Untitled Story

Confessions of a Taxi Driver

Its  been a real long time I haven’t been able to give some extra time to my blogging talent. The creative bugger inside me restrained to write the same vehicle and travel stories time and again. It says enough of the local trains, Autowallahs and high time I try to give some entertaining stuff to my beloved readers.

Funny, but all these thoughts poured in while I was travelling for yet another business trip, this time in my regular Pre-paid Taxi.  I was to catch a flight for my second home ( Chennai). Yes, it’s a second home as my work office is based there and it’s the place that I travel most only second to my in-laws house :p  Just kidding.

Alright, so amidst all this thinking, I was getting interrupted and invaded by a great Character Santosh Tiwari, who is supposed to be my regular taxi driver on every trip. Ladies and Gentleman, its my pleasure to share with you some good, bad and ugly stories of my new found character. I have been able to gather or lets say still gathering these entertaining, confused or lets say twisted life of Santosh only due to my frequent travelling. Thanks to Mumbai traffic that each of my trip gives me roughly around 4 hours ( to and fro) with this crazy yet simple man who was all the time narrating his activities in life whether Iam interested or not  ;) Courtesy to Santosh that I have almost travelled in every type of a Radio Taxi in Mumbai as like every other Radio taxi driver, he has managed to promote him more than the Radio Taxi he drives in. For travelers like us, just like Hotels where we stay, we get used to with taxi drivers if we travel more than a couple of times. For me, I feel very secured and safe to travel with a known driver than a real stranger every time as I travel so often and many a times unknowingly, we expose ourselves to them. There are times when I need to travel mid-night or sometimes really early up in the morning which is why I chose to have a regular taxi driver for myself.

 Santosh is a nice talkative, emotional, punctual, honest, dedicated man of around 35 years of age. Average physique and looks that qualify him as a typical Bihari Babu however his command on Marathi language cuts him above the rest of his breed. Specially imported from Bihar roughly 20 years ago, he can speak very good Marathi which can shy the proud Marathi manoos. He started driving Auto in the initial years and has had a troubled life like many others who come to Mumbai to make a living. Has two dependants in his family, a dedicated wife and an ailing son roughly around 9 years of age. Just like any other driver, he has to ensure he pays daily a specific amount to his employer ( Some Radio Taxi agency) and earn himself the balance which is handful to make both ends meet.

So far so good but there is a flip side for his personality and it is this side which tempted me to write about him. Santosh is a family man but is managing two families at a time which makes it a gharwali – baharwali episode. Cant say a story as I get his developments in bits and pieces like a typical TV soap as and when I catch up with him during my travels :D :p  Due to time constraint, I will break up my blog into small episodes which will make you eagerly wait for more to come.

Stay tuned to read on how Santosh  started his innings as a caretaker for the second family ;) Whats the story of his ailing son? 

Spirit of Mumbai : Auto Rickshaws!!

Auto -wallah - A True Character !!

As a salesman, the traveller in me, likes every kind of travel, be it air, trains, car, bus or for that matter even an Auto rickshaw seems to be the best option.

If you are planning to catch a flight and are in Mumbai, the best option whether you like it or not, is an Auto especially when in the evening peak hours ( anytime between 5.00pm to 10pm). Ofcourse, if you stay at the outskirts, it is common sense to come by a local train to the nearest station on the Central line like Kurla or Ghatkopar and take an Auto to reach the Airport. Anyways, don’t want to sound like a travel guide here :p

Auto Rickshaw, are cool means of travel in Mumbai when you need to travel faster. YES, faster in the peak traffic hours. Even if you have the most luxurious, most expensive car or taxi in Mumbai, be sure, you cannot win the race with our Auto-wallahs ;)

I wonder who invented the name Rickshaw for these three- wheelers. Probably, Shaw – Wallace, the liquor manufacturers from India named it after one of their kids Rick Shaw :P ..... Just kidding

Don’t go with their size and shapes, they can be the best fit for travelers like us when you are in real need to reach your destination faster than the destined Mumbai traffic time.

