We're not interested objection

Robhalv1, I strongly with your statement that assuming a prospect is disinterested without asking questions or qualifying them further is a mistake and is, indeed, not doing due diligence.

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I am not assuming anything.
The topic of this thread is how to deal with prospects who say, "We're Not Interested." Since you forgot that, I won't jump all over your "due diligence" remark.

However, your 80% statistic is meaningless.
A meaningful statistic would be the percentage of all of the disinterested prospects that you spent time trying to sell that actually became your happy clients.

JacquesWerth,

There is nothing in my post that is irrelevant to the topic "We're Not Interested" and your statment "Since you forgot that" is.

The 80% statistic I provided earlier was the perecentage of all of the disinterested prospects that I spent time trying to sell that actually became my happy clients. So I guess it was a meaningful statistic afterall.

I believe in doing everything possible to make sure the prospect fully undersatnds what I am offering and how it will benefit them before walking away. There have been many times that I or one of my sales reps has used your philosophy and walked away from a prospect because they said "they were not interested" later to find that they bought from a competitor. Obviously, the competitor did a better job by asking "why are you not interested?"

You've got a point there.

That is both fantastic and incredible.
I have gone out on sales calls with hundreds of the top one percent of salespeople in 23 industries. These are people who are earning between 1/2 and 3 million dollars per year. Yet, none of them were able, or even attempted, to do what you can do.

Our company has trained thousands of salespeople. Those that are earning over $200,000/year are typically closing between 80 and 90 percent of their prospects. However, none of them meets with disinterested prospects. All of the prospects they meet with are not only "interested," they are also ready, willing and able to buy. That is what we teach them how to do.

Then I guess it won't surprise you that my compensation is comparable.

Please do not misunderstand me and think I am chasing "disinterested prospects." Almost 100% of my business comes from referrals and even referrals do not fully understand how my solution can benefit their business until I have had an opportunity to fully educate them. It is not uncommon for a prospect to make the "We're Not Interetsed" statement without completely understanding what my company offers.

I agree with you 100% that prospecting intelligently is the key to success. However, going that extra step to try and understand what a prospect is saying when they make the "We're Not Interested" statement is the difference between being an average producer versus a top producer.

I would suggest that an emotional hot button or pain for the buyer was not uncovered and conveyed. Chances are they didn't have an interest because they didn't feel like there was anything for them (individually) to gain.

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Hi to all. I'm new here and will drop by occasionally.

I agree with the guys who stress the importance of qualifying the prospect to the point where "I'm not interested" never comes into the picture. Unless you're in the business of accepting unqualified leads or you're cold calling, why would you want to be in front of someone who hasn't exhibited some level of interest in what you're offering?

I know a guy whose comeback to that line was always an extreme quizzical look on his face and the question, "Then why did you invite me here?"

You can't believe how that response can impact a prospect. It would place them on the defensive and they quite often then gave him something he could grab onto.

One sequence I know about: (P) Prospect; (S) Salesperson

P: I'm not interested
S: Then why did you invite me here?

P: What do you mean?
S: George, I'm confused. We briefly talked about (product) and you said you've been considering it off and on for months. What changed in the last five days to wipe out your interest?

At that point George has to come up with something. It might be baloney or could be real...but he has to respond.

P: Look, I checked into the replacement cycle on the unit we now have and I realized that I made a mistake. I thought it was due for changing out this year. It's actually not for another 18 months. I'm sorry I brought you out here for nothing. Make sure you get back in touch in about a year and I'll see to it that you get a shot at the business.
S: George, it's no problem for me, and thank you for being candid. May I ask how many (units) that current machine is churning out for you and at what monthly cost?

P: 15,000 units at $4.00 even.
S: I know you've got a replacement plan in place, but did you know that I'm now installing brand new machines that can deliver 15,000 units at $3.25 each?

P: $3.25? (grabs calculator)...that's a difference of $11,250 a month...and that's*over $200,000 in savings over that 18-month period. What did you say your machine goes for?
S: $195,000, and that includes installation and training.

P: Have you got some time? I'd like to get my CFO in on this discussion.

The end result was that the savings over that 18 months actually paid for the new machine and my friend got the sale.

Nothing works all the time. The real goal is to get the prospect talking and see where that leads.

1. Welcome to SalesPractice, Training. Congrats on your first post!

2. I couldn't agree more with your quote above. Engagement of the prospect is key. Salespeople who engage more sell more. Period.

Skip Anderson

Salespeople that know how to find and meet with prospects that are ready, willing and able to buy, sell a lot more than those who engage "interested" prospects. End of story.

If you don't know how to find and identify high probability prospects, and you don't want to develop that skill, then your only alternative is to vigorously defend a second rate sales process.