“Please send me some information” is usually a dodge. So how can we still get a commitment when we hear that response?
Ever had a target for an Initial Appointment respond with asking you to send them some information first on your solution when you ask them for an appointment? If you’ve been setting appointments for any period of time, you have because it works on most sales professionals. As a matter of fact, most think they’ve got a ‘hot one’ when someone asks for information.
The first blog in this two part blog covered how to ‘Counter’ this particular ‘Knee Jerk Conditioned Response’ and still try to get the appointment. This blog covers what happens if our ‘Counter’ doesn’t work and we have to actually send something. (Sorry, even our approach doesn’t always work…)
When you realize you must send something, here’s what we suggest you do.
- Be upbeat in your agreement to send the info. Make them think they’ve got you snookered—which is what they think they’ve done, if you don’t know it.
- Then tell them you’ll send something that won’t take more than 5 to 10 minutes to read and ask them when they think they would be able to carve out the time to read it. (After all, they said they would, right?) Note: It is important to understand the difference here between the time it will take them to read it and when they think they can set aside the time to read it.
- Once you’ve got a commitment for when they will read what you send, ask for an appointment for another phone call to determine whether they have any questions and whether it will make sense for them to get together with you. We recommend saying something like, “Why don’t we put a short phone call on the calendar so that I can answer any questions the document might raise. At that point you and I can make the decision of whether it makes sense to set an appointment to get together. Does that sound fair?”
The beautiful part about this approach is they really can’t refuse to grant you this request as it was their idea to read something first to determine if it is appropriate to meet. If you do not set this time, trust me, you’ll never get them to read what you send.
As with the Bridge Question, this will not work all the time either. They might not answer the phone at the agreed up time, but hey, this is really the only shot you’ve got, and we’re all about tilting the odds in our favor…
If you’d like more information on why no team of sales professionals has ever failed to at least double the number of Initial Appointments they were setting after going through one of our programs, give us a call or drop us a line. We love talking about the challenges of appointment making!
Caponi Performance Group and Contact Science jointly market the telephone prospecting and cold calling solution called Coldcalling101™. It is the only comprehensive solution to solving the biggest barrier to success in most selling organizations—the inability to secure enough Initial Appointments to begin the selling process. We accomplish that through simultaneously addressing both the efficiency and effectiveness of the process. We can be reached at 817 224-9900 or at bcaponi@caponipg.com. You can also find answers to many of your challenges in our books: Contrary to Popular Belief, Cold Calling DOES Work! Volume I: Effectiveness, The Art of Appointment Making and Volume II: Efficiency, the Science of Appointment Making.
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