they be willing to wait to get a better price? Or do they have the urgency to buy right now?
2. Budget / price: What is the client willing to spend? What prices have they seen from other sellers?

If you’ve identified a strong need from the client, i.e., you’re relatively sure the client is going to buy a product like yours no matter what, AND you’ve given them a price that’s within their budget and below all the prices they’ve seen from other sellers, then you can be extremely confident in holding firm when they ask for a discount.

Now, when it comes to the need, even if you’re certain the client is going to buy a product in the market, you still need to be sure the client is going to be buying YOUR product.

This comes down to showing value. If you haven’t done this well enough to be 99% sure that the client is going to buy with you, then you shouldn’t have given your client a specific price in the first place. 

Maybe you have given a range or an estimate at some point in the conversation, but you shouldn’t have asked for the sale with a set-in-stone, sign-on-the-dotted-line price. (Side note: only ask for the sale once you’re as sure as possible that the client is going to buy).

Another possibility, is that the client has told you a budget or competitor price in qualifying that is lower than the price that you’re asking for.

In this case, you have two options:

1. Sell on specific value that explains why your product is worth the premium.
2. Give the discount.

Even once you’ve decided to give the discount, if you’ve built enough rapport with the client, I would still recommend giving the high price at first (to anchor the client’s mentality higher).

And then handle one or two objections, before finally pausing and exhaling (and maybe telling the client you have to ask your manager) and then finally giving them the discount.

This makes it feel like the discount is a big deal and not everyone gets it. It also creates a sense of urgency for your client to buy right away (while the discount is available). 

But remember, before even thinking about giving a discount, make sure you qualify (for need and price) and show value.

Always give your client options, and make the last option the one that you want them to choose.

For example, “It’s totally up to you. You can wait to get a few more quotes or I can collect your credit card right now and get everything sent over to your email so you don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

Better yet, make every option lead to the close, so no matter what the client picks, it results in the deal, but they feel like they chose it.

For example, “So we have two options here: I can send you a link where you can input your credit card on your own, or I can collect your card over the phone and then I can get started on your paperwork right away. Whatever works best for you.”

Both options lead to the close. Asking for the close this way is better than asking a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question.

With a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question, the client feels the pressure to choose ‘yes’ because they know that’s what the salesperson wants, but maybe they’re not ready and then they get nervous and choose ‘no’ because that’s the only other option.

Instead, if you ask a ‘yes’ or ‘yes’ question, the client still has the freedom to choose. And instead of making a big decision about whether to do the deal or not, they can just make a small decision about how they want to do the deal.

People love choice. They don’t want to feel like they’re being pressured into something where there’s only one outcome—the buying outcome that the salesperson is pushing them towards.

Let the client feel that they have the power to choose, while you, as the salesperson, maintain control over the choices that they have to choose from.

All this being said, I wouldn’t recommend giving the client options the very first time that you ask for the close. The first time you ask for the close, it should be more direct, with only one option—to buy.

Then, after you start getting objections, and you’re looping back after asking more questions and selling more value, then you can start using the options format when you’re asking for the close a third, fourth, and fifth time.

I went to buy a bottle of cologne at a shopping mall—bad idea from the start, I know. But I had tried to order a bottle of Nautica on Amazon and the scent went away after 10 minutes, almost like the product had been watered down. So I followed some advice to buy cologne in-store.

I found myself giving the exact same objections that annoyed me when they came from my own clients—”I want to think about it” and “I’ll come back tomorrow.” The salesperson at Macy’s had three bottles on the counter.

He had already qualified me on the scent of my last bottle not lasting long and he said, “If you want a quality cologne that lasts longer, this is the one.” Of course, it was the most expensive one. But I bought it. Because he qualified perfectly and sold value to solve my specific pain point.

Now, this isn’t an article about selling cologne. It’s about putting yourself in a buying situation, as a salesperson. You’ll find yourself giving the same objections you hear all day, but now, you’ll actually understand WHY your clients give these objections, because you will FEEL it yourself.

Better yet, put yourself in a buying situation for something that you actually plan on buying, and then you’ll feel the moment when you make your buying decision.

Take a quick minute to reflect on why you bought. What specific piece of value sold you? What did the salesperson say? You might have some realizations about your own sales process.

In sales, there is a natural back and forth. If you’re making a cold call, and someone on the other end picks up the phone and says, “Hello?” Then you better have something good to say in response.

