The Million-Dollar Sales Question Most People Never Ask
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Brooke Greening: Most salespeople spend a lot of time trying to figure out what their potential clients are thinking, but you don't have to guess. Sometimes the simplest thing you can do is ask them
Yes. So the biggest thing that people need to stop doing when it comes to objections is they need to stop creating them. And by creating them, I will hear this all the time. They will say things like, "Oh, I know this is going to take a lot of time," but, "I know this is a big investment," but, "I know you probably need to talk to other people," but they're trying to maybe get ahead of the objection, but what they're actually doing is creating it.
The biggest reason we create objections is because we already had them before we started.
Because when you ask for an objection, you are saying with your words and with your actions, "I trust in what I'm offering to you.
I'm not scared of it. I'm not afraid of the questions or concerns that are going to be coming, and I value your time and I value your investments to make sure you can make the best decision."
I'm not asking if you have questions, I am asking what questions or concerns do you have before we move forward.
Scott Greening: Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of _Sipping Matcha and Helping You Make More Sales_, where as you enjoy your matcha or coffee break, our resident sales expert, Brooke Greening, gives you some great advice on how to move your sales conversations. Because here's the reality, if you have to talk to people to make sales, how well you lead those conversations will make or break your revenue, and Brooke is going to help us with that today.
Brooke is just back from dropping- ... off our daughter at camp.
Brooke Greening: Yes. It was a two and a half hour drive one way and so then I got back, so we were driving for about five hours. And so little, little road weary, but I'm so glad that she could go. She was at a rheumatology camp, and the first time she's ever done that.
There's a chance she could be a counselor for that next year, and so that's why she wanted to go, and so there's not a lot of perks with having juvenile arthritis Right ... there's a lot of not enjoyable times. We talk about that in our podcast sometimes. It- we started our business in the ER 'cause all of it started coming to play at that exact moment.
When we started our business, she started getting sick. So this is a really neat thing that she gets to be with all of the other kids that are dealing with those things. The counselors are there. Doctors from CHOP are there. Everybody's in great hands, and yeah. There can still be great things through suffering.
And so we're really glad that she gets to go, and we're super proud of her that she wants to, and we'll see what happens when she gets back. I think she'll have a great time.
Scott Greening: Yeah. She'll always have stories. Always- ... always have some drama that shows up and that.
Brooke Greening: Yeah.
Scott Greening: We've been talking in the last couple of episodes about objections and so we've been talking about why identifying objections is important, and then last time we talked about kind of some of the not so great ways people often try to deal with objections.
And we promised your million-dollar- ... question. We promised helping some people today. And instead of making things awkward with objections how do we deal with that? And maybe before we, we jump into your great question, like what do people need to stop doing or that when it comes to objections?
Brooke Greening: Yes. So the biggest thing that people need to stop doing when it comes to objections is they need to stop creating them. And by creating them, I will hear this all the time. They will say things like, "Oh, I know this is going to take a lot of time," but, "I know this is a big investment," but, "I know you probably need to talk to other people," but they're trying to maybe get ahead of the objection, but what they're actually doing is creating it.
Because if the potential client and customer has not brought that up, they are creating it, and that is not what we want to do. We want to be able to ask for objections, which is what we're going to talk about in a little bit, but you don't want to create them, and there's reasons why we create them.
Scott Greening: Yeah, and sometimes, you, when you say those types of things, you're trying to be helpful, but you're like, "Well, I wasn't worried about it until you brought that up."
"But now that you have, I've got even more to be worried about." what are some of the kind of the reasons why- People do that
Brooke Greening: Yeah. The biggest, I'm going to put my counselor hat here on for a second. The biggest reason we create objections is because we already had them before we started. So either we have heard, "That's too expensive.
I don't know about the ROI. Do you really know what you're doing?" if you've been in business long enough, you have heard negative things towards what you're doing, how you're trying to serve your clients and your customers. And so those can stick with us. Those can rattle in our brain. So either that's happened, or now you've gotten on the call, now you see them face to face, now you're having a conversation with them, and you're making the assumption they can't afford it, they don't want it, they're going to want to go to my competitor.