I have always found it entertaining to travel in these Auto Rick – Shaws as they inspire you when you are really down and depress you when you are really on a high ;)  Here the pronoun “they” stands for our great character “ Auto wallah”. Enter an auto rick shaw and you will find at your service, the stylish, the sluggish, the Spy, the ugly, the smart, the rude and please put some more nice adjectives as complimentory offer from me,  to our super character “Autowallah”

Amchi Mumbai is changing and so are our mama – kaka Autowalla  who have been replaced by “ Bhai saab” and “Bhaiyyas” thanks to the convenience of Trains from Bihar, UP and West Bengal. The Marathi manoos, our kaka – mama’s, do have a demand but more for the local politicians who mention them quite often in their inspiring speeches.  Nevertheless, Mumbai is still the safest city for Rickshaw travel inspite of these cosmopolitan character Autowallahs.

I feel proud to hear many times, when I travel to Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai or other cities, I always get a mention that Mumbai is the safest of all with regards to Auto Rickshaws. Yes, our Autowallahs are having a great reputation J

Coming back to the introduction, our Autowallahs come in different characters, full of life. 

Character 1 :  You hire an auto, travel without a single word – pay the rent – over :D   We call these autowallah as the selective of the lot ;) These kind of drivers are choosy. They will choose the right people to talk to and will always respect the frame of your mind.

Character 2 : You hire an auto, travel . You start a conversation for 5 minutes and end up the next 10 minutes saying “ Hmmm”, “ correct”, “Yes” and “ No”. You try hard to stop and ignore, but they will make sure you listen :D  we call them Time Bomb. You speak and trigger them, they will ensure they make good noise :p

Character 3 : You hire an Auto, travel . This Autowallah will interview and scan you on your job, your family, your general knowledge,your purpose in life and probably things which you never knew about yourself. He will continue this till you get out of the auto. He might also give you some good tips on the way. Be sure you engage in this conversation since most of the time, he will keep checking you from the mirror. Better listen to him and avoid an accident. We call them “ The Reporters” as you gain some extra knowledge that specific day :D

Character 4 : Iam sure I don’t need to introduce this guy as most of you might have tried these types. You hire him as you need to reach somewhere on time. Be sure, either he messes up the way or drives like a zombie. You keep yelling at him, but he don’t care. As if someone has given him a contract to make you late, he will keep his word. There are also sequel to such characters. They go in the next stage. You keep yelling and they show you how they can beat even a Michael Schumacher ;) We can only pray that we reach our destination in one piece ;) We call these type as “Zombies”

Character 5 :   They are music lovers. So much so that as soon as you enter they will start their Car stereo ( sorry but Akai or Takara haven’t yet innovated any Rickshaw stereo L ) Whether you follow the song ( as you might actually not be from Mumbai) , like the music, you have to hear it. On top, our character will ensure you hear his voice in chorus along with the lead singers ;) But most of the time, these autowallahs are disoriented. Be sure, you will be dropped either 1km ahead or before of your final destination … 

Iam sure there are many different characters and colours to these autowallahs and as a Mumbaikar, you can add maybe another 10 different types ;) 

But just like the local trains, life would have been so difficult without our Autowallahs, isn’t it? 

What say Mumbaikar??

Spirit of Mumbai : Local Trains!!

Typical day for a Mumbai Salesman 

It was a usual day for me like any other Mumbaikar. I had a meeting scheduled at 11am with a customer in Lower Parel. Staying in the outskirts of Mumbai might have an advantage on cost of living however if you want to reach the main city, you have to commute only by the Local Trains – a lifeline for every Mumbaikar. Specifically for a professional salesman like me, it can never be avoided.

