When it comes to the possible outcomes of a sales meeting with a prospect, most would agree that there are three possible outcomes; yes, no, and think it over. And when most salespeople rank these three possible outcomes in terms of desirability, it probably looks something like this:

1)Yes

2)Think It Over

3)No

This is perfectly logical at first look. We definitely want a "Yes" answer, so this is the outcome we would rank #1. We definitely don't want a "No", so this is the answer we rank last. That leaves "Think It Over" as the middle choice.

But let's take a deeper look at "Think It Over". In particular, let's look at how often a "Think It Over" ever really turns into a "Yes". While we can usually find an isolated case of a "Think It Over" turning into a "Yes", they are very rare.

This type of prospect, called a thinkitover, is simply trying to be nice by not rejecting you. Prospects have the same fear of rejection (and its evil twin - need for approval) that salespeople have. The thinkitover prospect doesn't want hurt your feelings, and they will say anything to avoid telling you "No". So you walk back to the car happy, since the prospect didn't say "No", and the prospect is happy since they didn't have to go through the discomfort of rejecting you.

But thinkitovers have two dangerous side effects. The first is that they give the false sense of a healthy sales pipeline. If you start a folder for each thinkitover prospect and put it in a file drawer, after several months you have a full drawer, which looks pretty good. But that's the danger of thinkitovers; you get enough of them together and they rob you of the motivation required to make new prospecting calls. How? Because it's easy to tell yourself that if only half of your thinkitovers turn into business, you'll have a huge month. So you spend a couple hours looking for old classmates on Linkedin instead of prospecting.

The second way thinkitovers will cost you money is by turning you into a "professional visitor." You see, when you make the time to prospect, you have to make a choice between two different stacks of business cards. The stack on the left is thinkitovers. You feel like you know them a little bit because you've already had a business discussion with them. The stack of business cards on the right is prospects that you have never called before, and thus they are complete strangers, several of whom will probably say "No".

Here's where fear of rejection takes physical action. Too often your hand reaches for the stack of thinkitovers...the prospects that havealready decided not to buy your product, but they were just too nice to tell you that. But still you call the thinkitovers because you have convinced yourself they are 'warm' leads. Nope. The real warm leads are the untouched business cards you got at last week's networking event.

Why do so many of your leads end up in thinkitover land? Because you didn't take control of the original sales meeting. If you feel like you are always in 'chase mode', then you are not asking the right questions and using a sales system to lead the prospect to a definitive answer, one way or another.

Does a thinkitoverever turn into a "Yes"? Once in a very long while. And almost always on the second call. Anything beyond that and you are turning into a "professional visitor". If the prospect's answer is going to be a '"No" anyway, when do you want to know that? Better now, or after 3 months of calling?

So, I'll ask the original question in a different way; if we were to rank the three possible outcomes of a sales call, would it be fair to rank them as follows? :

1)Yes

2)No

3)Slow No... thinkitover...one that eats up your time and saps your energy to prospect for real opportunities

So don't be afraid of hearing "No'. You won't need to waste any more time on that one, and there are tons of real prospects out there. What you should be afraid of is: "Looks great, I just need to think it over."

And now I'd like to invite you to attend my upcoming free seminar titled "Successful Strategies That Move A Customer From "I'm Interested" to "Here's My Credit Card!" Visit www.platinumarketingsolutions.com to register.

About The Author:

Jack Laurent is a Sales Coach with Achievement Dynamics, which is a part of the world's largest sales training organization, Sandler Training.Prior to joining Achievement Dynamics,Jack wasVice President of Sales for American EquityFinancial. As VP of Sales, he trained and coached 150 sales people and managers in 16 offices generating $50 million a year in revenue.A National Merit Scholar at the University of Florida, Jack also earned his M.B.A. from Long BeachState.