Those are the way we create them. And when we have those objections internally and we have not addressed them, they are going to come out, consciously or subconsciously, but they are, they're coming. So if you have them, they're going to end up showing up in your conversation, whether you realize it or not.
Scott Greening: All right. So whether we're creating them or we're assuming them on behalf of other people, instead of that what do we do?
Brooke Greening: You want to be able to ask for the objection. That's the most important thing. You don't want to assume the customer's concerns. You want to ask for them. We do not have to guess.
We don't have to try to read between the lines. They are with us. We're talking with them face to face, so we can just ask
Scott Greening: And like what's the power of asking? Why is that a better strategy than either doing the things we talked about last week, or assuming or that type of thing? I know there's some obvious things to it, but there's probably even a little bit more.
Brooke Greening: Yeah. Well, one, asking is much better than assuming.
There's this shift, there's this this mind shift that comes over for you, which is a lot easier, and you stop guessing. So that's the very first reason. One, you're going to stop guessing because if you're asking, now we don't have to try to read between the lines, but two, you're going to start to discover what matters most to them.
So many times, because we're assuming, because we're trying to guess, we don't actually have the answer. But when you are asking for it, you're not only able to discover what matters most, but then you're also able to build that trust with them as well. Because when you ask for an objection, you are saying with your words and with your actions, "I trust in what I'm offering to you.
I'm not scared of it. I'm not afraid of the questions or concerns that are going to be coming, and I value your time and I value your investments to make sure you can make the best decision." So many times people feel like objections are like we either need to just overcome them, we need to plow through them, we just need to just fix them, and that is not the point of identifying objections in our sales conversation.
Our point is truly to understand, is this going to be the best fit for us to be able to move forward, or is it not? And it's for two reasons. One, we're trying to figure out, is this a good fit? Do we want to be able to work with this potential client? And we want them to figure out, is this a good fit, and do we want to be able to potentially move forward?
That is the whole reason behind it. So you can stop guessing, you can discover what really matters, and you're actually building trust instead of them being leery and trying to figure out, okay, are you just going to- Pitch at me, like what, what is going to happen? You're, you are giving them the space to say, "I value you enough for you to share why you might not want to work with me."
Scott Greening: Yeah,
Brooke Greening: I- And I'm okay to hear that.
Scott Greening: I think that's probably one of the biggest differentiators between how you approach objections and some of the typical ways that, that we do it. So rather than being the moment that where people feel awkward, that they look at it as like this is actually the time that destroys trust- Mm-hmm
you're saying, "Hey, if you do this, if you ask, and ask in the way that you're about to tell us, like it's- Mm-hmm ... a chance to instead of destroying trust, building trust," and I think that can be a powerful mindset for all of us.
Brooke Greening: Yes. And you're not, the way that you're going to be asking, you're not going to be pushing them in the corner.
You're not going to be like, "Well, are you ready to be able to double your business with, by working with me?" Like that's not how we're going to that's not how we're going to ask. We are truly trying to understand what is preventing them from wanting to move forward with us today. And if you don't know the answer to that question, one, you're not going to make a sale that day, and two, there's a really good chance that you're probably not going to make it later because it's unclear.
And if it's unclear for you, you don't know how to follow up. If it's unclear for them, they're not going to move forward.
Scott Greening: All right, so we're not trying to win an argument. We're not trying to manipulate somebody into doing something that they're not on board with. We're trying to find out We're g- we're going to ask questions.
We're going to try to build trust and discover. So we've been teasing it. We promised it was, like, the million-dollar question. The, I don't know, we got to come up with a really impactful title for this. But what's the question? And then kind of walk through some of the differences or some of the other things of different questions that you might ask that aren't quite as good.
Brooke Greening: Yeah. So the, the question that I would encourage you all to ask when we are trying to identify objections is just what questions or concerns do you have before we move forward? What questions or concerns do you have before we move forward? I say this to all of my clients. They're always writing it on a Post-It note.