If you have to travel by train, especially towards Mumbai during the peak time ( office hours), you need to ensure you have to have a cushion of minimum 2hours and today I made sure I am at the station by 9am. Its always a wonderful feeling to have a luxury of travelling I class, thanks to the profession and my company  as Iam entitled for it ;)  One big advantage to commute on I class ticket is that traveler, when he has to buy the ticket,  gets a special priority ( more like a frequent flier if you consider Air travel ), Ofcourse you spend 11 times more for a I class as compared to II class travel fares. I managed a ticket from the ticket window irritating and bypassing many other II class passengers,  who seem to be spending half of their lives standing in Queues on such ticket windows L  As expected  an old man on the II class queue  tried to stop by pointing me on the long queue however his expressions changed to frustration after I declared my class of travel. I feel bad but sometimes you cant help as it doesn’t make sense to stand in a long IInd class queue to get a I class ticket.

Fresh morning with a fresh energy, I decided to go by a fast train as it can save atleast half an hour. I had anticipated the crowd specially at the peak timings which I planned today but confidence shatters when you see human beings as honey bees  trying to get inside the comb L It was a typical day for any Mumbaikar but for me, especially after spending 3 years in Chennai, I have lost my agility especially when I need to catch a train.

A good thing about the Mumbai local trains is that every 5 minutes, during the peak hours, there is a train and just in case you miss one, you always have the next. I was sure that I can atleast board the train somehow as I had a I class ticket and you have special I class compartments for executives like us J

The train arrival was announced and it was suppose to come in any moment. I was waiting like every other fellow passenger at the red and green stripe area that indicates the I class coach. If you want to see unity in diversity, you should stand in any of these stations in Mumbai. I looked around and found a lot of people in these crowds are like teams. Most of them work either at one place, or one town or have been travelling since ages with each other on the same train at the same time scheduled. One thing you can learn from these commuters is there is no hierarchy in these teams. Ofcourse, in terms of noise making or singing or eating Gutkhas, they have self - proclaimed leaders.  You can hear different languages standing just at one place – be it Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Bihari, Marathi . And for the record, each one of them is a Mumbaikar here J :p

Train arrived. I managed to go forward two steps and had to back off as I couldn’t manage even to reach near the door. A disadvantage of I class travel is that in these local trains, the I class compartments are very less.  A single coach can take around 72 passengers inside these local train but as if Mumbaikars have to teach a lesson to Jessop ( the Kolkata Coach manufacturer),  a typical peak hour train carries around  300 passengers in just one coach. ( A train unfortunately has only 9 or 12 coaches) . And if you thought this is a bit too much, there are more ambitious traveler who prefer the roof more than entering inside the coaches J These are the kids with young blood  who frequent roof top policy. They are a treat to watch for onlookers and each of these commuters think themselves as some superstar ;)

 After spending ( should I write wasting) 15 minutes and making three sincere attempts to board the train, I decided to change the platform and opt for a slow local as I was now desperate to start. I took the overbridge on the station and tried my luck with two slow local trains ( Slow local train have good frequencies with regards to availability but are around 20 minutes slower). The I class compartments here were more crowded than the fast ones. Finally, the third train which I was about to miss somehow worked on me and I decided to try the II class compartment. I ran to the nearest coach and to my surprise, I could manage to keep my foot inside the train this time.

One more thing to know about Mumbai trains is that once you keep a foot overboard, you need not worry if you can get inside, because there are other passengers who, like you, want to board the train. They make sure , you get the right throttle behind you J 

I was in. J

My three years in Chennai made me out of date for the train travel as I failed to see commuters having their sacks do not take it on their backs. New rules declared by your fellow passengers dictates that it should be taken on the front. I could barely move my hand inside as I was surrounded by almost 50 people In every angle we have learnt in trigonometry. My axe deodorant axed me as I was getting different scents from every side. Should I say scent or odour? I don’t know how you will name a mixture of this two together. On top, with every passing station, the crowd was just increasing.  I can now understand a feeling of clay when it is pressed inside a mould. One good thing about travelling in winter time is that you don’t need to really wear a woolen clothing here, specially, when you are travelling in peak hours. The warmth that you get will shy a good heating device ;)

