It is one of the most powerful techniques
Countering is when you answer a question with another question
It’s a human instinct to immediately answer a question when someone asks you one
The idea is to get the point why they are asking so you get to the pain they care about
Example:
• Customer asks “How much it is?”
• “Oh it’s only $5,000 per month”
• “Sorry but that’s just totally out of my budget. Bye!”
• “…We can lower the price..” But it’s already over
Countering Key Notes:
• Collect as much information as possible to discover the prospects’ pain
• Allows you to understand the intent behind the question (no mind reading!)
• If you’re not sure why someone asks a question, ask them
• Countering allows the salesperson to be in control
• Usually takes three or more counters to get to the real issue
Example Counters Question
• How important is that to you?
• Is that a big concern?
• If we can help you, what would be the next step?
• It seems this is really important to you, can you explain why?
• And what would you like me to do?
• When you say you’re not satisfied with our service, what do you exactly mean by that?
SOFTENING STATEMENTS
A softening statement is a statement you say before you counter to make the counter less harsh
Softening Statement Examples
• That’s a good point.
• That makes sense.
• I’m glad you asked that.
• I appreciate your question.
• I understand.
• I hear a lot of people say that.
Softening Statement Combined with Counters
• That’s a good question. Can you explain why this is important to you?
• That makes sense. And why is this so important to you?
• I’m glad you asked that. Let’s say we can deliver this to you in 2 weeks, what would be the next step from here?
• I appreciate your question. If you were me, what would you do?
• I understand. If we could do that for you, what would be the next step?
Question asked by Prospect Example Counters
| Q: | A: |
|---|---|
| • Your too expensive. Can you do better? | • I’m not sure. Let’s say I can’t. What happens next? |
| • I really like you and what you have to offer, but we really need to get this done fast. | • I hear you. Let’s say we could meet your deadline, what would the next steps be? |
| • Does your product do XYZ? | • It does. Quick question, how are you handling that right now? |
| • I’m really dissatisfied with your service. | • I appreciate you telling me that. Now when you say unhappy, what exactly do you mean? |
INTRO TO NEGATIVE COUNTERING
• Most novice sales people try to close too soon
• ABC of always be closing is dead.
• Imagine if you’re a guy and you meet a girl and she says she likes you. If you say, hey do you want to get married and have kids might totally freak her out.
• To stand out, you must do the opposite of what the prospect expects. When others zig you zag.
Negative Countering is behaving
opposite to what people expect
Handling a Positive Prospect
| Prospect | Your Response |
|---|---|
| I’ll buy it right now! How fast can you get this to me? | Hey I’m not sure we’ll be able to deliver this so quickly. What’s your time frame. |
| I’ve been looking for something like this for a long time. It looks amazing! | I’m honestly a bit surprised. I didn’t think we were there yet. How did you get to that conclusion? |
Handling a Neutral Prospect
| Prospect | Your Response |
|---|---|
| • Let me think about this. | Sounds like we might have missed something |
| I’m not sure if this is what we’re looking for. | Seems like we’re both wasting our time here, huh? |
Handling a Negative Prospect
| Prospect | Your Response |
|---|---|
| We already have a distributor. | I’m sure they do a great job and you probably would never consider another distributor. |
| We’ve had a terrible experience with you and your company! | Looks like there’s nothing we can do to get you to love us again. I guess we’re both wasting our time here. |
Always go negative. Let the prospect close themselves.
You’ll know when its closed when they tell you