When A Prospect Says... "No!" With Tom Hopkins

coming up on today's episode of the salesmen podcast the average person who's thinking of investing money in anything product or service they almost can't say yes and right to check until they do give us some type of No so no is not bad no is something we almost need to hear and then we have to follow the formula on how you then turn that no into hopefully a yes hello sales nation I'm will borrowed host of the salesman podcast the world's those listen to b2b sales show if you haven't already make sure to click Subscribe and with us let's meet today's guest hi I'm Tom Hopkins I teach sales pros to become sales champions and you can find me at Tom Hopkins calm on this episode the show with the legend a complete legend that is Tom Hopkins we're diving into what to do when a customer turns round to you and says no first off you shouldn't panic because tom shares for ways for statements you can turn that around into a potential yes and a whole lot more so let's jump right in when abaya says no to b2b sales professional is that's the the end points is at the end of the conversation is at the end of the game or is this the beginning of the next step of it well first of all will the subject that we're talking about what to do when they say no I'm gonna have to teach the ideas in somewhat generalities because there's not any concrete one thing or thing you do so I'm going to be giving them our viewers a lot of ideas and I think if they take some notes and they practice it as we always suggest they can learn how to turn these awful two letter word nose into the nice three letter word called yes and close the transaction and get to check yay so that's kind of what my goal is in our short time on our program so the first thing I have to say too is the average person of course again a generality the average person who's thinking of investing money in anything product or service they almost can't say yes and write to check until they do give us some type of no so no is not bad know is something we almost need to hear and then we have to follow the formula the fundamentals that I'll cover on how you then turn that no into hopefully a yes and that's kind of our our goal I think in our program is to give as you all as you always know I want to give them proven fundamentals when we wrote this last my 20th book when buyers say no we spent so much time analyzing people in the field of sales so they would give us a lot of input and of course my 8 years in real estate I had lots of nose but I learned formulas fundamentals to turn those into yeses which we'll be covering in our program today which I'm pumped about by the way good well we'll definitely get into the the formula the fundamentals the system in a second but one thing here Tom that you you said that can't letters kind of gloss over because it seems counterintuitive why most people say yes or give some kind of resistance before they're able to sorry why do people need to say no give some kind of resistance before they're able to say well because that seems crazy there's really seven reasons why they have to say no and and I can cover a few of these but lingering questions the buyer hasn't had all their questions answered and because of that there no is just kind of a lingering and slowing it down or number two it could be what we call inadequate explanation of benefits meaning you haven't really let the buyer know all the positives and benefits in your presentation and thus they don't feel they've had enough information a third reason is they need additional discovery which means in essence you may need to take them further into the benefits further into asking them more questions and as you know that has been my whole bottom line foundation of what I teach is not talking and telling but asking and listening which a nut is another thing you do the fourth reason is what we call miss qualification meaning we haven't followed the six steps of qualification so we may have to go back to that and then of course the the fifth reason is what we call unrevealed questions or objections meaning they haven't given you the real reason they're holding back or stalling and of course number six it could be timing the time may not be right for them to say yes and number seven I hope this is never the one but number seven is basically no not you and no one can make everyone happy we'll I mean I know I had more home sales than anyone in the United States ever but I did have people I could not close the transaction I had people say no I had people that literally were not either ready and I was very young while I was in real estate starting at 19 to 27 and you know when you're 20 or 21 year old and a 60 year old couple comes in looking for property right away there's this cautious kid is too young but I overcame that because I really studied and had a lot of knowledge and I want to say that to the average consumer in the world not just the United States Canada Malaysia Singapore or ever there's free enterprise the average consumer is more knowledgeable than ever before in other words they have access to information they can get on the internet they can get on Zillow they can do research and walk into a company looking for a product or service and they're very knowledgeable so I think in essence bottom line the pros and selling today have to be more knowledgeable more fundamentally sound than we had to be back in my day and I throw that out because consumers have access to so much information and a lot of them are very smart sometimes smarter than the salesperson and that's not good so you've got to be on your toes like never before it seems like and tell me if I'm wrong here Tom that's six out of those seven barriers or reasons why people say no are within our control other than the timing elements which perhaps we can influence and we can help people realize that the timing might not be or may be correct but with that said when someone says no from from that reference point is it our fault is it something that we should take responsibility for no I don't really think so if you have a good presentation if your presentation is fundamentally sound if you've qualified as to the benefits they want to own if you've asked a lot of questions and been an eloquent listener and you've established a rapport with these people to where they like you and trust you they feel good about you and of course these are all the little things that I've tried my best to teach