Handling Stalls

If you’ve spent any time selling, you’ve heard prospects say, “I’d like to think it over.” It’s a basic reality of sales. Prospects don’t lie awake at night thinking about your proposal. And many of them want to stall decisions as long as possible.

Why do prospects stall? According to D Forbes Ley, author of The Best Seller (Sales Success Press, 1990), stalls occur because salespeople haven’t given prospects enough good reasons to buy now. Ley says buyers have a conflict between their desire to have your product and their feelings of uncertainty and anxiety. Only when the desire to have your product or service is great enough will they buy.

To find out how the selling professionals on the front lines deal with the stalling customer, Selling Power interviewed Steven Glawitsch, sales manager of Northland Porsche, in Cincinnati, OH, and Alisa Valentim, account executive at WSIX in Nashville, TN.

Glawitsch says salespeople should realize that there are going to be objections, assume there will be give and take in the sales scenario, and prepare for objections and stalls by developing tactics to handle each one.

“Preparation is the key to handling a stall,” says Glawitsch. “The well-prepared salesperson has to anticipate sales stumbling blocks and anticipate the steps needed to make closing an easier task. I find that the most successful salespeople are the ones that are prepared; they know how to think on their feet and counterpunch. That’s what makes it work.

“The first thing a salesperson needs to do is truly qualify the prospect,” he says. “Ask questions to categorize needs. Find out if the customers actually feel they can buy the product and who the decision maker is.

“Determine if it’s a true stall or a delay,” says Glawitsch. “An example of a stall is when a prospect says, ‘My wife has to choose the color.’ The salesperson should then put things in perspective by saying something like, ‘Mr. Jones, if we can get through the selection process to a point where your wife just has to come in, choose the color and put her blessings on the deal, are you going to buy the car?’ On the other hand, a delay occurs when the prospect says he can’t buy today because his funds won’t be available for 14 days. A well-trained salesperson should assume the sale and go for the close right then. The prospect is basically saying he’s bought the car, but he simply doesn’t have his money yet.”

WSIX’s Valentim feels that the best way to eliminate a stall is to establish, at the very beginning, the value of each party’s time and uncover the real reasons for hesitation.

“I establish an atmosphere of professionalism and respect from the get-go. I tell prospects that their time is valuable, and so is mine,” says Valentim. “If they start hemming and hawing, I dig to find out exactly what is making them uncomfortable and what I need to do to get them off the fence.”

“Salespeople should do a needs analysis on every prospect,” she says, “and listen. The longer you let people talk, the more you learn about their business, what their needs are and what they’re trying to accomplish.”

“If prospects are stalling, I’ll just lay things out on the table and rib them a little and say something like, ‘OK, are you going to buy or not buy?'” says Valentim. “I need to know what the problem is and what I can do to make him feel more comfortable doing business with us.

“Offering suggestions can sometimes help move stalling customers,” she says. “I make suggestions as to how prospects can improve their business or solve a problem, even if it’s not related to advertising or marketing. It demonstrates that I care about their success regardless of whether I get any business right away or not.”

Valentim believes that salespeople shouldn’t be afraid to walk away if prospects are obviously stalling.

“If it goes on too long, just walk,” she says. “If you’ve done your homework, put everything out on the table and offered real benefits and customers are obviously stalling, tell them to call you when they’re ready and move on to bigger and better prospects.”