Are You Fooled by the Chaff?
It’s called “chaff,” and it is emitted from a fighter plane as a radar countermeasure. Essentially, chaff serves to distract and confuse a radar-guided missile from hitting its intended target.
Your sales questions target what you need to know to help a customer accomplish their goals. Your customer has been trained (in countless sales situations) to release “chaff” in the form of distractions to the process. How you respond to these distractions will determine your success.
Chaff-like comments from a customer might include:
- “I’m just looking.”
- “I want to shop around and get the best price.”
- “I’ll know it when I see it.”
- “I want to think about it.”
- “I need to talk it over with…”
Think about each of those statements. More importantly, think about how you respond to them. You cannot solve a customer’s problem if you give up at the first sign of a deflection.
Your “Auto-Response”
Take a second look at the list of “chaff” statements above. What are the chances that you will hear one (or all) of those statements in the next day (or, for some of you, in the next hour)? Pretty darn high, yes?
If you know you will hear those very words in the very near future, why not prepare an “auto-response”—a trained technique for receiving that statement and quickly turning it around. The key is to rehearse your response to those statements so thoroughly that you don’t have to think about your comeback in the moment. Your decision about chaff statements will have already been made, your response already rehearsed, and you will be prepared with your chaff-deflecting approach.
The chaff is a sign, my friends—a sign that the customer is still very close in the vicinity. Keep shooting the right questions and stay away from the chaff.
Stay the course. Zero in. Change their world.
About the Author:
Jeff Shore is a highly sought-after sales expert, speaker, author and executive coach. His latest book, Be Bold and Win the Sale: Get Out of Your Comfort Zone and Boost Your Performance, (published by McGraw-Hill in January 2014) illustrates Jeff’s innovative BE BOLD methodology and teaches you how to change your mindset and change your world. Learn more at jeffshore.com or follow Jeff on Twitter @jeffshore.
For more than three decades, Jeff has guided executives and sales teams in large and small companies across the globe to embrace their discomforts and deliver BOLD sales results. In a crowded field of sales experts and training programs, Jeff Shore stands out with his research-based BE BOLD methodology. Combining his extensive front-line sales experience with the latest Cognitive Behavioral Therapy research, Jeff has created a highly effective, personalized way to reset sales paradigms and deliver industry-leading results. Jeff doesn’t just teach you how to sell, he shows you how to change your mindset and change your world.