in this wonderful field of selling and as you and I both know selling is basically the foundation of not only free enterprise capitalism but most of the companies in our country that are successful it's because some person went out put their eagle on the line picked up a telephone made a call went in maybe handle areas of concern and had a couple formulas to take - no into the yes and that's that's something I want the folks to be aware of that if they're hit with an O there are basically four what we call turnaround statements now a turnaround statement is something you say to get the right to give your point of view and I'll give you these the words I understand how you feel and then the word however is a real wonderful way to get them to open up to to listen to you or I can appreciate your feelings however see another great one or I couldn't agree with you more however and my favorite will which I have taught thousands of times is when someone says no you smile and say obviously you have a reason for saying that would you mind sharing it with me and that little sentence gets them to share open up tell you why they're holding back and so those are the four turnaround statements which give you the right to now get to your side of the process and again I've tried my best not only in this new book but in my whole training to let folks know that if you do a good job in every part of the sales process it may happen so good that they have to slow it down and that's one reason why you're gonna get hit with some nose but I never minded the nose in fact one calendar and and this again is a generality as I mentioned that there are some people that have to say the no and in saying so it's kind of almost like saying you know we're close to saying yes but give us a little more help and of course there are the buyers that will definitely say Tom that nothing you can say is going to convince us to invest in this product or service we just have to say no well we'll believe it or not because of that I wrote a closed that's called the no closed and it's a closing technique that is used when they just have to say no you use this closed and you know it's kind of like saying you know John the word know has two letters and O and they're also the first two letters in the words nothing meaning if you do say no when we can't get to yes nothing will happen and things will be about the same as they are today you'll still have the the negative debt challenges you'll still have this high interest rate you'll have this but if you say yes we can eliminate that so based on this truth it just makes sense to not say no but to say yes don't you agree in that a beautiful close is the barrier here knowing what to say or is it or is it being assertive enough having the the cojones to when someone turns around at you and says no to be able to say however is is that the barrier of self-confidence in the certain astute to put this across sure and as you and I talked to last time if the foundation is set properly in the relationship with this person where you've brought down defense barriers with the way you've come across there's a good feeling with them if all that has happened you now have a good foundation in the relationship and so here again when they say no and you say that sentence you know John obviously you have a reason for saying that would you mind sharing it with me now we get underneath the words of no to the real hidden fear or reason that they're giving you the no and that's that major step of getting that note to become a yes does it work every time I wish I could say yes but it really increases your percentage of closing transactions especially I've said this with you before will if you really know what they're gonna say and have really rehearsed what you're gonna say properly it's called learning your scripts your presentation learning if they say I don't want to think it over you say yeah I want to think it over close which is 73 words if they say it cost too much you smile and say 14 words today most things do can you tell me about how much too much you feel it is now with 14 words I've got an amount of money it's too much so in a way the money no I've turned into a yes by those 14 words and that's really I I believe that the people right now viewing us if they do make a living helping people say yes then they have to realize that they've got to be a master at knowing what they say and learning what to say and I would have to say am i darned fifty hours of how-to training that's been one of the main goals is to let's show a person what you saying you say it because if you're in the word business and many years ago will I I don't think I shared this with you but a guy came up on the stage and I was autographing some books and he walks up and I looked up and he says Tom you know I've been figuring out what you really are and I said really what's that he said you are a word Smith and I kind of shook my head I thought word Smith he goes well yes a black Smith takes a piece of steel and makes a horseshoe with heat you take the words they say and wordsmith them back in a way that you turn those into yeses and of course I said that's very gracious and kind and I am NOT gonna forget it because I'm proud to be a wordsmith because we're all in the word business and how you say it and what you saying when you say it determines how many nose we turn into yeses is the goal at this time if we were if we were visualizing this and this would be hopefully useful for the people listening to the show rather than watching it is the goal to if we had a diagram to keep plodding along and try and convert a note of yes or is it to remove all of the nose so then the default becomes yes if everything is done properly before you a make an attempt to get to yes then there oftentimes won't be the know cuz you handled it before you got to that point and I remember so vividly and of course as you know my eight years of full-time selling was in the real estate business and after my fourth year when I had a wonderful year I thought I'm gonna write my first book and I'm gonna really try my best to make it a book of words and phrases so that a new salesperson because god blessed many salespeople they go to work for a company will and the company's many in the world today show my desk and a phone and say lot's of luck pal you're on your own and that's such a shame because the average person in the sales field needs to have training needs to have some cheston's and hopefully