They're sticking it on their computer. They're writing it down. It is a very important question to be able to use, and it is different than, "Do you have any questions?" 'Cause a lot of times people will be like, "Oh good. I'm good. I totally ask for objections because I always ask if they have questions."
I'm not asking if you have questions, I am asking what questions or concerns do you have before we move forward. Questions is just did I explain something clear enough? Are you familiar with our process? That's not actually helping us to understand the concerns that they might have in regards with the investment, the time that it's going to take, who else they need to talk to, all of the things that can happen before someone decides to move forward.
So that's, it's not, do you have any questions? That's not actually, that's not what we're asking, and that's not what we want to know. I'm not really wondering, did I explain it clear enough?
Scott Greening: Right. 'Cause if you didn't they'll ask those questions in there in response to that. So I the, the thing that I like, there's s- several things that I like about this question.
One, it's from you, so- ... that's, it's always nice. But no it assumes that people are going to have questions or concerns. Mm-hmm. It just normalizes that, and that way they don't have to feel awkward, you don't have to feel awkward. It's just part of the process. And then it also- Yeah
assumes you're moving forward in some way. And so if it doesn't work out it may be moving forward into a referral to some other thing or a recommendation of where to find out, or it's setting you up to move forward with you and to, to make the purchase to become a client to do the thing.
Brooke Greening: Yeah. I- so what happens a lot of times is people feel like if they've done their due diligence, if they've been able to explain everything so clearly, and you can totally see the value, and we, and it's what we call value stack, so they just keep adding more and more value to what it is that they're trying to talk to them about, that they will just automatically be like, "Yes.
Yes, that's exactly what I want." And if people don't do that, then they start to feel like, "Okay, maybe I'm bad at sales. Maybe I'm not doing it right." That's not how a normal conversation goes. We are both intelligent people, and there are going to be things that we're going to have questions about. And so by opening and giving them space to do that and letting them know I respect you, and I want to be able to talk about those things," that's how you make sales.
That's how you're able to understand what's really bothering them, what's driving them, what's motivating them. Not how slick you are in your presentation, not how amazing your services are, not in how clear you are in talking about them. All of those are very helpful, but people have just been misled for a very long time to feel like if I do everything right on my side, then they'll just automatically say yes.
And if they don't say yes, then it's just like we were never meant to work together. And that is where you are losing so many clients, because we're not asking for objections, and then even when we hear an objection, we feel like, okay, then it's just done. Like this, this just isn't going to go forward, and that is not true
Scott Greening: A lot of times we get to, to points in these conversations and it doesn't f- it doesn't result in a sale, and then we're like- Yeah ... "Well, I just wonder." you're helping us know there are things that can help us move forward, that can help us- Mm-hmm
make the sale. We can ask these questions. We don't have to pretend like objections don't exist and to move- No ... move forward. I was just going to, I was just thinking as you were talking and that, just to clarify when you encourage people so clearly to ask for objections, sometimes they, instead of using your phrasing, they say, "What objections do you have?"
And, uh- Just, just to clarify, that might not be the best way to go.
Brooke Greening: They do. They do. I was like, "Okay, good effort. Good effort." "That's weird. Like, don't do that."
Scott Greening: Right.
Brooke Greening: Yeah. And they'll say it. They'll be like, "I did exactly what you said. I asked for objections." I'm like, "How did you ask for objections?" "Well, I just said, 'What objections do you have?'"
I'm like, "Let's, let's not do that." "Let's try a different way." Yeah. Just because we're not in court, we're not trying to do it that way. Yeah. And so it's just, we're just having a normal conversation. But this is one of the questions that I give them, like word for word, to use. You can choose to ask however you want, but we have found that this is one of the most effective ways to be able to give space for them to share their concern, and to not have it be a, come across as pushy or manipulative, and put you in the position of you feel confident in what you're offering without being a jerk.
