A short reaction/analysis by Christian Polk to a sales-call clip where the prospect says “I don't make decisions on the call.” Polk praises the caller's calmness but criticizes the tactic of offering a limited set of possible objections (putting words in the prospect's mouth). He recommends open-ended questions (e.g., “what's behind that?”) to have the prospect state their own objection so it can be handled in their words. He cites a mentor’s principle—“have the sales conversation you're having”—and notes that framing tactics may work on highly suggestible prospects (he estimates ~20%) but will lose many others.
Chapters
Yeah, sounds really good, man. I just don't make decisions like this on the call. So I'll get back to you tomorrow. Yeah, for sure. Love that. No problem. We could definitely look at connecting tomorrow. And I guess for you, is it more like not sure I'm going to come up with the investment, go check, talk to some friends, or is it maybe like not sure if this is actually going to work for you? Just not really sure if it's going to be the best thing for me. Yeah, for sure, man. And I appreciate how transparent, open and honest you've been throughout.
So what he's doing well is he's keeping calm, right? He's keeping calm, he's slowing them down. What I would say is what he does poorly, and this will only work on people who are very suggestible, is he's putting words in this person's mouth and he's pushing them down a one track frame. What do I mean by that? He says, well, I just need to take a day. And he's like, okay, well is it either this, this or this? Well, what if it's none of those three options, right? If you're talking to me, somebody who has a stronger frame, who's not as suggestible, I'm just going to tell you, well, that's just how I make decisions. So rather than you just trying to push somebody into something, that again, is my words as a salesperson, not their words, so they're less likely to actually buy into, just going to ask them, hey, what's behind that? Or what changes between now and tomorrow just to see if I can help or what do you really need to go over in your mind just to see how I can help. I need them to tell me the objection rather than me putting the objection onto you. One of the best lessons that I learned from like my first mentor is have the sales conversation you're having. Don't have the sales conversation you wish you were having. This is a good example of just having the conversation you wish you were having. And when you're dealing with people who are very suggestible, that are very easy to put in frames, like, it will work. But if we want to get to the point where we're closing, 70, 80, 90% of the people you're talking to, 90% of the people you're talking to are not going to be that suggestible. This will work on 20% of people, but the other 50% that we need, we're just going to lose them. So rather than you pushing, just ask them. They'll tell you what their objection is, and you can handle their objection in their own words. That's how you actually overcome it.