I had roughly  thirty more minutes to go amidst all these funny, crazy, dizzy smells and free thai massage. I wonder if the state government here has some tie ups with Thai companies running massage parlours . Iam sure they might have learnt some good tricks in these Mumbai local trains. If you have a body ache, be sure, you will get cured if you travel in such nice trains. And if you don’t have, be sure, you get one free as a compliment for the travel ;)

Standing helplessly between 8 shoulders, you have no option but to listen to some good gossips happening around. I could hear an old man chatting to some fellow companions on how much he was drunk on the 31^st night and how he spent on his friends. I could hear two people fighting somewhere inside the compartment on seats. Seems one of the fellow standing next to a commuter, who had managed a seat for himself, stamped on his feets. Both were cursing each other alternately. I could hear some bhajans being sung and my neighbor with his 10kgs of castor oil-filled head was engrossed in sync with these bhajans. I somehow managed myself to avoid free oil massage on my right cheek. I managed to use my elbow to set him right without really offending him. I don’t remember if had any better use of my elbow before this.

One of my co-passenger who seem to be quite happy and peaceful earlier exposed himself as soon as his Mobile phone with the latest “Chikni Chameli” buzzed with high decibels. He was mid 30s and seem to be working for a good company as an executive. Ofcourse, I didn’t make these impressions in the critical position I was in at that moment, but I had seen him on the platform where he waited like me. He tried hard to be soft on the call he was attending. Without any guesses, it was his better half on the other side of the line. The problem here in trains is that even if you don’t want, you have to hear conversations. Poor fellow tried hard to keep his voice low but the fight which started when he was leaving home had to continue and seems it was this time.  The soft voice was soon distressed voice and later a bit aggressive. In the next ten minutes, the crowd that surrounded me was more silent than the other noises as our fellow here was giving free education to all the husbands on how you shouldn’t talk to your wife ;)

Fortunately, by 10.45, my train reached Dadar station and like a joy slide, or the descent from the mountain, to get off a train is simple, when you have so much of crowd at your service. Simply follow the flow and you are outside on the station.

After an entertaining travel of 1 and half hours, with complimetory Thai massage, my clothes were crumpled L and disoriented. I wonder next time if  my clothes get ironed if I use a crumpled one ;)

Finally, I was ready to meet my first client for the day.  A typical day for many I class passengers like me who buy a ticket of I class but end up boarding a II class compartment. At times, I have also tried the luggage compartment which is even more comfortable than the II class with regards to crowd these days in Mumbai L

Where are we heading my dear Mumbaikar?

Sales Life : A simple way to succeed

Success is not a destination, but a continuous process!! The day you decide you are successful, you can become complacent. With every moment of success, you start getting a grip of your sales career and you become more confident and the journey towards success starts.

I have seen many successful sales and marketing professionals rise and fall from a very good position at the beginning of their peak. These are the ones who are following success but success never follows them. Some good achievements make them supermen and they live in these fantasies and become junk within no time. They too have defining and glorious moments in their early stages however, the problem starts when they rate themselves too big and fall prey too quickly on offers that are mainly meant for using them. Result is that these so called self-successful people have limited life in their new ventures and most often exposed on their limitations. Their career ends too early and are known to only those who experienced their success in those early days.

Look around and you will find many such good professionals whom you had rated very high but are lost somewhere in the No Mans world. Success is an addiction for some and things start becoming ugly when they self rate themselves higher than their current profile.

