The Clarifying Question

My wife hates it when I talk to telephone sales people. She thinks I'm rude and she would rather that I just didn't answer the phone at all instead of being rude to the working stiff on the other end of the line.

But, I'm not rude. I'm giving the seller an opportunity to sell me without being a complete pushover. I am testing their skills so that I can write about what works and what doesn't and educate those sellers interested in learning about the trade. Rude? For goodness sakes, I'm doing the world of sales a favor!

So, anyway, we receive a call and the caller ID says it is from Duane Reade. I knew it was a solicitor because we had ignored this same call on a couple of other occasions. But, needing to do the world of sales a favor, I answered the call.

"Hi, is this Tim?"

"Yes, it is."

"Tim, my name is Joe from Golf Digest. How are you doing today?"

"Fine, Joe." (Sometimes I say, "Do you really care?" but my wife thinks that is rude and she might be right.)

"Good. The reason for the call is to make sure that you are receiving your Golf Digest and that you are happy with the magazine."

(Another version of the "I'm not really calling to sell you anything" approach. Potentially annoying. Does any reasonable person actually believe that an automatically dialed phone call is coming from the customer service department of a magazine? If you don't want people to be rude to you (which I wasn't, of course) perhaps you shouldn't assume they are stupid.)

"I am happy with the magazine."

"That's great! I'll tell you what we are going to do. We are going to upgrade your account to 'preferred' and offer you our best rate of $1.88 per issue for renewing. How does that sound?"

"No."

"Excuse me?"

"I said, no."

"You don't want to renew?"

"No."

"Alright then. You have a nice night."

With that, Joe was gone. But, he shouldn't have been gone. Joe got confused by my first 'No'. Mainly because it was out of context. He didn't ask me a yes/no question but got a 'No' anyway. He asked me, "How does that sound?" Naturally, he was expecting me to be excited about achieving 'preferred' status and to say that "it sounds good". When I said, 'No' I threw him off his script and he didn't know what to do.

So, Joe made a fatal mistake and he assumed that he knew what my 'No' meant. He offered me the reason I said 'No' by saying, "You don't want to renew?" He should never have done that because he has now made it really easy for me to agree with him that I don't want to renew.

When a customer throws you off by answering one of your questions in a way that doesn't make any sense, you must get clarification of what is going on! For all Joe knows, I could have been saying 'No' to one of my rude children asking me a question while I was on the phone. Criminy! Is his training so bad and his reliance on his script so rigid that he just collapses when the customer refuses to play along?

How 'bout you? Is your training that bad or your reliance on a script that rigid?

Here is what Joe should have done after my initial 'No'.

"Tim, you just said 'No' to a question that isn't really a yes/no question. Was that 'No' directed toward me or someone in the room with you?"

"That 'No' was directed towards you, Joe."

"Okay. I'm a little confused. You like the magazine. I just offered you our very best rate to renew and you said 'No'. Why would a person say 'No' to renewing at our very best rate if they are happy with the magazine?"

(If you are thinking that you would never have the courage to go this direction with the conversation then you must get out of sales immediately! This is a simple clarifying question that must be asked.)

"Simple, really, Joe. I ordered a one year subscription of the magazine and I have received two copies. That means that I have ten months left before I need to renew. I never renew subscriptions until the subscription is about to expire."

"I understand completely and it makes sense. Here's the deal, though. We will never be able to offer this rate again. So, by renewing early you will get the very best deal and you will be locking in the very best deal for as long as you want. Even though you have only been receiving the magazine for two months, you have already experienced our award winning columnists, stroke-saving tips and interviews with the world's best golfers and most influential golf course designers. As an avid golfer, I know you wouldn't want to give that up and as a smart business man you wouldn't want to pass up the savings being offered today. Would you prefer to extend your subscription for one, two or three years?"

When prospects throw you off, don't just give up! Fight back with clarifying questions!