has a manager that will give them access to how-to provable training and of course my area of expertise is the phraseology and what you say to people when they say what they say because when you know what they're gonna say and you say the right words you will again turn nose into yeses and have what we call high closing the sale percentage which means you'll have seven out of ten say yes where the average person in that field might have three out of ten all because of the way you come across the words you say the emotions you build and how they feel about you as a person not just a sales person so you've said it a few times tom so I want to double down on this don't across over it of and we should know what they're gonna say I'll have a good gist of it how do we enable that is this a case of recording our calls and going back over them and finding the point at which they say no and using a tally chart if nothing else just document well they use this objection this objection this objection and then we break through is there a more sophisticated way of doing this or is that the simplest and best way to prepare understanding that can be a wonderful way when I was getting into sales and not doing real well in the beginning I was young a man told me that I should had this is back when we had cassette players and you know he said hey get permission nicely from people to record what you're talking about making them know their have access if they like it too but then you do have a chance to listen to what you're saying and how you're saying it that has been my goal and dream to help these people that are in the field of sales have the right thing to say when they say what they say and if you do that in practice that's another challenge to I think will many people in sales want to kind of wing it they want to just say whatever comes out instead of saying I'm gonna rehearse line sentences and when they say it cost too much I'll have my fork teen words they want to think it over I've got my 73 words and of course there's nothing wrong with that I mean you show me a good movie and I'll show you people that make millions of dollars and not one of those actors or actresses is winging the script they have taken that script they've practiced it they've rehearsed it they've had the I went when I first did my first video training system I went to Hollywood California and the place I was filming they were filming a movie and here on the stage as I look out at the stage are these men and women I know they make millions a year and they're in their jeans and cut-offs they're walking around with a book a script and they're they're reading the darn thing then of course the next day they show up in there cost you is beautiful they then read the script set the script down deliver the lines and it's verbatim they aren't winging it they don't skip a word but that's why they're pros and if you watch a great movie you'll see maybe a soliloquy where a person will do two three four minutes of script and phraseology and it is not only beautiful it's emotional but as getting the job done as to what the producer or director of the film wants the viewer to experience does that make sense it makes total sense you used the word professional then which is what I was going to ask you Tom are there any other things we'll come back on to get them past no and change you know into just a second but whereas you've kind of touched on this subject are there any other things that a sales Pro does over the rehearsing that perhaps a sales hack doesn't well there again the sales Pro realizes that over the years I'll guarantee if you record it every time you talk to someone either on the phone or in the person when they come to your office or when you knock on their door or you're out canvassing they'll all start saying pretty much the same thing and that's why I've tried to make it my goal is to in essence be a producer director like a movie where people can say I don't need to learn the hard way Tom knows what they're gonna say and here's what he says to say and I'm gonna rehearse it I have had people that have become top income earners in their field some making over a million dollars of income a year who have said to me the hours they spend recording and then rehearsing practicing drilling rehearsing and that's true of all pros many years ago when I was lived in California I belonged to a golf course in California before I moved my company to Phoenix and Tiger Woods was a young player just getting started there well he would come out and of course we would all go to the practice tee we'll hit maybe 10 or 20 balls and run to the first tee I watched Tiger Woods stand five and a half hours with just a 9-iron one club five and a half hours hitting balls well of course he became that next few years number one in the world and the reason is I think he spent more time practicing than the average person on the tee and fact I have one thing happened to a month later I walked out to the practice tee and there's a gentleman standing there he and I alone I said I'm Tom Hopkins I'm a new member here and he goes well I'm Johnny Mathis and I said Johnny Mathis the singer which I had he had a hat in his glasses on I didn't recognize him but I said to Johnny Mathis I said your songs have been so good in my life especially then I was single and dating blah blah blah but he was in another example and as we got to know each other I said how many times do you sing a song before you actually record it and it's ready to be released he says I have done 20 to 30 50 takes until it sounds the way we all sit around hear it that goes into the ear the mind and the emotions oceans of the people we want to hear our music so I thought isn't it amazing a sulli golfer singer musicians they play and play and sing and sing a hit golf ball after golf ball because they want to hone their skills and of course here's another truth practice doesn't make perfect as many of our parents taught us never practice makes perfect no only perfect practice makes perfect meaning you've got a practice saying and doing the right thing if you're gonna get the right result which has our whole discussion has been getting the yes getting the check the money having them say thank you and that's a highlight I can't tell you how many times I had buyers walk in to see property homes and they had this defense up we're not in any hurry we're just looking blah blah blah blah we spend three or four hours together looking at