Sales Coach: Don’t accept “I’ll get back to you” from a prospect

Here is a frustrating scenario you’ve almost certainly encountered:

• You connect with a great prospect.
• The demo goes really well.
• The questions and answers are good.
• You ask to schedule the next step phone call.

…and the prospect replies something wishy washy like:

• OK — let me think about it and get back to you.
• OK — let me know talk to my team and follow up.
• OK — let me talk to my manager and I’ll let you know.

All of these answers suck and you shouldn’t accept them.  They’re the gateway to uncertainty, which leads to endless follow-ups, which leads to wasted time, which leads to you missing quota.

Instead of saying “sounds good!” you should respond with something along the lines of:

Yep — totally understand that you need to think about it.  

But in my experience, if we don’t book the next convo now, it most likely won’t happen…and if it does, we’re going to waste a lot of time emailing and coordinating schedules to tee it up. Even if it is a quick “no thanks” I would sincerely appreciate the courtesy.

Plus — and I hope that this doesn’t come across as too direct — but if you can’t commit to another short phone call on Thursday, then it makes me think wonder if this is a priority for you, which is fine by the way, I just need to know.

So — can we agree to connect at 2pm your time on Thursday?

They’ll say yes or no.  And you’ll have the truth.

And the truth is your friend.