Jordan Belfort in his book, The Way of the Wolf, (highly recommend this if you haven’t read it yet) talks about Straight Line Selling. As a salesperson, your goal is to go from intro to close as efficiently as possible, and everything you do or say is all about moving the deal further along that line. In theory, that sounds great. But in reality, deals rarely go the way you want them to.
What actually happens? Objections, detours, and roadblocks.
A great salesperson is able to navigate these and continue moving deals forward. But how? At CRE OneSource, we teach Looping.
When you hear an objection, whether on a phone call, Zoom call, or during an in-person meeting, most people’s instincts are to rebuttal or debate it. If your instinct is to jump in and correct or convince, you’re wrong. And if you do that, you’ll likely get some negative feedback in the form of frustration, anger, or just a deal dying.
Looping is the answer. You’ll know when you’re doing it correctly, because you’ll hear compliments, “thank you’s”, and your deals will actually move forward.
How do you loop?
Step 1: Receive, Don’t Rebut
Objections are not rejections. They’re data points telling you that trust isn’t at the level it needs to be yet, in either your product, your company, or you personally. Or potentially all three.
So when someone gives you an objection or brush-off, don’t debate it. Receive it. If you miss this step or if you do it wrong, the other party won’t feel heard. You’ll sense frustration because they aren’t feeling heard or valued.
Step 2: Add Some Meat & Potatoes
Once you’ve received the objection, it’s time to build trust and add value. This is an additional part of your sales pitch where you address fears, build trust and credibility, and further the deal. You’re not pushing, you’re painting a clearer picture.
The key here is to make it about them, not you.
Step 3: End With an Ask
Ok, you add value… and then hope the prospect circles back?
Don’t do all that good work and forget to close the loop. Ask. As Craig says, “Timid salespeople have skinny children.”
On a call, this looks like asking for the meeting. In a longer sales cycle, this looks like asking for an intro to the next decision maker or getting the next step on the calendar. Sometimes this is simply asking for the business. Vary your asks. Avoid sounding like a robot. But always end with one or you risk deals floating into the abyss. (Jordan Belfort calls this deals ‘going to Uranus’).
I tell our team all the time, stop looking at objections as roadblocks, and start looking at them as opportunities to increase trust and push the deal further towards close.
Charlie Coppola