Or, if your SDR sets you up with a killer meeting, and in the first 30 seconds of that meeting, the potential client stops you and says, “Listen, I’ve only got 5 minutes for this meeting. Can you tell me why I should buy this product?” Then it’s your turn to talk.

Now, both of these examples put the pressure on the salesperson. And a lot of salespeople go through the entire sales encounter this way—fighting from their back foot, rushing to get the last word in, and overall losing control of the sale.

But there are also times when it’s the client’s turn to talk.

For example, at the beginning of a cold call, once you’ve given your elevator pitch, and there’s a pause, and then the customer on the other end of the phone says (in a cautious tone), “Okay, I might be interested.”

The wrong thing to do after the client says something like that is to rush in with more value, making more statements about why your product or service is the bee’s knees, and talking more about me, me, me, my company.

Instead, here is a crucial point in the conversation where you, as the salesperson, can turn the tables and make it clear to the potential client that it’s their turn to talk. You do this by starting with your qualifying questions.

The first question might sound something like this: “So, Mrs. Business Owner, tell me a little more about why you think you might be in the market for XYZ product?”

And then, immediately after that question, comes the most important part … PAUSE. Don’t say anything. Put the phone on mute if you have to.

If you can’t handle the silence here (for 5 seconds, maybe 10 seconds) and you start talking again, then you’ve lost all power in the sales encounter—making it a one-sided presentation, instead of a two-sided conversation.

There is another very crucial part of the sales encounter when it’s the client’s turn to talk, and that’s at the very end of the call—when you ask for the sale.

If you’ve done everything right up to this point—qualifying the client for fit, getting an increasing amount of buy-in, and showing the value of your service in a way that specifically satisfies your client’s pain point—then there is only one thing left to do, and that’s to unveil the price and ask for payment.

Ask clearly and confidently for the close, and then (you guessed it) … PAUSE.

I’ve had some closing calls where I wait for 2 or 3 minutes of silence after asking for the close. Sometimes you can hear the client huffing and puffing. Other times they’ll put their hand over the receiver and talk to their business partner that has been sitting there listening the whole time.

But no matter how long you wait, the client only has two options for what to say next: they can either give you an objection or sign the deal. It has to be one of these two, and the only way to mess that up is if you talk first.

In a sales encounter, both sides have something to give. In a traditional encounter, the buyer offers the value of their product or service and asks for payment in return. The seller asks for value and offers payment. 

There are other encounters not typically viewed as “sales,” for which the same rules apply. 

In recruiting, the candidate asks for salary and offers their skills. The company asks for skills and offers salary.

In dating, both sides are asking for a valuable partner. At the same time, what both sides have to offer, is being a valuable partner themselves. 

A sales encounter is never one-sided. Both sides have something to offer, so there is a give and take, a push and pull, as both sides ask questions to figure out the actual value of what the other side is offering. 

At the same time you’re asking questions, you must also be making value statements to keep the other party interested and happy enough to tolerate your questioning. 

In the initial phone screen of a recruiting encounter, for example, it’s usually the company that starts by asking questions of the candidate. But let’s say the company is a startup that nobody’s ever heard of, then the candidate might be less patient with the questioning. 

If they’re a savvy candidate, they might interrupt and ask a few questions themselves: How much funding has the company raised? Who are your backers? Is the company profitable? 

Then it’s the recruiter’s turn to show some value. If the candidate, is not impressed by the answers, they might choose to end the call and forego any further questions from the recruiter, because they’ve made a decision that the company is not offering a valuable position.

Recruiters at a well-known company like Google or Goldman Sachs, on the other hand, rarely have this problem. Because the value being offered is obvious to the labor market. Candidates are more willing to endure multiple rounds of interviews and longer timelines with minimal questioning just for a shot at the valuable position. 

It’s the same with sales or dating. If the client really wants your product, they’re willing to sit through a longer demo. If you find someone to be attractive, you’re more eager to seem attractive yourself (especially when you have their attention). 

To sum it all up in one easy graph, it looks like this:

I call this the ask / offer graph (creatively named). Imagine the red line as a timeline of the sales encounter. As you progress, there are equal amounts of ask and offer at each point. 

You cannot ask all your qualifying questions upfront.

You cannot talk only about your own value without asking the other party about theirs. 

You cannot talk too much about your value at risk of sounding desperate.

Now, the question from here is WHICH questions do you ask first and WHAT value do you offer upfront.

Which questions are the clear knockouts that you might as well get out of the way. Questions that would disqualify a lead as a potential client or disqualify a candidate as a potential hire.

