TSE 1325: Donald Kelly - The Number 1 Reason You Hear "I'm Not Interested"

The Number 1 Reason You Hear "I'm Not Interested"

Of course salespeople like to hear positive responses from their prospects but it’s not always the case. Sometimes prospects say, “I’m not interested.” Why do you hear that? Is there something wrong with your pitch? Listen to this episode and understand what prospects are thinking when they say they’re not interested.

Donald has worked with hundreds of sales reps,has coached a variety of individuals, trained organizations, and he’s been on countless sales phone calls. All those experiences have taught him many things. Donald’s latest lesson came from seeing Disney’s, The Princess and the Frog.

The story of Tiana and the Frog

In the story, Tiana lives in Louisiana and has a dream of creating an amazing restaurant with her dad. She wants to do something with her life and have a purpose. Eventually, however, she gets turned into a frog. The prince in the story also gets turned into a frog. Together, they begin their quest to find the witch that turned them into frogs so they can be turned back to humans. Along the way, they come across an alligator who’s good at playing the trumpet, and the frog prince asks the alligator for help. The alligator tells them about a witch doctor that can help but the frogs don’t know how to get there. When Tiana asks the alligator to take them, he refuses and goes back to playing the trumpet. The frog prince realizes they messed up their pitch and so he tries again. He goes back to the alligator and asks him about his challenges. To this, the alligator replies that it’s hard to play trumpet in front of people because they just run away. Upon hearing this, the frog prince then redirects his pitch. He asks the alligator to come with them in the hopes of being turned into a human as well. This time, he decides to join them! The frog prince was able to reframe the offer so the alligator could see the benefit to himself.

In relation to sales

That story speaks to the platinum rule in sales - to treat others the way they would like to be treated and to tell them things that they want to hear. The focus should always be about the prospect or client with the goal of giving them what they want and need.

Tiana asked for good will but didn’t offer any benefit. The prince got results because he focused on what the alligator desired. The same is true when prospecting for a sale. When he saw the movie, Donald realized there were times as an account executive that he’d reached out to a prospect and led with Me, My, and I. He’d talked about his company and what they’d been doing. Nothing in his pitch was about the buyer. He eventually learned to flip it around and prioritized what they needed and wanted the most. That made all the difference.

Figuring out what they want

One of the easiest ways to figure out what a customer wants is to search for their job title on LinkedIn. You can also go to indeed.com. Try searching for what their responsibilities are. For example, if you see your prospect is a marketing director, search for that job title on LinkedIn. You’ll see that their job is to get traffic to their site, to bring inbound leads, bring in prospects that their sales reps can talk to, and eventually buy their product.

If you call them and talk to them about your company, they’ll only listen to the first 10 seconds of your call before you hear, “I’m not interested.” As a sales rep, your job is to reach out to them with a point of reference. Connect with them via LinkedIn using the omnichannel approach. When you’ve done that, then you’re ready to make the call.

“Hey Mike, we connected on LinkedIn last week....”

Position yourself as a person with whom they’re already acquainted. You’ve already moved through the threat barrier on LinkedIn, so now you can present them a solution they want. For the previous marketing director example, you could say, “I was looking at what you’re doing. If there’s a way I could show you how to get 10-15% more leads coming into your website, would you be open to hearing what we can do for you?” Provide a story loop to get his attention first before you ask your qualifying questions. Then you can set up that next appointment.

The old way of doing a pitch where you present your company, and all the great things you’ve accomplished, doesn’t work anymore. Now we figure out what the clients need and present a solution that benefits them.

Client-centered, not sales rep-centered

Your goal is to focus on what the buyer wants, use your questioning skills, and make them the center of the sales process. There is no deception when you are trying to grab their attention to solve their problem. If you’re not going into a deeper discussion, then you won’t get a close. Bring value to deepen the conversation. Provide what the prospect needs.

If you’re trying to gr...