These are the words that work for that. I don't believe in like following a whole script all the way through, 'cause nobody follows the script. Nobody's following all of the lines, and then we get really flustered and we're not sure what to do. But I do believe in giving certain sentences for the guardrails of the different parts of the conversation, and this is one of them, and it really helps to bring everything together.
Scott Greening: All right. So I think I'm going to... I know the answer to this, but what should people do this week to put this into action?
Brooke Greening: So you need to ask yourself this. In your next three sales conversations that you're having, ask yourself this question: Did I create objections, or did I ask for objections? You can listen to your calls if they were recorded.
You can review them, and you're going to know, because if they didn't share any objections with you, you didn't ask. I know that. But that's what you're going to ask. Did I create them? Did I say something where I was trying to be helpful, where I was trying to get ahead of maybe the objection that was coming, or did I ask for them?
There's only two options: creating them or asking for them
Scott Greening: Yeah. And then I would a- also assume you literally want people to,
uh, use your question, right? Yeah. So what, what questions or concerns do you have before we move forward?
Brooke Greening: Yes. And this is where you use it, 'cause people are like, "Well, where do I use it? How do I use it?" After you've been able to share what it is that you're doing, sharing the investment, you're going to give them time to be able to process this to think about it, and then you're just going to ask.
You're going to say, "So what questions or concerns do you have before we move forward?" They're going to tell you. They're going to be like, "Oh, okay. No, I'm not ready to move forward, and these are the reasons why." Or they'll be like, "You know, it's, this sounds, this sounds like a good idea. I actually, I don't know if I have any questions or concerns right now.
I would like to be able to move forward." Those are the two things that are going to happen.
Scott Greening: Great. And just keep working with people, keep asking questions until, till the payment's made, till the, the deal is done. And make
Brooke Greening: sure that- Or if they, the answer's no. And it is a legit okay, this is not what you're looking for.
There's freedom in knowing if you can't help them, either. Instead of this forever follow-up of "Well, it seems like a good conversation, and I think this would be really good..." no. It's much easier to know if, is this going to move forward or is this not, or what is the timeframe of this moving forward.
That just gives you a lot more freedom.
Scott Greening: Great. I think everyone, Brooke has given us a great question here. And she also acknowledged the fact that this is connected to the other parts of your sales conversation. And so Brooke does have an assessment for you to take a look at and to go through.
In about five to seven minutes, you can work your way through that assessment and see how you're processing the very different parts of the sales conversation that are leading up to this moment of identifying objections, and then what comes next. So we encourage you, as always, to go to buildingmomentum.info/assessment and take that, and you'll get a quick report back from Brooke with some suggestions on how you can improve the strengths and the areas where you might have some opportunity to grow in your conversations.
Brooke, where are we headed from here? What's next in the SERVICE Sales Framework?
Brooke Greening: Yeah. I just want to encourage you guys, you don't have to read people's minds to understand what's holding them back. You just need to be able to create space so that they're comfortable telling you, and that's where the really good sales conversations are going to begin.
And next week we start talking in regards to, okay, how do we begin to move things forward? If we've identified objections and we're ready to move forward, how do we do that? 'Cause there are clear steps and questions to be able to use when we're ready to do that.
Scott Greening: Yeah. We're going to be talking about creating urgency, and I know that's sometimes a time where people run away-
'cause this is another uncomfortable part of the conversation. But I think you'll be excited about where we're going, and I'll give a teaser alert. Direction and hope are keywords that'll keep coming up during that conversation.
Brooke Greening: Yes. And the other one is urgency is not the villain. The manipulation behind it is, and that's what we're going to talk about, and knowing where have we crossed the line and how do we make sure we don't do that?
Scott Greening: All right. We'll look forward to connecting with you next time. As always, we encourage you to like, to subscribe, to leave a review, turn on those notifications. We'd love to hear from you, whether it's on the podcasting platform through a review, or YouTube through a comment, or leaving a question on our website, which is buildingmomentum.info/matcha, and that's where you can get all the links and see blog articles and that related to all of these episodes as well.
So until then here's to making more sales. Have a great day.
Brooke Greening: Bye-bye.
