Win More Sales With "The Clarifying Question"
Written by Tim J.M. Rohrer
[Contributing Author]
My wife hates it when I talk to telephone sales people. She thinks I'm rude and she would rather that I just didn't answer the phone at all instead of being rude to the working stiff on the other end of the line.
But, I'm not rude. I'm giving the seller an opportunity to sell me without being a complete pushover. I am testing their skills so that I can write about what works and what doesn't and educate those sellers interested in learning about the trade. Rude? For goodness sakes, I'm doing the world of sales a favor!
So, anyway, we receive a call and the caller ID says it is from "Joe Schmo." I knew it was a solicitor because we had ignored this same call on a couple of other occasions. But, needing to do the world of sales a favor, I answered the call.
"Hi, is this Tim?"
"Yes, it is."
"Tim, my name is Joe from Golf Digest. How are you doing today?"
"Fine, Joe." (Sometimes I say, "Do you really care?" but my wife thinks that is rude and she might be right.)
"Good. The reason for the call is to make sure that you are receiving your Golf Digest and that you are happy with the magazine."
(Another version of the "I'm not really calling to sell you anything" approach... Potentially annoying... Does any reasonable person actually believe that an automatically dialed phone call is coming from the customer service department of a magazine? If you don't want people to be rude to you (which I wasn't, of course) perhaps you shouldn't assume they are stupid.)
"I am happy with the magazine."
"That's great! I'll tell you what we are going to do. We are going to upgrade your account to 'preferred' and offer you our best rate of $1.88 per issue for renewing. How does that sound?"
"No."
"Excuse me?"
"I said, no."
"You don't want to renew?"
"No."
"Alright then. You have a nice night."
With that, Joe was gone. But, he shouldn't have been gone. Joe got confused by my first 'No'. Mainly because it was out of context. He didn't ask me a yes/no question but got a 'No' anyway. He asked me, "How does that sound?" Naturally, he was expecting me to be excited about achieving 'preferred' status and to say that "it sounds good". When I said, 'No' I threw him off his script and he didn't know what to do.
So, Joe made a fatal mistake and he assumed that he knew what my 'No' meant. He offered me the reason I said 'No' by saying, "You don't want to renew?" He should never have done that because he has now made it really easy for me to agree with him that I don't want to renew.
When a customer throws you off by answering one of your questions in a way that doesn't make any sense, you must get clarification of what is going on! For all Joe knows, I could have been saying 'No' to one of my rude children asking me a question while I was on the phone. Criminy! Is his training so bad and his reliance on his script so rigid that he just collapses when the customer refuses to play along?
How 'bout you? Is your training that bad or your reliance on a script that rigid?
Here is what Joe should have done after my initial 'No':
"Tim, you just said 'No' to a question that isn't really a yes/no question. Was that 'No' directed toward me or someone in the room with you?"
"That 'No' was directed towards you, Joe."
"Okay. I'm a little confused. You like the magazine. I just offered you our very best rate to renew and you said 'No'. Why would a person say 'No' to renewing at our very best rate if they are happy with the magazine?"
(If you are thinking that you would never have the courage to go this direction with the conversation then you must get out of sales immediately! This is a simple clarifying question that must be asked.)
"Simple, really, Joe. I ordered a one year subscription of the magazine and I have received two copies. That means that I have ten months left before I need to renew. I never renew subscriptions until the subscription is about to expire."
"I understand completely and it makes sense. Here's the deal, though. We will never be able to offer this rate again. So, by renewing early you will get the very best deal and you will be locking in the very best deal for as long as you want. Even though you have only been receiving the magazine for two months, you have already experienced our award winning columnists, stroke-saving tips and interviews with the world's best golfers and most influential golf course designers. As an avid golfer, I know you wouldn't want to give that up, and as a smart business man you wouldn't want to pass up the savings being offered today. Would you prefer to extend your subscription for one, two or three years?"
When prospects throw you off, don't just give up! Fight back with clarifying questions!
Tim J.M. Rohrer is an 18 year veteran of advertising sales. Currently building a group (Media Sales) on LinkedIn, contact him directly at timrohrer@comcast.net or subscribe to his blog at www.salesandmarketingloudmouth.com
How do you respond to sales people when they give you a "house call"?
Great post Tim.
