You will be able to respond to the three most common brush-offs with one calm question.
You get through your opener cleanly. Name, permission, reason, question. And the buyer says, "Sorry, I'm really busy right now." Your mind goes blank, and you hear yourself say "Oh, okay, no problem, sorry to bother you," and the call is over.
That reply is normal, and it throws away the work you did on the opener. A brush-off in the first minute is rarely a considered no. It is a reflex, the same one you use when a stranger stops you in the street. This lesson gives you a calm, short reply to each of the three you will hear most, so the reflex does not end the call by itself.
All three replies below follow the same shape. First, accept what they said. Do not argue with it or pretend you did not hear it. Then ask one short question that gives them an easy way to keep talking, or an easy way to fix a better time.
What you are not doing is giving a speech. A brush-off followed by a minute of reasons why they should listen confirms everything the buyer feared about cold calls. One question keeps the decision in their hands, which is where it was always going to be.
Often true. Accept it and offer a specific later time, with a choice. "Of course. Would later this afternoon or tomorrow morning be better for five minutes?"
A specific choice is easier to answer than "When's a good time?", which makes the buyer think, and thinking is effort they will avoid by saying "I'll call you." Two options also turn the question from whether to talk into when.
Then keep the promise exactly. If they say tomorrow at ten, call at ten, not ten fifteen, and keep it to the five minutes you asked for. People notice a caller who does what they said. Mei, the bookkeeper, has found that a call kept on time is often warmer than the first one, because she has already shown she respects the buyer's diary.
Sometimes this means "I'm interested but can't talk now." More often it means "Please go away politely." You cannot tell which, so agree, then ask one question that makes the email worth reading. "Happy to. So I send something useful rather than a brochure, can I ask how you handle month-end at the moment?"
If they answer, you are back in a conversation, and the email you send afterwards can refer to what they said. If they do not, you have lost nothing, and you send a short email about their situation as you understand it. Either way, the email now has a reason to exist. Lesson 4.1, Anatomy of a cold email that gets a reply, covers how to write it.
This one is good news in disguise. It tells you they see the problem as real enough to pay for. Do not criticise their current provider, and do not ask them to switch. Acknowledge it and ask what they would change. "That makes sense, most groups your size do. If you could change one thing about how it works now, what would it be?"
Many people have a small frustration with a current supplier that they have never said out loud. Your question gives them permission to say it. Darren, the adviser, hears "I already have an agent" often. When he asks what they would change, the answer is frequently that the agent has not been in touch for years. That is not a reason to sell anything yet. It is a reason to offer a second opinion when it suits them.
If they say they would change nothing, believe them. Thank them, ask if you may check back in some months, and end the call on a friendly note.
If a buyer says no twice, thank them and end the call. Not a third question, not a final "just quickly". Something like: "Thanks for your time, I won't keep you. All the best with the new outlet."
A third push rarely turns a no into a yes. What it does reliably is turn a neutral contact into someone who remembers you as the caller who would not let go. That person will not answer next time, will not take your email seriously, and may mention it to others in a small industry where people talk. Ending well keeps the door open for when their situation changes, perhaps after one of the triggers from lesson 1.3.
If the buyer asks you not to contact them again, note it straight away and stick to it. Lesson 5.2 covers how to record that.
These replies only work if they come out naturally under mild pressure. Reading them is not enough. You need to have said them aloud enough times that you do not reach for them, they just arrive.
The activity below asks you to write your own one-line reply to each brush-off, each ending in a question, and practise with a partner who throws them at you in random order. Random order matters, because real buyers do not warn you which one is coming.
Write a one-line response to each of the three brush-offs, each ending in a question, and practise them with a partner who throws them at random.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).