How to Respond to "No, We're Not Interested"
SCENARIO: You just made a cold call to a pre-qualified prospect and delivered a script that's worked frequently in the past with similar prospects. The prospect's response is: "No, we're not interested." Your choices are:
- #1: Terminate. "Thank you very much for your time. Please think of us in the future when you're in the market for products and services like ours..."
- #2: Investigate. "OK. I can see that I can't help you right now. What can I do now in order to work with you more closely, next time you're in the market for a similar product?"
- #3: Perseverate. "Are you certain? My research reveals that we could save your company several million dollars a year. I can show you how in a few short minutes...
CLICK for my opinion »
In my opinion, your best choice is #2: Investigate.
My reasoning is that since you've pre-qualified your lead, there's a good chance that they really do need your offering, so sticking with the call a little longer is worth the investment in your time.
I prefer #2: Investigate to #3: Perseverate because the third choice is too aggressive and is likely to offend the prospect.
Asking an investigatory question, however, might possibly reveal valuable information about WHY they're not interested. It could be that you simply called at the wrong time of year, for instance, or that they're already working with a competitor. Useful stuff to know. And it keep the conversation going.
This technique, by the way, came from the following email from a Sales Machine reader:
As someone who spent years turning round a team of dysfunctional buyers I can say with confidence that the best salesmen took the word "no" as the first word in their next conversation - which ran along the lines of: "" It is amazing how many doors to the future this opens.READERS: What other responses have you used in this situation?