In this article, Mike Brooks encourages sales teams to ask themselves what’s really holding their prospects back from buying.

The holidays are upon us and guess what? The teams I’m working with are still getting the stall, “I need to speak with (my partner, my boss, purchasing, etc.).”

Oh by gosh, by golly, you’d think they’d cut you a break at the holidays and just buy already!

Here’s the good news: Because this is a recurring selling situation, you shouldn’t have any problem dealing with this. In fact, you should be able to recite at least four different, best practice responses to this, right?

Surprisingly, many sales reps still stumble with this, but you don’t have to because I’m going to give you a gift for the holidays: A proven way to overcome this stall.

The following script is just one of the proven ways I outline in my book, Power Phone Scripts. And after you begin using it, you will finally be able to move past this stall/objection the next time you get it.

So here it is:

“I’m going to have to run this by…..” 

“Of course and I understand – we talked before about your decision process. Let me ask you this, though: is getting their approval the ONLY thing holding us back from doing business together?”

[Listen carefully – if YES then]:

“Will you have time to talk to them before we next speak at 2:30 tomorrow afternoon?

“Great! Then because you’re onboard with this, I’ll go ahead and prepare the paperwork, I’ll email it to you, and I’ll even reserve a spot for you.”

[Give a brief pause here and wait for push back. If none]:

“I’ll look forward to us moving forward tomorrow…”

Now when you look at this and break it down, you’ll notice a few things:

1. The first thing we do is isolate the objection to make sure there isn’t anything else holding the prospect back: “Is this the ONLY thing holding us back?” You must listen carefully here because if there are other reasons, then speaking with someone else is not the real objection and you’ll need to deal with whatever else they bring up.
2. Do you see how you already have a call back appointment? (The “…next speak at 2:30?”). You absolutely have to have this scheduled before you get off the phone – if indeed you get a “Yes, that’s the only thing holding me back…”
3. And the trial/assumptive close at the end. If everything else is a go, then offering to prepare the paperwork or shipping, or set up, or whatever is required, you are assuming the deal.

By following this best practice approach (just one of several you’ll find in Power Phone Scripts), you will be able to determine how much of a stall or real objection this is. And, you’ll learn how to look behind it to uncover what is really holding your prospect back.