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.