What value will signal to a buyer that you have what they are looking for in the market. Value that keeps the client interested to sit through your pitch while still saving a trump card to overcome their objections at the end. 

When we’re building rapport or qualifying, at the beginning of a sales encounter, we want our clients to like us, so we’re happy to banter or follow the client off onto a tangent. The goal at this point is not to be doing business, but rather to be building the relationship. 

When it comes to closing, however, the rapport building is over. There should be no more banter, no overtalking or answering unasked questions. Pauses should be embraced, because the burden of action is on the customer. Responses should be short and clear, e.g., “that’s correct” and “exactly right.”

We build rapport to spend it, not to save it. You should not be building rapport throughout the entire sales process.

There are difficult points in the sales process when you need to ask something of your client, whether that is volunteering their time to sit through a demo or handing over their credit card to close the deal—these are the times for which we’ve built the rapport, when we need the client to trust us, especially when we are testing their patience or asking them to do something uncomfortable. 

If you build too much rapport without keeping the interaction professional and moving the ball forward, you’ll end up in the friend zone where the client steamrolls your attempts to steer the conversation, banters at the opportunity cost of doing business, and misses your meetings and deadlines because they think you’re there just to be nice to them. 

The key is to balance the rapport like a barometer. There are times when the sales encounter is necessarily high-pressure—this is natural when it comes to spending money.

The key is not to avoid these high-pressure moments. Instead, seek to win the client over in the low-pressure moments of the call or meeting, when you’re talking about the weather or sharing a drink. 

Then, when the high-pressure comes, the client will be comfortable enough with your relationship to lean in, rather than clamming up just because it feels uncomfortable or like they’re “being sold.” If you’ve built rapport correctly, your client will open up with you in that moment and tell you their honest objections—then the real selling begins.

The words barely even matter, it just needs a catchy tune. Think of tone and rhythm. 

Your tone can’t be too excited right off the bat or you’ll be immediately recognized as a salesperson. You also can’t talk too fast or you’ll seem as if you’re expecting to get hung up on. 

The first words need to be very clear and casual. If you have the client’s first name from your list of leads, I recommend simply, “Bob?” 

Just the first name with an inflected tone at the end to make their name sound like a question. The tone is everything here. The knee-jerk reaction to hearing your name asked like a question is to say, “Uh, yea, who’s this?”

Now, consider the alternative that most sales people use: “Hi, this is Cole from ABC Company, how are you today?”

Too wordy, and you play all your cards at once. In other words, the client knows exactly who you are and they have the power to hang up on you if they don’t want to hear from the ABC Company. Whereas, with the client’s first name, asked like a question, Bob is going to start the conversation for you and ask who you are. 

Then you can express a little excitement: “Hey Bob!” Not too much, just a little to let him know you’re glad to be on the phone with him. And then introduce yourself casually, and always end with a genuine “How’s it goin?” I prefer this as opposed to a stiff “How are you today?” Which can seem a little overly formal and robotic.

So, all together it sounds like this: “Hey Bob! This is Cole from ABC Company, how’s it goin?” Notice we include the company info at this point (because you have to introduce yourself sooner or later). But the key here is to mask your statement with a question. You don’t want to leave a cliffhanger after you introduce yourself—this would give Bob the opportunity to hang up again. If you end with a question, again, the knee-jerk reaction from the client is to answer.

So Bob’s going to say, “Fine, how are you?” Now you’re in, and it’s time to build some rapport (if the client is friendly and you have some breathing room): “Oh, I’m alright, a little rainy outside. How’s the weather in (client’s city)?” It sounds cliché but weather is the safest topic imaginable—everyone can talk about it.

Or the client might be short and you have to get straight to showing value: “The reason I called today, Bob, is that …” 

And that’s the opener. If you get this far, next it’s about starting your elevator pitch, showing some value, and giving the client a reason to stay on the phone.

It’s a lot easier to sell a high-ticket advertising platform if you can calculate for a client the amount of revenue they’re missing out on by not being on the platform.

Client: $1 million is too expensive.

Sales: Yes, I agree, but it’s three times as expensive for you to forego the $3 million in revenue you’re missing out on by not being on the platform.

Client: Oh.

Or, let’s say, something more intangible, like brand. $100,000 sounds like an expensive salary for a full-time brand designer. But the designer pays his salary twice over when your $2 million dollar Instagram campaign increases conversion from 2% to 10% because your ads look that much better.