Their is no harm in aspiring for bigger positions or bigger packages in your early stages. Rather, one should have such ambitions that motivates him to perform and grow. As a professional myself, I would suggest the following key points that can lead to a stable an successful career at the very beginning of your sales career;

• Right Field : Choose the right field. It means the right products, right company irrelevant of what is offered. If you are good, you will get more than what you expected in a very short time.
• Be Present : Make sure you are visible. By visible, I mean in every sense. Make sure you report every move you take in the interest of your company. Try to put forth some new ideas which you think are new and do not ignore such inner qualities within yourself thinking that the company must have already tried such things. Make sure you speak out. Let the message get passed that you are the new contributor to ideas. 
• Clear your Basics : Maybe you have the best technical brain or maybe you had a good academic career still in the sales front, before you apply yourself on the field, make sure your basic queries are cleared. Do not hesitate to ask any silly question to your superior or colleague or even your friend who is working in similar fields. The better your basics, the best is your chance to make a mark on your customer. In the end, you have to sell yourself first to sell your product, although not literally.In other words, a customer will buy your product  only when he trusts you. 
• Have a vision : Make sure you have a vision for your professional life. A vision is a light house in your professional career and guides you at your target every time you loose your focus. Without a vision, you will make mistakes and loose important time.
• Job Changes : Never compare yourself with your friends, colleagues, neighbors or relatives when it comes to your job. You are precious and you know this better than anyone in this entire world. But for that you have to have patience. Just because someone else grows with a change in job, it doesn't make you small in front of them. You should grow at your pace. Change the job if you are having problems that cannot be solved. Most of the time, problems are self created and the solution also lies with ourselves. In my view, change the job if you are not being recognized, or if the company has no vision, or you are uncomfortable with the solutions or products offered or your growth is very less. Salary is important but should never be the deciding factor in changing the job. If you feel you are the best and doing a great job, be sure, the company has the same view, and they will ensure maximum that you are always comfortable. If they don't, they are sure that they will loose you. Also, make sure your needs are proportionate to the company's growth. A growing company will always give a stable income growth than a stable or saturated company which offers high income added with extra stress ;) Even if you are successful, if your company and you yourself have a definite vision, the combination can do wonders.
• Team Player : Even if you have played an anchor innings in the successful deal or project order, make sure you share the achievements. Nothing can be achieved solo in this career. Its all a team game. Be on ground always and make sure you praise everyone who are involved in your achievements. It will make a good character of you and you will always be a man which every team will need. 

In short, in the fast paced sales career, make sure you make it simple and successful. In the long run, those who went faster in front of you, will never even scale heights that you reach with this. Be a role model and a guide to all those who might get lost mid way in their early stages of professional sales life!!!

Sales Talk : Competition Story

Fighting Competition!!!

Recently in one of my half yearly review meetings, I came across one of my team members that they are being disturbed unnecessarily by a competitor in most of the major enquiries they come across for the company we work for. The major issue here was that more than half of  employees working with this competitor are our ex-employees, and they have similar product with around 75 percent similar advantages like our products. The company, they work for, is not bad, although the activities on marketing needs a lot of questions.

Instead of merits on their products, the competition here was promoting products as " Similar to our Products" and using every negative marketing strategy you could think of. Most of the time, they work on the enquiries generated for our products and throw prices to somehow spoil or grab our orders. Result was always discouraging to our team members as they would loose out on margins on orders. To some extent, a couple of orders have also gone where the purchase guys had no option but to place an order on the low pricing.

Our team members even tried to help customers in understanding the features and prompting them on benefits when the competition had counter offered. However, some of these steps were fruitful and some were not.

As I knew many of our employees, rather our ex-employees, I decided to check how they respond to enquiries when they get. The ex-engineer in question here in this region, who is a regional Manager with this competitor, knew me as the others and I decided to check on their strategy. Since my team member had this ex-engineers mobile number, i decided to make a surprise call to him. ( He didnt had my number so could not have known that it was me)

Following conversation took place between us; ( Here I will mention him as a EX  and for the record.. he still uses the same number for this competitor when he was working with us)

Call got connected...

