Hope you’re enjoying the NFL playoffs. A client and I were talking about that Bear/Eagles game a week ago, and (besides the Bear’s kicker—I do feel bad for him), we were talking about that last scoring drive of the Eagles. How they went for it on 4 th down with 56 seconds left—and scored the winning touchdown.
That reminded me of what I was taught when I was new on the phone: that the sale doesn’t start until the fourth or fifth no. My manager used to tell me that it’s a like football:
He said that driving the ball down to the red zone was the same as giving your presentation. And that as soon as you asked for the sale at the end, you were now in the red zone.He told me that if the client said “no,” then it was up to me to use a close and ask for the sale again. This was like running the first play in the red zone.If the prospect was still willing to engage with me but still said no, then all that meant was that I didn’t get into the end zone on that play, but I had three more tries. So, I’d read another close and ask for the sale again.If I got another no, then it was just third down. Time to deliver yet another close and ask for the sale again.Same thing on fourth down: Run another play and try to get into the endzone.
Same thing in sales: If you’ve received three or four no’s, it’s time to try for it again, to read another close.Think about the Eagles game. Did they give up after they ran first down and didn’t get into the endzone? Of course not.What they did was they ran two more plays and then they went for it on fourth down. And they scored and won.Related:
Why Aren’t You Using More Tie Downs and Trial Closes? Now a couple of quick lessons:
1) You’re not always going to score on the first or second or even third closing attempt, but you must keep running plays—ask for the sale all four times.2) Sometimes you get a penalty on the defense and get another set of downs—more times to ask for the sale!3) Sometimes you can kick a field goal (drop close) and still come away with some points—or a partial sale.The bottom line is that you don’t give up when the
prospect says no—instead, just look at it like a fresh set of downs in the red zone—four new attempts to deliver a close, overcome an objection, and keep asking for the sale.That’s how I dealt with objections (I kept running plays—using closes), and that’s how I made hundreds of thousands of dollars every year selling over the phone.And it’s how you will, too, IF you keep closing and running plays in the red zone.
