All objections are smokescreens. Including “I have to think about it.”
Our job as a coach (or sales rep), is to get to the core of what’s really going on.
Prospects are not actually going to go think about it!
This particular objection should not be handled the same way every time because clear-cut “objection lines” will only get you so far.
In my Congruent Closing Method, I teach how to congruently stand in your truth when your prospects’ shit is coming up. I give you a process to help you get clear on what the objection really is in order to dissolve it with the truth.
This process starts BEFORE the objection ever comes up. Where we’re probing deeper into the challenges and desires that a prospect has to support both you and them in knowing what’s really under the surface.
For more on probing in order to set up stronger value in sales calls, check out this article.
For brevity, probing is essentially where we ask follow-up questions to the challenges or desires a prospect is describing.
Questions like:
- How long has this been a challenge, for you?
- How long have you been thinking about solving this?
- What has this been costing you?
- If you don’t solve this, what does life look like for you 5 years years from now?
The answers that someone gives from these probing questions gives us insight to the deeper truths of their reality.
Truths we can help realign them back to when their stories or excuses come up in the form of objections.
When this happens, listen to their REAL objection that’s beneath the smokescreen. Then, tell them the truth.
Here’s a few examples:
OBJECTION: “I don’t make decisions like this without taking at least 24 hours.”
TRUTH: “You’ve been thinking about / telling people how you’re going to get this solved for the past 5 years, so how much longer are you going to have to think about this?”
OBJECTION: “I need some time to decide.”
TRUTH: “I’m not pressuring you for a “yes” on this call, I’m pressuring you for a decision. Because I need my clients to make powerful decisions and take action in my program. So if you can’t make a decision on this call, I’ll make one for you and it’s going to be a “no”, because I’m not looking for your money… I’m looking for really good clients.”
OBJECTION: “I need to think about it.”
TRUTH: “With everything you told me about what this is costing you and the consequences of what life will look like if you don’t resolve this now, I’m curious, what do you have to think about?”
You can even follow up with an additional TRUTH: “As a coach, I help people make powerful decisions to improve their business and lives. So, one of the reasons you would actually hire me is to help you think through decisions like this on-the-spot so you can make a clear yes or no decision and move on, rather than getting sucked into hours of draining back and forth.”
Your prospects will ALWAYS have an infinite amount of excuses as to why they “can’t.”
From my experience, this is one of the greatest lessons of a lifetime.
The reason we can’t is the reason we MUST.
The smokescreens that people throw up are actually the very things holding them back. So if you’re not enrolling them in the real truth and what’s possible outside of their stories, they’re enrolling YOU in their stories. They’re selling YOU on their limitations.
Take a stand for the truth and share what’s really going on with your prospects to empower them to make a NEW choice, a DIFFERENT kind of decision in order to create a DIFFERENT RESULTS.
This is exactly how my clients turn objections like “I have to think about it” into $5k-$50k+ sales. By standing in the fire of transformation in service to others with the greatest tool available to us – the truth.
Related: Step-By-Step Breakdown Of How My Client Did $150k In 22 Days
