– John Glennon is the owner of Insight Sales Consulting Inc, an authorized Sandler Training Licensee. He can be reached at jglennon@sandler.com, toll free at 1-866-645-2047 or visit www.glennon.sandler.com. Copyright 2013 Sandler Training and Insight Sales Consulting Inc. All rights reserved.
SALES – Prospects and customers will sometimes make statements that on the surface, sound positive, but upon closer inspection, reveal no actual commitment. They contain indecisive, play-it-safe words or phrases that allow the speaker to avoid making commitments.
Here are some examples:
- “I believe that there’s a good chance that we will award the project to your firm.”
- “Things look pretty good.”
- “We’re inclined to place the order this quarter.”
- “We will probably be ready to move forward by the end of the month.”
David Sandler, the founder of Sandler Training, coined the term “reversing” to describe the strategy of responding with questions of our own to prospects’ questions or statements whose meaning or intent is unclear.
Reversing is an apt name because asking a question in this setting reverses the flow of information — from prospects to you, rather than from you to the prospects. A solid reversing strategy can and should be used to clarify prospects’ vague answers to your questions. Without such a strategy, you’re out of the loop!
Consider this exchange:
Salesperson: When will you be making your decision?
Prospect: We’ll be making it very soon.
Does “very soon” mean tomorrow? Next week? Next month? Here’s one way to find out.
Salesperson: I appreciate you sharing that information with me. When you say “very soon,” what exactly does that mean?
Notice the “stroke” before you ask your question: You express your appreciation for the prospect’s initial answer. That’s an optional, and potentially very effective, tactic that softens what comes next. What, specifically, does the prospect mean by “very soon”?
You have every right to ask that!
Here are some more examples:
Salesperson: Is the project funded?
Prospect: Funding is not a problem.
Salesperson: I see. And by “not a problem,” you mean…?
***
Prospect: I believe that there’s a good chance that we will award the project to your firm.
Salesperson: I appreciate you telling me that. I’m curious, however. When you say “good chance,” what does that mean?
***
Prospect: We’re inclined to place the order this quarter.
Salesperson: Certainly, that would be appreciated. Let me ask you something. When you say “inclined,” what does that mean?
***
What’s Really Going On?
Note that it may take more than one reversing question (perhaps three or four) to get to the intent of the original response … and identify the prospect’s “real” answer.
Remember: It’s your job to figure out what’s really happening in this business relationship!
A solid, consistently applied reversing strategy can help you uncover the real meanings and intentions behind the statements you hear from indecisive prospects. It can also help you identify dead ends before you invest lots of time and energy in pursuing them. The key is to stop taking indecisive answers as positive signals. They’re not!
Reversing takes a little practice, but it’s worth it. After just thirty days of doing a better job of reversing for indecisive statements from prospects, Juanita’s closing numbers improved. Yours can, too!