I found this information and your summary of how the call should have been handled really relevant and useful.
It would seem to me that the call center training could do with some real improvement.
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Okay, I'm going to try and not be rude, but this was....not good.
About the only thing I agree with in this was the need to ask a clarifying question when presented with a "no". But if you want to get buy-in to your proposition it is never a good idea to challenge the prospect to justify their position. It is much better to align with their position and try to gradually move them from "no", to "maybe", "that sounds about right make sense", to "sure, I'll do it."
My call might have gone like this after I got the "no".
"Tim, you just said "no", and if that is your answer I certainly will respect that. But can I ask you a question?"
"Sure"
"You said you really liked the magazine, and that's great because that's the answer we love to hear, so can you just tell me a little bit about why "no" is the right answer for you?"
"Well, I just don't like sales calls interupting me at home"
"Okay Tim, that's certainly fair. I apologize for interupting you, as a customer we didn't think you'd mind, but you do and I apologize. But since we are now talking, and you are a valued and satisfied customer, can I ask you if you think the offer was a good one, the renewal offer itself at $1.88 an issue?"
"Well, yeah, I guess that is a good rate."
"Great, then it sounds like you like the magazine, you want to remain a subscriber, and this is an opportunity to subscribe at a rate that is better than we can ever offer you again. You have my word that this is the best rate we offer anyone. Can I renew your subscription for you?"
"Heck, yeah, and give me one for my Dad as a gift too!"
Okay, the last line was hokey, but I think you get my point.
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Interesting take, Greg. If the magazine rep had a valid business reason for calling then it would be inappropriate to apologize as you recommend. After all, I'm a customer and he is within his rights to call a customer if he has a reason. The problem is that he had nothing: I was 2 months into a 12 month subscription so renewing would be silly. Plus, he came on to me with the ridiculous idea that he was upgrading my status to "preferred".
I did like your question, "why is 'no' the right answer for you?"
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Tim,
Of course you are right, the caller is within his/her legal right to call a customer at home. But the question isn't if he is right, but if an apology will better align the seller and customer and move the prospect closer to "buy-in". The goal in sales is to gain "buy-in" NOT to be right.
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Tim, to answer your question what do I do when they call my home? I am exceedingly patient and polite with them. Why? Because they are probably in a crappy call center, making minimum wage and received little to no training. What I do not do is take it as an opportunity to be rude - I am on your wife's side on that one.
Now, having said that and since I run my own business, when someone calls my business and is not well trained I do talk to them about their sales skills. As we provide inside sales training among other things I very much critique their ability to convey their value proposition, ask relevant questions and engage me in a conversation. If they are not up to snuff, I provide them with feedback and suggest they have their manager look at our website.
Sorry to be on the other side of the fence from you on this one but I feel for those poor souls making the b to c calls.
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I really like this article because I have a tendency... or maybe I should call it a very strong urge to "call timeout" during the sales call and say something like, "Do you mind if I give you some feedback? ... let's do a little role play... give this a try and see how it sounds!"
My wife will say something like, "I don't know how you do it... they probably think you're crazy... since they're used to people just hanging up on them."
I don't want to hang up on them... let's enjoy the moment! I guess I love sales so much that I just can't help myself sometimes! LOL
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Tim:
Bravo!! This is excellent advice on several fronts. The clarifying question should be studied, practiced and tried till perfected.
I also like the fact that you point out that if the salesperson doesn't have the courage to ask these type of questions, they need to get out of sales asap.
This phone sales person could use some work on his "openers" as well in order to get less resistance.
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Tim,
This was a great post, but I disagree on a small part of it. Having begun my career many years ago in the sleazy world of telemarketing (I didn't know any better, I was in high school!) They simply train you to accept that first no, and move on. It is not so much the sales person as it is their sales management. I think the world right now needs an adjustment in the sales management department if we are ever to see better sales people. With proper guidance, his goal should have been to uncover you objection and try to solve a problem. Letting you know that at some point your subscription was going to end and you are not likely to find pricing like that again would have been a good start, but to simply give up falls on his boss.
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Hey Rob, thanks for the comment. I'm always a proponent of additional training and it does seems like the telemarketing folks are in dire need of it. Maybe you have a career as a sales manager and trainer? Best of luck!
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