properties establishing rapport having fun having maybe a bite of lunch well they were ready at that point to say yes because we had a relationship they liked me they trust me and they wanted to let me help them and I can't tell you how gratifying it is when you take a person who tells you they want to say no or they're in no hurry and then three hours later they're writing a check to you for your product or service and then they stand up when you're done and they say Tom thank you thank you so much we weren't sure this would happen today but I can tell my wife is thrilled and I'm thrilled and well just thank you oh boy what a great thing to have happen they gave you their money invested in the product and they thank you when that happens you're doing a lot right much more than doing it wrong for sure for sure two things here tom one a must must be a sight to behold a young Tom Hopkins single in an amazing shirt like that hit in the town that is as I'm sure you've got some tales for another caster and overtime mate to this this is a question I've asked other people on the show so the audience will be familiar with this question I trained a martial art Co Brazilian jiu-jitsu a trained three times a week and then I compete to roll on it on a Saturday as well for him for a couple of hours and it struck me that I probably do it's actually a hobby right I probably do this hobby four more hours a week training it and practice it the most sales professionals train and practice in you know their livelihood so with that kind of context Tom how many hours a week should it be to be sales professional who really wants to up their game how many hours a week do they need to be investing into the craft their skill set to really make a difference and to become new to me the leap from from hack who's just bragging it all to a professional who knows what they're doing well I think that the first thing they should do is always try to do two things at once now think about that we all have 86,400 seconds in a day no one has anymore no one has any less but a pro is saying I'm gonna try to do two things at once now as silly as this sounds when you walk into the shower to take a shower in the morning you don't need to think about what you're doing it's a total reflux so if you did have some type of even the back then what's cassettes for me but if you have a nice CD player and you have a training session one CD put it in while you're showering and listen to it for that five or ten minutes and then of course turn your car into a classroom one thing about driving is after 90 days of driving you don't think anymore you are you break and put on the gas with a total reflux and so anything you do with total reflux put something knowledge into your mind as well and that's what I call doing two things at once when I started of course cassettes we had the cassette players in our car and now today they'll CDs there's so much good you know Amazon's got a library of materials on CD that you can get and there's a lot of instructors as you know out there and you know I've always people have asked me Tom who changed your life and I say well I had one man J Douglas Edwards who back when I was 19 just starting in real estate I went and spent the last 150 bucks I had in the bank and this is many years ago but I went to see him for three days and it was the toughest three-day experience I ever had will I'd stayed up all night studying to try to win this little trophy and believe it or not that was the start and then of course I wanted to know how to keep my attitude so I found another man Earl Nightingale who had a record now this is back in the late 30s he had a record called a strangest secret all the records were before the cassettes but I listened to that record the strangest secret by Errol Nightingale hundreds of times and then of course I became friends with dr. norman vincent peale who wrote that wonderful book Think and Grow Rich which you can pick Think and Grow Rich up and I don't care if you've read it 20 times you'll pick out sentences you didn't highlight that you missed because it's just so loaded with meat and so you can judge oh this is a great sentence okay everybody you can judge a pro by what they learn after they know it all say it again Tom because I need that's a kind of floats in my mind for a second okay you can judge a pro by what they learn after they know it all and I that really is so true I never stopped going to seminars I was a seminar junkie and and if ever you do go to a seminar make sure you make notes highlight the three key points that a speaker says then internalize them and make them yours and that of course I think is what we all need to do not only in sales but in life we need to find mentors I was on wonderful talk show the other day and the man said to me kind of like we're talking but he said what's one very important idea that you can give with our listeners and I said find out who's the best person in your company that you're working for then copy what they do and say and make them or ask them to be mentors because one thing I learned over the years will is the people that are most successful they also are gracious they're nice they love to help others they'll reach down and grab a person who's new and say come on let me help you get up to the top and I was that way when I became a manager of an office I had 18 salespeople and I would take the new ones out I would act like a man I'm gonna just have a trainee come with us and I would have them record me get permission and didn't say now I'm gonna just say what I say showing a home and make a recording of it and then you just copy it practice drill rehearse it and all of a sudden will become you and of course I get letters today where they go Tom my wife says I sound just like you that's okay so I'm gonna I'm gonna bring things back to the original topic cuz because always we're gonna be talking for seven hours there mate because you talk just as much as what I do which is great it makes it very easy makes very easy to interview you but it's bring things back and we'll wrap up the show with this Tom how what was the cadence for breaking through from a notary yes is this something that we go we get one no we we try and back it up with you know data with the seven the four can turn around you mentioned bit earlier on and then we give up or is this something that we have to do two or three times or is this something that we do seventy-nine times and we end up best friends