The following is an excerpt from my book  ESSENTIALS OF SETTING SALES APPOINTMENTS: How to gain access to top decision makers at your most desired future accounts (and your competition's best clients).

By Scott Channell

Sample best response to the "send me some info" objection is below. If your response is often "OK" you are an official wimp.

Responding to "send me some information."

This is probably the most common thing you will hear. Let me be blunt. If your response to "Send me some information" is "um OK", you are a wimp and you are dooming yourself to prospecting frustration. You're also wasting a lot of time and company resources. 

We know that most of the time when someone says "Send me some information," it is really a blow off. Rather than tell you to get lost, they mumble a request to send them something and for them the phone call is over. 

But (as you now know) if you let the caller control the call, you lose. Because then you will have doomed yourself to calling back… calling back… banging your head against the wall and getting frustrated because these people who asked for information (who you thought might be legitimately interested) don't return your calls. When, after 10 or 15 attempts, if you do get them back on the phone, almost always they at best vaguely remember you. If they did get something you sent they haven't read it or they can't remember receiving it all. Almost always, the end of the road is a "No."

If you get on this treadmill, it is your own fault... not the fault of the people you are targeting. Remember that your objective in prospecting is not just to set sales appointments, it is to re-shuffle the deck and sort your prospects in accordance with their potential value and worth. If you just say "ok" to the send-more-information-blow-off, you have received no information of value to your prospecting efforts. 

Not only that, even the people who are legitimately high-potential, high-value prospects are not given the opportunity to identify themselves to you. If you don't give those types of prospects the opportunity to identify themselves, you won't know who they are and you won't know who is worth more of your time.

The next time you get the send-more-information-blow-off, consider saying something like this: "You know, I don't send out general information. The corporate literature I might send you is only going to tell you what I just told you. We are a $90 million dollar company that's been in business 15 years supplying technology equipment like widgets and wadgets to companies such as United Intergalactic, Mega Corp and I B Sorry Corp. If there is some specific information that would be helpful to you, or if you happen to have a specific purchase coming up, I would be happy to put it together and send it out to you. Do you have anything specific in mind that I can help you with?" 

And at that point… you do the most difficult thing a salesperson ever has to do. You say nothing and wait for your prospect to speak.

If he/she can't come up with something specific, recognize that you have delivered your most powerful benefit laden credibility building message. If they don't respond with something specific so that you can properly prioritize them, you can with confidence go right into plan B and cut that target loose.

If prospects do come up with something specific, like "Well, … we are going to replace $500,000.00 worth of widgets in a month…" or "well, we are going to buy $1,200,000.00 worth of stuff next quarter. Why don't you send me some info on x y or z?" You’ll now know you have "a live one" and you have to do three things.

First, you have to really listen let them speak. Don't interrupt. When they are done, ask a couple of open-ended questions to clarify their request and allow them to give you more information abut their needs. And then, come back to your agenda.

Remember, we started out by saying that you never let your targets' agenda become your own agenda. They may be asking you for information, but you need a meeting. The odds of landing an account go up substantially when you get a face-to-face meeting.

So, when a target has told you he/she has a specific need or purchase coming up, it is even more important that you land a meeting. And remember: the most frequent reason people don't meet with us is that we don't give them enough reason to meet with us and we don't ask for a meeting. 

So, after listening to their request and then clarifying it with a couple of open ended questions, you then swing the conversation back to your agenda and say something like the following.

"You know, I could put together a lot of info that would be useful to you…right off the top of my head I can think of three companies in your industry that we've helped to select and install what you seem to be looking for. I don't know a lot of details about your company. But, you do have a few options to consider on this and there are a couple of things you want to avoid that could really cost you some money. Super Salesperson is our rep in your area and she has a lot of experience with this. If she had the opportunity to learn more specifics about your company, she could give you a lot of information that would be helpful to you and specific to your situation. It may or may not lead to a next step… either is fine. I could set up a meeting for you now. Would that be worth 30 minutes of your time?" 

Let's look at what you will have done. You will have given those companies that do have a specific need the opportunity to inform you of that need. And you will have leveraged that information into a tremendous benefit that they will receive if they agree to meet with you. They will get specific information on their particular needs from someone who is very knowledgeable. That is usually a pretty good reason for people to meet with you. 

If they say "yes," book it. If they say "no," tell them you will send out the info and ask when you should follow up.

The above is only part of the tips given to respond to "send some info." The book includes specific scripts and strategies to use when you hear "I'm all set", "Call me back", "We are not buying now", "I'll meet with you but call me in a month" and more. And that's only what is found in chapter 7 - "Responding To Resistance." Why not benefit from all the strategies now?

Get the book or the seminar-in-a-box.

Best wishes for prospecting success,
Scott Channell

copyright scott channell 2006

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