“Take advantage of the responses you get. If someone says they’re busy, ask them what they’re busy with. If someone says now is not a good time, just be polite and ask why and show them that you’re human. And watch your appointment setting go up and your reply is multiply.” – John Yoder in today’s Tip 1402
Are you busy with what?
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from John Yoder. John is a ten-year sales vet who lives and breathes all things customer success and isn’t afraid to promise an 8-minute response time. When not looking out for others’ best interests, he resides in the Greater Cleveland area with his wife, daughter, dog, and loves of everything Ohio State. Here he is:
John Yoder: Hey Daily Sales Tips Community. This is John Yoder bringing you an actionable insight for the Q Four holiday season. I think a lot of times with our outreach, in terms of getting a hold of people, likely you’re not going to get a response or maybe you’ll get a reply back that says, I’m on PTO since we’re now into the swing of the holiday season. But in the event you do get a reply or get someone to answer the phone, it’s likely, regardless of what you ask them, that they’re going to respond with super busy man, or like, I have a lot going on. And the typical reply to that, I think, at least in my experience or when I was younger, was something along the lines of, totally get it, let’s find some time to reconnect. And really you’re not actively listening, you’re just you’re hearing and moving on.
I think what I’ve seen this year, especially as the trend of customer service has declined severely in all industries, is that people really want to know that they’re being listened to and heard. And so rather than just say, oh man, I totally get it, I’m busy too, they don’t really care. They just try to get you off the phone or they’re just trying to get you out of their inbox. What I would rather recommend, and that’s got me a couple of meetings or some exchange emails, is when they reply with, Oh man, I’ve been super busy, just ask them. Busy with what? Right?
You’re showing at that instance that you’re really listening to what they have to say. And obviously, there are two routes that can come from that. Either they say, like, oh, I’m trying to get all these projects done, like, I got to run, or they’ll say, oh man, we just lost headcount. And so I’m picking up initiatives and I’m trying to get things done and what kind of things? And really it just gives you an opportunity to turn your ten-second conversation into maybe a 3o second conversation or maybe a minute or something like that. But what it’s really showing at its core is it’s showing that you’re interested in what these people have to say and you really care about what’s keeping them busy.
As opposed to the other question that, in my opinion, I think it’s kind of died off, which is like, what keeps you up at night? I don’t want to talk about that stuff. I have terrible things that keep me up at night, but I don’t want to share them with some random person on a cold call.
Anyway, as we head towards the thick of the holiday season and people start dropping off, start putting up out of offices and things like that, just take advantage of the interactions that you get. If someone says they’re busy, or if someone says, now is not a good time, or it doesn’t even have to be that specific response, just reply back. Or ask them back, like busy with what? Or I’m sorry to hear that, like what’s going on? Or just be human.
I find that the brands that I lean more on nowadays and more apt to be a return customer are the ones that actually answer a phone or call me back or help me solve a problem, but it may not mean I bought a car now and I’m going to buy another one in six months. But if that guy was helpful and really cared about why we needed an SUV because we’re having a kid or whatever the conversation is, I think that speaks volume.
So as a quick refresher, take advantage of the responses you get. If someone says they’re busy, ask them what they’re busy with. If someone says now is not a good time, just be polite and ask why and show them that you’re human. And watch your appointment setting go up and your reply is multiply.
Hope this helps with you guys. Happy holidays and good luck in the rest of your Q4.
Scott Ingram: John would love to connect with you on LinkedIn, as long as you don’t immediately pitch him after you do. We’ve got that link for you at DailySales.Tips/1402. And once you’ve clicked over there, be sure to click right back here for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!