A sales rep handles a hostile prospect who refuses personal questions and demands the pitch immediately. Christian Polk breaks down how humor and small agreements defuse tension, and why getting the prospect to defend their own position matters more than launching into your program.
Chapters
What the fuck does how much I make have to do with anything?
Like, that's aggressive as shit.
Can you not just tell me what the program is? Like, that's what I'm here for. Like, why do you need to know how much I make?
No, 100%, man. In terms of why I need to know what you make, it's obviously to relate to the goals you have in regards to the program.
Super, super calm. Super solid.
Okay, but how does the money have anything to do with that? Like, I want to make money, right?
Are you getting into the program to just make an e-com store to just not make any money?
Adding in a little bit of humor helps defuse the situation. Pretty good.
No, obviously I want to make some money, but like, You know, it's pretty personal. Like, I've met you 20 minutes ago.
If you want to get a goal, right? Let's say you go to the gym and you go get a PT and he asks you how much you weigh.
I would never get a PT.
Okay, sweet. Have you ever had coaching for anything in your life?
Maybe when, you know, when I played football as a kid, but like, what does that have to do with anything?
He's trying to show him a different scenario where he was open to coaching and it's better if we understand goals, but this guy is being very, very, very difficult.
Like, can we just get back on track?
And when your coach goes, how many goals did you score last season? You go, why the fuck you asking me that for? I've come at you to score more goals.
Well, that just wouldn't make any— like, what are you on about, bro? Can we just get into the program? Like, what are you on about?
Yeah, of course we're going to get to the program, man. But here's the thing, right, is until we get out of this mindset of being unable to open up about things and unable to talk about things, how are we ever going to help you?
Stuff, right? The amount of money I make, okay, it's got some relevance, but more so being good at what I do is more of a necessity, right? So you're going to help me build that skill set.
So it does have some relevance. Why wouldn't— why wouldn't you tell me?
He took a step in his direction, and instead of like, hey, since you agreed with me a little bit right there, you took a step in your direction, why don't you agree with me fully? Again, like, especially with somebody who's super combative, the likelihood that he's going to buy into that, very, very low. Easier question to ask to actually start to get him to take steps in your direction is like, well, why does it have some relevance in your mind? Get him to actually defend what he just did. He took a step in your direction rather than he takes one step and then we just go for the whole kit and caboodle.
I met you like 15 minutes ago.
Like, it's just a little personal, man, because let me give you the perspective, right? Now, I'm not saying this is true, Jacob. I don't want to assume, right? But I can only guess that the reason we don't want to talk about how much we make is because we're not happy with how much we make.
So a couple of things he did really, really solid. Number one, not reactive. This is a big one. If somebody is doing something to you, you're not reacting to it. This, number one, allows them to calm down, but also this is going to make sure we keep our authority. Number two, what he did really well, he gave good logical reasons, backed them up with analogies, and he kept fucking pushing for it. Now, I'd say the biggest area of improvement that I could see from that is when somebody takes a step in your direction, just get them to defend that step. It's the easiest thing that you can do. And that way you stop doing all the work and you get them to actually explain why they're taking steps in your direction rather than they take one step and then we just go for it. But overall, pretty solid job.
