The “Let me think about it“ objection is can be a time waster for your potential customer and for you if not handled appropriately. You’re in a customer appointment, you’ve asked incredible questions and qualified your potential customer . You feel like you did a great job discussing your product or service and your customer was engaged the whole time. When you’re ready to ask for the business, your potential customer gives you the famous response “Let me think about it”.
Statistically speaking, when this objection is handled fairly or poorly, this creates a longer sales cycle for sales professionals and reduces chances of closing by less than 50%. The biggest mistake you can make is say “ok, well go ahead and think about it and I’ll follow up with you.”
Now when handled well, you can shorten your sales cycle and eliminate customer concerns to have a win-win outcome! To achieve this, it is vital that you practice these steps:
At the beginning of the appointment
- Have a strong permission statement – “Mr/Mrs customer, I’m going to ask you some questions to better understand how I can best help match the product or service with your needs to help you achieve what you’re looking for, how does that sound?”
- Find out who is the decision maker. This can eliminate the possibility of having the person you’re talking to give you a tentative response because they are not the one that makes the final decision
The “Takeaway“ approach
- Most times when you are hearing this objection, what they’re telling you is that there’s something in their mind and not comfortable sharing it with you. Consider first creating a safe space to allow the customer have an honest conversation with you
- Say something like “It’s totally understandable, by the way if you are not interested you won’t hurt my feelings. We can go ahead and end it here if this doesn’t fit your needs”
The Unpacking approach
- Start with an empathy statement “A lot of people in your position also want to think about it”
- “I’m curious, what do you need to think about?”
- Identify if it is related to budget, something not clear about the product or service not fitting their needs, they need to speak to their partner, or any other concern that you can manage on the spot
If you or your team feels like they would benefit from additional sales training to close more sales, feel free to reach out to me and we will turn more “Let me think about it” into “Let’s do it!”. Contact us and let’s get started!
