Be Ready for Your Prospect's Response
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Identify your next steps, depending on the response.
- Explain how to remedy a “Maybe” response.
What’s Next
Now that you’ve made contact with your prospect, what you do next all depends on their response. This unit covers the four possible responses.
- Not interested
- Maybe
- Yes, I’m interested
- No response
Let’s take a look at each one in a little more detail.
No, and How Did You Get My Number?
When a prospect says, “Not interested,” first, thank them for their response. Then try to find out why they are not interested. It could be that your products and services are a good fit for the company, but this person is not the right point of contact or is below the power line. To determine if this person is above the power line, you might ask, “So, do you normally sign contracts for these types of services?” That should tell you if you are speaking to the right person or not. Once it’s clear, move on.
Well… I’ve Got a Haircut Appointment
A maybe answer or skirting around the request for a meeting is almost worse than a flat out no. You don’t want to spend time following up with someone who isn’t interested. To remedy this:
- Let the client know you won’t be offended with a no.
- Ask if something will change at some point in the future.
- Ask for an introduction to someone else in the company who might see the benefit of our solutions.
Yes, I’d Love to Talk
If the answer is, “Yes, I’m interested,” well done. Follow up with your 15-minute meeting and try to get more time to further explore and follow the sales process. Journey along the sales cycle all the way till the end.
Hellooooo Anybody Home?
If you get no response, don’t be surprised. The highly effective email we identified gets a big response rate of about 25%. The flip side: You get no response on about 75% of your emails. So don’t be disappointed when you don’t get a response. In fact, as we discuss later, you want to overshoot your prospecting goals to increase your chances of meeting or exceeding your quota. Anticipate and plan for not getting a response.
If you are in the middle of your contact strategy series of emails and voicemails to this prospect, keep on trying to get a response. If you’ve finished your outreach, consider moving on to a different person inside of the company.
Some sales professionals like to maintain a nurture list of potential prospects who they can share high-value information with every couple of weeks without making an ask or request for meeting. Perhaps at some point down the line the person will become an active prospect.