with this individual what's the kind of sweet spot here of number of attempts to break through a know before we go right it's probably just not the right time for them well here's a couple ideas first of all often times you'll get an O in the very beginning and and you know I had a woman right in the first two minutes say you know mr. Hopkins my husband brought me out to look at homes but I have to tell you that we don't have an awful lot of money we're thinking of renting and so right there that's an objection right in the beginning so what I want to do is not handle it say Mary I'm thrilled you've come in and I'd love to take you out get to know you folks better we have creative financing with a possibility that we might take care of some of the money but let's let's not hold back on that you've come in I love helping people find property as they love so let's just talk about the money later would that be okay now what I just did will is called bypassing or shelving the know when it comes in the very beginning you you bypass it or you shelve it I asked her in a way to just wait now here we come back to foundation rapport having her like and trust me having her open her mind to hey this man really cares about us he's not in there to just make money which I I've always believed serve and you will sell you'll sell well when you serve I've tried as you know to have people look at that darn dollar sign which is an S with two lines through it make it the word the S and the word service and if you'll serve more you'll earn more and of course that's what I tried to always do I had people say Tom we've had three other real estate people look show homes to us but I can honestly say the reason we're gonna stay with you is you really care you really have given more and I love that old saying no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care and so the caring and serving will has always been the foundation and we're approaching almost 5 million people who've been wonderful to come and see our seminar and I totally believe the reason is because other people said Tom is gonna give you how to usable stuff to make more money with which I believe that's the obligation of a teacher you educate them you motivate them and then you have a lot of fun so would it be fair to say Tom I'll wrap up with this mate that we should keep trying to convert a note of yes until we reach a point where we know that we're not going to be able to serve them that should be the end points for the engagement interaction they're not the relationship necessarily but the relationship in that moment of time well yes but you might try one more thing it's called a lost sale close meaning he says Tom nothing you can say will get us to say yes we have to say no well then of course I might stand up and say well listen it's sure been nice and I've enjoyed being with you today and but can I ask you a favor what did I do or say wrong that maybe it's causing you to have to say no is it maybe the quality of the service you'll feel I give is it maybe something I forgot to cover please level with me could it be the money well hopefully they say you know Tom I think it is just more than we want to spend well I can appreciate that John give me a feel about how much too much do you feel it might be because I'd love to find a way for you to say yes and be happy that I served you with this wonderful opportunity so there again it's coming across a certain way and and again it's all you know I've been I guess saying these words in these phraseology x' for so many dar almost I won't tell you how many years but it's all kind of become a natural part of me and you know good on you mate that you also realize that we have to share these concepts with others to have them be more successful in their lives for sure off sure that makes total sense I appreciate that Tom and I've got one final question asked you a version of this question last time we spoke I'm gonna twist it around slightly in this instance so Tom if you could go back in time and speak to your younger self and you could have you could change something in one of your books you could either remove it you could add something in you could rip it apart you could start from scratch what be that one thing that you'd want to change in you know the 20 plus books that you've got published oh boy that's not even a fair question I I would say the one thing is I I think I put too much for people to learn in my very first book how to mask the art of selling I mean it's 320 pages and every page it's got phraseology and stuff and I think if I had to change anything I would have made that two books not one because I overwhelmed the people will and I think we that'll love what we do can be overwhelming so if I had to change anything I'd simplify what I started to make it easier for people to digest and ingest and that's been probably one of the main changes I had to make two books out of the first book instead of one book nice well we've covered a lot of ground to this one Tom he tells a little bit more about the book when buyers say no where we can find out all the other books and everything else that you've got going on as well well they can go to my website Tom Hopkins dot-com that'll tell them all the information and of course Amazon is marketing all my books and so they can go there but and of course if someone does get a book and they will send it to my office in Scottsdale Arizona I'll be more than happy to autograph it and send it back so I mean that that's always nice when the author can do that but I so hope to folks that have joined us today realize that both you and I burn with a belief and not only serving but what we do and I can tell you want people to have a better life for the time the experience listening and viewing and watching and hearing what you've been teaching all these years so I salute you will and it's great to have the relationship and let's let's do it again I appreciate that tell them you complete legend I'll link to all the books everything else that we've talked about in this episode in the show notes over at sales man.org over that Tom it's been an absolute pleasure as always and all thank you for joining me again on the cell Podcast alright all the best my friend will [Music]

Channel: Salesman.org

Views: 13,727

Rating: 4.9148936 out of 5

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Id: OFNyQUXDlL4

Length: 39min 11sec (2351 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 03 2020