You have made your sales presentation, though of the answers to every potential questions that the client might have but you cannot close the deal. It is because the client said , “I will think about it.” How often have you been in such a situation.? The automatic response from a mediocre or inexperienced  sales person would be, “Ok! I will  contact you again in a week/month’s time to follow up again.” DO NOT SAY THIS! This could cause you to lose the sale or waste your time. Before we recommend what you should do instead, lets delve on two things first; why the client said it and the ability of the human brain to retain information.

Why Think About It?

There are 2 reasons why he client might say this.

One is the client is embarrassed or shy to reject you,Human are generally proud by nature. If, for example, the client does not have the budget, he may feel bad or embarrassed to tell you. It is about face saving, which is quite common. This could be just a polite way of rejecting you. If this is the case, that is why we said earlier it is a waste of your time to do a follow up.

Two is the client is genuinely interested in your product but has some concerns. He has not opened up to you because he is on the defensive and does not want you to take his concerns as a weakness that you will use it against him with your sales tactics. We will share below how you can approach this

Human Ability To Retain Information

Hermann Ebbinghaus  hypothesizes the decline of memory retention in time. Generally, within 24 hours, most people will forget 75% of what you said. Within 30 days, people will forget 90% of what you said. And the 10% that they recall, 50% will be incorrect. So in essence, the client will only be able to retain 5% of the information accurately after a month.

This could lead you o lose your sale because during this time, your competitors may swoop in and close the deal due to recency effect. The recency effect is an order of presentation effect that occurs when more recent information is better remembered and receives greater weight in forming a judgment than does earlier-presented information.

What You Should Do

The next time your client says I will think about it, this is what you should say.(We will assume a scenario where you are selling shelving products and your client is in the e-commerce business)

You : Mr Client, every time my client says he will think about it, it means one of two things. It either means they are not interested or they are interested but not sure. Lets bottomline this, Which one is it?

If the client replies he is not interested, then fine, You can stop wasting time chasing a dead lead and shift your efforts somewhere.

If he said he is not sure, then it is one of these three things :

• right fit
• functionality
• finance / price

You : Is the product a right fit? Is this something that will help your business?

If he said yes, your next line.

You :  What about the features? Is there anything you don’t like about the product?

Client : The shelving height is too high and I have a small storage space too

You : Not as issue, we can adjust shelving height and the number of rows that you require. Also, we have a modular shelving system which you can detach easily to suit your storage space. And you can easily add-on more shelving units when you more to a bigger storage in future.

You : So now, the product is  a right fit for your business, the features and functionality is not the problem, so it has to be the price/financing  that is an issue?

This is where you can offer credit terms, payment plans, lower down payments etc.

Funnel Your Response

If you walk out of the door after the client said he will think about it, there is a high chance that you will never get that sale.  As you can see above, what we are gearing you is how to funnel a response from your client. You are guiding your client to tell you whether he is genuinely interested in your product and what his concerns are. So in summary.

• Every time my client says he will think about it, it means one of two things. It either means they are not interested or they are interested but not sure. Lets bottomline this, Which one is it?
•  Is the product or service a right fit for your business?
• Is there a concern with the functionality and features?
• So the product is a right fit with the feature and functionality for your business, so it must be about  the price / financing?

Try this out in future and all the best in closing that sale.