If you have been doing telephone prospecting for a while, you have probably used some variation of the thermometer close. It goes like this:
First, you establish a relationship with your prospect, then send them to your presentation (usually a video). At that time you set an appointment with your prospect for follow-up.
When you call back you ask your prospect how they felt about the presentation. Then ask, “On a scale of zero to ten, zero being you’re not interested at all and can never see yourself doing this business and ten being you’re super-excited and ready to start now, where do you rate yourself?”
If they rate themselves below a four, most people won’t bother and some won’t even bother with anything below a six. Of course if they rate a ten your response should be “Great, let’s get you started”.
Many will rate 6-8 and the next question most people ask is, “What would it take to get you to a ten?”. At that point your prospect will start telling you all of their objections.
Now try this instead (and it works really well with those who rate low, say three to six):
Ask, “Why didn’t you choose a lower number?”.
What will happen is your prospect will first start telling you all the thing they like about your business, and at the end add in, “Well if only….” (which of course is their blockage).
This puts your prospect in a positive mood instead of negative and will make it much easier to overcome their objections. Give it a try and feel free to comment with your results and thoughts.