4 Ways to Handle “Not Interested” Clients

Lessons learned from Sales Professionals

Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash

Every salesman runs into clients who are adamantly “Not Interested.”

Here are 4 ways professional salespeople handle those prospects:

1. A mirror — mirror back the prospects phrase, but do it in a questioning tone. Suddenly, “I’m not interested!” becomes, “Not interested?” causing your client to explain why he isn’t, providing you with valuable information about the prospects’ needs and concerns and as well as an opportunity to build rapport.
2. Match minus one or go negative — If your client is extremely disinterested, monotoned, or distracted, match his energy but minus one. For instance, reply to his statement, “I’m not interested,” with, “Honestly, your probably right. It isn’t that interesting, and maybe you don’t need our service.” This response will likely trigger your client’s FOMO, and suddenly he’ll be asking you about your product.
3. Relate to their frustration — “You’re right, man. You’re probably really busy and sick of all these sales calls. It drives me up a wall when I get them, especially from auto-insurance agencies about my cars’ extended warranty.’ I know its expired, there’s a reason I didn’t renew it!” You open the floor, and next thing you know, your client is relating, venting about his issues, and you’re building a relationship, learning about his needs.
4. Pattern interrupt — Abruptly change the direction of the conversation, catching the client off guard and ending their automatic push-back. My favorite example of this is, “There’s an elephant on the ceiling.” Eliciting a, “What?” allowing you to jump in with, “Oh! I thought we were saying stuff that isn’t relevant.”

While not all of these are perfect examples, the foundation of each is solid and can be replicated countless times throughout the day of an SDR.