This is worth keeping in mind especially if you’re trying to sell your services as the brand designer. “I can add $200,000 in revenue,” works a lot better as a value prop than a portfolio of work—albeit, beautiful work—that might not make monetary sense to a CEO or other profit-driven buyer.

It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to change any of your client’s beliefs over the course of an hour-long sales call. At best, you’ll be able to educate them on something they didn’t already know about it. Even then, they might not trust you because they know you’re trying to sell them something.

Instead, sift through your client’s beliefs. Ask questions and respond with positive support to their answers, regardless of your personal opinions. This way your client will start to trust you and share information more freely.

So, with an inventory of your client’s current convictions, instead of doing the heavy lifting of changing their mind about any one thing, you can pick and choose which of their beliefs are most likely to convince them to buy.

For example, if their business is their baby and their passionate about their work, say, “Because I know how much you pride yourself on your quality of service, let’s make sure to highlight that when we’re advertising you to our users.”

Or, if they believe strongly in the millennial demographic and the idea of online advertising, say, “This program is perfect for adding to your strong online presence that’s been working so well for you.”

One of my mentors likes to say it’s like martial arts, where you can use your opponent’s momentum against them, instead of just standing and exchanging blows.

Let your client tell you why they’re going to buy.

“Sell me this pen.”

When given this classic sales test, 90% of amateurs will start talking about the pen.

“This pen here has blue ink and the grip feels like this and it’s better than other pens because …”

This isn’t sales. It’s lecturing, and the client is likely already bored of your voice. When you’re selling anything, the best strategy is to get the client talking as soon as possible, ideally about themselves or something else they care about.

“Tell me more about why you’re in the market for a pen.”

“Do you use pens more for note taking or document signing?”

“What other pens have you been looking at?”

“What do you know about this pen?”

A big misconception about sales is that it has anything at all to do with explaining or otherwise talking about your product, your service, yourself, or whatever else you’re selling. A successful salesperson, instead of making statements, knows to ask questions.

If you ask the right questions, you’ll find the client can even give you the whole pitch on your product, in their own words. They’ll even tell you what price they’ll pay when you innocently ask, “For a product that can relieve that pain point for you, what’s your budget?”

As far as asking the right questions, sometimes you’ll ask the wrong ones. That’s okay. Just say, “Interesting,” nonchalantly. Then ask another question, and when they give you the right answer, “That’s exactly right!” Get excited, drop an emotional landmark right there to let them know they’ve made a point—something that you can recall together at the end of the pitch right before you ask for the sale or when you’re handling objections.

In sales encounters, ask more questions. Let the client do the talking. It’s about them, not you.

Getting your boss to pay you more, persuading your friend to come out with you, agreeing on a restaurant for family dinner, convincing the cop not to write you a ticket, motivating a group of people, pitching your company to investors, growing the guest list for a house party, etc.

It’s all human communication. It’s all selling.

Pricing is the only “card” the salesperson has to play. On a chessboard it’s like our queen versus our client’s full board of pawns (tennis ball objections), rooks and bishops (previous advertising experience and decision-making process), and king (business need). We have to defeat a full chessboard while protecting our queen. In other words, we have to get our client to play all their cards before we play our one.

So when the client asks, “Okay okay, how much does it cost?” We have to parry with, “I’m getting to that, but first let me show you one more thing / ask you one more question.”

And we do that over and over, skillfully nonchalant, until we’ve fully qualified the client, upfront contracted, and basically ensured that when we show the client prices, they’re going to pick a program and sign up.

If we don’t have all the clients cards played and we get to pricing prematurely, we’ll get an objection we weren’t expecting or a part of the program where the client doesn’t see value will go unspoken. Handling these issues when the client has a credit card screen in front of their face is near impossible. They get nervous about putting down their card and cease to be rational.

Their mind needs to be almost fully made up by the time they’re looking at pricing so you can make a final emotional push to get them over the edge.

If you don’t have all their cards played and their rational mind convinced at this point, however, no amount of emotional push or salesy last-ditch efforts (like lowering the price, money-back guarantee, offering promos, adjusting contract length) will get the client to ignore their brain and sign up.

The key is that when you get to the point of showing pricing, the only objections you’ll get should be related to pricing. In other words, the client is convinced of the value of the program and understands how it works, so none of the objections should be about whether this is a product or service they want or need or if it will work for them; all the objections on the pricing screen should be just about finding a  budget that the client is comfortable with.