How to handle the biggest rejection of "Not Interested' in Sales

The biggest blockade encountered by any sales personnel all over the world is the most common response by the customer of being 'not interested'. In lead generation process it carries a weightage of more than 70% through which a customer is able to cut to the quick and get rid of the conversation, which clearly denotes that the quick response triggered by the customer is not the real objection, but, rather a rejection.

In this article we are going to focus on how to turn this rejection into opportunity and how to utilize it to make a sale.

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time - Thomas Edison

Turning the rejection into an opportunity –

There is something interesting here to do with our energy. We have learnt this in our school days, that energy cannot be created and cannot be destroyed it can only be transformed from one form to another. Whenever a customer says a ‘NO’ or ‘Not Interested’ its transfers a negative energy of rejection into us which examines our emotions and majority of the time we react to that either by arguing with the customer using a cross question like why he/she is not interested or we run into a flight mode and saying “No problem sir, thank you” and hang up the call. At this point of time we need to re-cycle the negative energy into a positive one and act instead reacts.

The idea to act and not to react is to figure out how we can present better to turn the rejection in to opportunity. All we need to do is take a pause, think and act rather than react, think and regret.

Do you act or react?

Let me explain you in a better way through a story of three best friends. Who were partingand were discussing about the old memories at the dinner table, where they encountered a cockroach on the shirt’s collar of one of them, who immediately tried to get hold of it but cockroach was able to dodge him well and flied from there. In attempt to hit the cockroach the guy spoiled the table and the food was also tasted by his clothes. There was a waiter walking by the side with a dish tray on his right hand and cockroach took the seat on waiter’s shoulder. The waiter saw it and waited there standing still like a statue, he slowly caught the cockroach with his left hand and walked towards the dustbin and dumbed it into it.

Now the difference between what waiters did and the guy with his friends on the table clearly denotes the difference between taking an action rather than reaction. The same needs to be done at time when people run into an instant rejection approach. Where PAUSE, THINK and to ACT is the right formula. More over here the technique that is to be used here with this is LAPAC.

What is LAPAC –

LAPAC stand for Listen, Acknowledge, Probe, Answer and Confirm. It is widely used by majority of the departments dealing with customer service and sales.

Listen – The first thing to do is listen instead of just to it hear and respond (or react) with a pre-practiced statement.

For instance when a sales person (tele caller) calls up a customer and ask for investments in stock market and the customer says him a ‘Not Interested’ many would directly ask the customer a question “Why is there some issue?” instead of which we have to wait and let customer complete his statement he might continue there by saying “I am not interested as already have a broker”. In such situations it can be easily tackled through offering better price than competitor.

Acknowledge – Acknowledging actually shows respect for other person and feelings. Wherein “I completely understand that you are not interested and that’s absolutely ok, as you don’t know in detail for what I have called you” makes a huge different. Here the point is not to agree with customer but to understand the on the part of the customer and acknowledging him.

Probe – it is very necessary to ask the right question in a right manner. First of all the probing should not contain too many interrogative questions. It should be done in a polite manner for instance “Me I know just one thing – what is stopping you from listening to the details of the product and then think whether it suits you or your requirements”. On this stage we can turn the rejection into opportunity.

Answer – On the basis of probing answering the invited objection and gabbing the opportunity would help. Most of the times the LAPAC cycle can be repeated again and again until the customer is satisfied.

Confirm – This is the last stage of LAPAC technique where the idea is to generate appointments by using close ended question.

The positive energy, Action instead of reaction and LAPAC together makes the best recipe for handling the biggest blockade of being 'not interested' and making it to the sale.