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3 MIN. READ
Oh, no. Here it comes again, the response you’ve been dreading: a request for more information. You’ve sent out multiple emails and numerous thick and expensive envelopes with boundless details concerning your product. Still, your prospects remain prospects, not closed sales. So, what do you do when prospects say, “Just send me more information?” Don’t give up the pitch! Your first order of business is to keep them on the phone.
Your potential prospect may have one of two motives for making this request. The first is that they are confused about how your product will remove obstacles from their company's road to success. If you remain on the call, you can emphasize how a purchase will clear the way. The second reason is that they’re attempting to find a polite way to get rid of you. Either of those reasons signals that you haven’t adequately qualified your call recipient for a possible sale. You need to continue asking questions until you determine if the person on the other end is worth this allocation of your time and resources.
Winning approaches when prospects say they need more information
When prospects tell you they need to know more, try this:
• If they ask for more information, tell them you would be thrilled to send it to them but ask them to say precisely what they would like.
• If the customer requests testimonials, send testimonials, and then ask them what else they would need to help them decide.
• If they ask for case studies, send them case studies and ask what else they need.
• If they ask next for a summary of everything you discussed, you can agree. Your objective is to keep asking “what else” until you’ve exhausted their request options. When you arrive at that point, you can begin eliciting the qualifying information you need and provide different responses.
Assume you have given Mr. or Ms. Prospect everything they’ve requested: the summary, the case studies, the testimonials, the references and any other requirements. However, when you call them, you still get an awkward silence on the other end of the line. Now it’s time to push forward with your veiled interrogation, asking:
• If the budget is an issue.
• If they have the funding right now.
• If they are comfortable dedicating the amount of funding, you discussed to solve their problem.
Suppose the prospect still hesitates to answer and says they have to think about it. Then you should suggest that their hesitation is not really about insufficient information. You move on to talk about money, to see whether the accommodation you can make might enable their purchase.
If you don't receive an answer, you've reached the moment to be completely direct. Continue with: “Do you know what? If I send you the information, we’re not going to do business, are we?” That question is the inflection point when the prospect confesses what’s really preventing them from taking action. That’s when you must be fully prepared to offer a convincing solution. In most cases, you'll have to address their company's budget in painstaking detail. If you can successfully determine a way to make purchasing your product fit the prospect’s financial constraints, you’ve made your sale.
You can read more on this topic with our 7 tips for overcoming price objections in sales.
However, suppose your obstacle isn't funding. Unfortunately, the person you’ve reached doesn’t have the authority to make the decisions doing business with you requires. So how do you establish the connection you need with the real decision-maker? Here’s how: Keep the conversation flowing. Pose easily answered questions. Request an email address. As you receive your responses, try to learn the name and position of the person you’ll need to convince. Never conclude the conversation until you’ve determined if your prospecting can strike gold and, if so, the location of the vein you'll need to mine.
Directly reaching a decision-maker paves the way toward completing a sale. Understanding the needs and capabilities of a company prevents you from wasting your time on an organization that doesn’t need or can’t afford your product. By obtaining the positions, names, emails and numbers you require, you’ll reach supremely qualified prospects.
However, to accomplish that feat, you must acquire access to comprehensive information about all your potential prospects. That’s where IndustrySelect can make your search less grueling and more productive. We offer a wealth of data on any given manufacturer — all in one place. Our listings include websites, phone numbers and lists of executives complete with LinkedIn profiles and direct email. We also identify competitors to expand your options. To try IndustrySelect to convert more calls to completed purchases, try out a free demo, loaded with 600 sample profiles.
Want to explore more types of sales objections and how you can best navigate them? Read our Definitive Guide to Overcoming Common Sales Objections
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