Negative Reverse Selling

Salespeople get told  “no” every day by prospects.

Objections, going dark or ghosting are prospects trying to avoid telling you they don’t want your product/service.

How to Know Prospects Want to Say No

You want to quickly hear “no” in sales so you can move on.

Or prospects will waste your time for weeks or months without giving a real answer.

These are usually when prospects tell you:

• If you can call them back
• To email them and they’ll get back to you
• To call them back next week
• Cancelling then telling you they will get back to you with a better time

When you hear these phrases you know prospects aren’t interested so don’t live in hope and keep calling.

This can also happen after giving presentations.

What you want to hear is that they’re not interested right now, but instead you’ll hear:

• They will think about it and get back to you
• They will follow up in two weeks
• It’s pricey but could work

So when you hear these phrases, try Negative Reverse Selling.

Negative Reverse Selling

Negative Reverse Selling is used in situations when prospects won’t say no.

This technique might come across as rude, so use it selectively and only when you can positively close deals.

Reverse Selling

Reverse Selling is responding to a prospect’s question with a question.

This is done three times by sales, to understand prospect’s motivations or needs better.

For example, if a prospect asks for a discount, the rep asks what price they have in mind.

This highlights the prospect’s lack of interest and gets them to say “No” without being negative.

So try the following formula:

When prospects aren’t interested but don’t say “no”.

As a salesperson, tell them, when you typically hear someone say that, it really means they aren’t interested or it really means no.

Then ask them, if it’s fair to assume that?

Because saying “Is it fair for me to assume that’s the case?” prospects will likely give an honest answer if they’re interested in the product.

How?

If a demo is scheduled for a prospect, but they cancel, telling you they’ll talk it over and get back to you.

Respond by telling them, you were supposed to meet for a demo and when this normally happens it means you’re not interested in the product.

Then ask, if it’s fair to assume that, or if they really need to talk it over?

Finally the prospect might respond, telling you that the product is out of their budget.

So pushing back on the prospects initial response and asking for a specific answer, leads to an honest answer about their budget.

From there, you can agree to get back to them in six months or when they have more of a budget.

This helps you move on to other deals and the prospects don’t have to worry about you calling back.

How to Handle Negative Responses

With this approach, some prospects will get angry but still won’t tell you no, like the following example:

The prospect tells you they’re heading into a meeting and to call next week.

You respond by telling them you’ve tried to connect a few times and when this typically happens, it means it’s a low priority for them at the moment.

Then after asking if it’s fair to assume that?

The prospect responds by telling you if you don’t want to talk to them, then they don’t want to do business with you.

As salespeople, you should respond by first apologising, then explain, you do want to talk but feel you’re being annoying with all the voicemails and missed calls.

Then tell them, you’d hate to keep bothering them if it isn’t necessary and they should reach out at a better time.

Doing so keeps the conversation positive and around the prospect’s well-being.

Remember to never turn the conversation into accusations and arguments.

But instead you’re being constructive and putting the negativity on yourself, not the prospect. 

It’s important to stay professional and speak to prospects better than other salespeople do.

Continuing from the conversation above, leave the prospect your contact information and tell them you’d love to have a conversation when it’s a priority for them.

This way, you’re not wasting time calling and hoping the prospect will become interested.

Conclusion

The result of this approach gets more prospects to admit they have no interest instead of giving you the runaround.

But it’s very important to use it delicately, not to be used on all prospects or one you should build into your sales strategy.

And only used when nothing else works and prospects are leaving you hoping they will be interested.

Pick one situation where prospects cancel, push it back and cancel again, to use the negative reverse approach and get comfortable using it.

Then eventually you’ll be using it whenever you get “maybe” answers to turn a “maybe” into “Yes” or “No”.