You got it. You don’t like it, but you got it.
You hope for the best, but there’s a sinking feeling inside you that says it’s not good and you’re not sure what to do about it.
You see it coming down the road from miles away, but you can’t get out of its way.
You got the dreaded, “I have to think it over” response from a prospect when you tried to close.
History tells you that luck is not on your side on this one, but you think to yourself, “This time is different. They’ll come back.”
Yeah, and the Publisher’s Clearing House folks just showed up on my doorstep with an oversized check and told me that I have won $5,000 a week for the rest of my life. (They didn’t by the way…)
Here’s the deal. Where there’s a "no" or an objection, there’s a lesson to be learned. These lessons can help you avoid the same trap the next time it’s about to happen. Simply put, a “think it over” is usually a slow "no" in disguise. About 5% of people who give you this objection will come back and buy later, but the other 95% won’t.
Why do prospects do this to you, you ask?
They do this for one of the following reasons:
- They don’t know how to make a decision because they have never bought your product or service. The “think it over” is a cry for help to guide them in making this decision.
- They have a crappy process for making decisions or buying things, in which they feel compelled to take a long time, must get multiple quotes, try to get the lowest price possible, and require a lot of information in order to make the decision. (Stop me if the process you use to make decision sounds eerily familiar to this. Do you think the two could be related?)
- They are really nice and don’t like to tell people “no” because that means that they just rejected that person, so a “think it over” is a nice way to let the salesperson down easy. (Reminds me of the old dating rejection, “It’s not you, it’s me.”)
- They’re not the real decision maker(s), so they can’t say yes and make the decision, but they sure can say no.
- They don’t really see the value in your product or service, so once again they decide to let you down easy with a “think it over”. (Refer back to #3 above for more on this.)
So, what can you do about this?
Slow down the sales process earlier and ask more questions to uncover the compelling reasons they would commit to taking action to change and how your product or service would help them achieve this change. In addition to this, beat them to the punch of the “think it over” and agree with them up front on what yes or no means in the process and that a “think it over” is not an acceptable response.
The slower you go early on and the clearer you are with the prospect on the outcomes for the decision you’ll ask them to make, the better your chances are of steering clear of the dreaded “think it over.”
