Published on 10/10/2007

Humans are born with only two fears: the fear of falling, and the fear of loud noises. Babies react with a startled reflex to both. I truly believe there's another one: the fear of being sold.

Most people react instinctively with a reflex response if they feel a sales pitch coming on. (What did YOU do the last time you walked into a retail store to just browse and you spotted the sales clerk? Probably walked the other way.)

These are instinctive brush offs we hear by phone:

Phone Brush Offs

"We don't need any."

"I'm happy with my present service."

"I'm not interested."

"I'm busy right now."

And you know what? Brush offs usually work! However, since brush offs are instinctive reflex responses, they are very shallow. There is no real reason behind them, other than the natural human need to protect ourselves from being sold.

Here is a very important point regarding brush offs that will help you not fall victim to them:

You can stand up to the brush off by getting the other person to talk.
If you can simply get the other person talking, their mind is off their reflex response, and it's on your question. Here's one scenario:

Prospect: "Hello, this is Joan Stevens."

Caller: "Hi Ms. Stevens, I'm Mike Hamilton with Heartland Supply. We specialize in helping companies that don't do a large volume of shipping to cut down on their supply costs, and get the volume rates that big shippers get. I'd like to ask a few questions to see if what we have would be of some value to you."

Prospect: "I'm happy with my present supplier."

Caller: "I see. Who are you using now?

Prospect: "We buy from Packing Plus."

Caller: "Oh sure. What do you get from them."

Prospect: "Well, we buy the standard boxes, padded envelopes, tape, plus a few specialty items."

Caller: "Oh, tell me about those....the specialty items."

Prospect: "In our operation, we often send out large orders that require..."

Did you notice that there was resistance at the beginning of the call? The person put forth a reflex response that stated, they're happy with their present supplier. Some sales reps would have said "Oh, OK. Keep us in mind if we can ever help. Bye."

Instead, this caller was curious. He acknowledged the response, and asked more questions, therefore melting the resistance by getting the other person to talk.

Asking a question is effective because it takes the prospect's focus off of the stall, and gets them
involved in answering a specific question. Any time you can change the subject from the brush off to a substantive topic, you have essentially ignored the brush off, while gathering useful information in the process.

Other Examples

Here are some other ways to avoid brush offs:

Brush Off: "We're not interested."

Caller: "I don't blame you. Most of my best customers also initially said that when I first called them. Tell me, what types of situations do you run into when...?"

Brush Off: "We're not in the market for any advertising."

Caller: "I see. I noticed your ads in Business News. What else are you doing to promote your new location?"

It's very difficult to deal with a vague general statement like a reflex response. That's why they
work so well for prospects. But, when you get someone talking, you have more information to deal with, which helps you ask more relevant questions, and make points of interest.

After hearing these, you might be asking yourself "should we just ignore their reflex responses?"

Yes.

Remember, most people don't even think about what they say when they give the response. It's as natural to them as squinting their eyes when walking into the bright light after coming out of a dark movie theatre. It's a reaction to protect themselves. By getting them talking, you have taken their mind off of the response.

That explained, here is an assignment on dealing with reflex response resistance.

Think of the one or two reflex responses that you most commonly hear. Again, these can be "I'm not interested", "I'm happy with my present supplier", "We have all we need" etc.

Then, think of responses you can use to get the person talking.

Write these out. Practice them. The key word here is practice.

You need to be comfortable with your response so that the instant you get resistance, you're able to quickly react.

You won't win them all. In fact, some people might even say, "Look moron, what part of this don't you understand?" But at least by trying you give yourself a chance, and you're no worse off than if you didn't pursue it in the first place.