Me : Hello!!  Is it Ex?
Ex : Yes, who is it? ( Obviously he didnt recognise me)
Me :  I need a Hensel ( My company) Junction Box. Can you please help me?
Ex :  Yes sir, but I am not working with Hensel ( I was relieved to hear that he was truthful). I can give similar product from another German company.
Me : No, but I like Hensel and I need only that product.
Ex : Sir, my product is better than Hensel. It is also Polycarbonate ( Generally, we stress on the material properties and he used the same here with the competiton)
Me : No, But the temperature range is better with Hensel. I know your company doesnt has such a good rating. ( I wanted to test him on some features of our products)
Ex : No sir, We offer a range that can sustain upto 80 degrees Celcius.
Me : But Hensel is better, it is upto 120 degrees.
Ex : ( Confused) No sir. we offer Ambient temperature upto 80 deg. We have 130 degrees fire retardant.
Me : ( Trying to show as if Iam not convinced) What? What are you talking about? What is the temperature resistance? Iam asking temperature resistance and you are talking on flame retardant features..
Ex :  ( Confused again ) Sir, Ambient is 80 deg and glow wire test 130 deg
Me : ( Angry on him as Iam more technically sound as a customer) How can you say this? If you dont know correctly, you should say, I dont know sir and I will let you know. Do you know the meaning of Ambient?
Ex : ( This time he is more angry on me.. and remember Iam actually a customer to him ) Sir who gave you my number???
Me : Why? I have your name card with me? Iam new in this company but it seems when you were working in Hensel, you had visited us and given your visiting card. Why are you getting angry? In fact I need to now speak to someone superior in your company? ( I was a bit harsh this time)
Ex : Iam not angry but you are not understanding. ( Confused, and angry tone)
Me : Do you know what standard is referred for Flame / Fire retardant?  You dont know what is Ambient? How can you suggest me such a product when iam asking for something which i know and iam aware of.?         ( Loud Voice and Angry tone )
Ex : ( Angry again) I told you 130 degrees. you only called me and now why are you shouting.
Me : GIVE ME YOUR SUPERIORS NAME!! ( Real good angry tone this time)
Ex : Why should I give. Iam keeping the phone. If you dont want, you can hang up. ( He was about to disconnect the call this time)

The next instant, I introduced myself to him and told him to calm down. I told him who he was actually speaking to. Also laughed about this entire episode loudly so that he takes it in a lighter vein. But he was totally shaken.I told him how can he forget my voice. He replied that he really could not recognise me. I apologised him and told him that I got his number and remembered him as I came to know that he is able to take away some of our orders. He tried to tell me that he doesnt but confirmed that he tries quite hard. I jovially scolded him as an ex boss that he forgot everything that we trained him on. Simple features, he was not able to explain. After clearing a couple of doubts for him, I hung up.

All my team members were laughing on the entire telephonic conversation and they all took one point very nicely from this episode. They have concluded that next time, if they find such competitors ( Mainly followers of our success ),they will simply ask the customers to call them face to face and ask any technical questions on the product to both, us and them. They are confident that they can definitely have an upper edge always.

With due apologies to my ex-sales engineer and ex-managers, doing favors to competition, the above experience for me was quite entertaining and hence thought of sharing it here. I could only take one more important lesson, that if your roots are strong, ethics are in place, you need not worry about fighting competition. Leaders will always lead... others will follow!!

  

Sales Talk : Product knowledge

Product Knowledge : Most Important tool for the key to success!!

You finish your education with a high and land up in to the sales job that you thought would be the right one for you. You finish a great induction programme, by the company you were hired, that gave you the minute details that you required for the product to gain confidence on the field. Now its time for the real action!!

You start with a high and decide that you will excel in this new sales job and prove you were the right man for the right job. You start meeting new customers, interact with them and manage to stay on board by generating good enquiries from them. Couple of months down the line, you realize the efforts are not getting converted into success and most of the time you end up with just making offers.

Result is frustration!! You start thinking if you did a mistake by opting for this job. To an extent you start blaming yourself as you also know that your colleagues are successful and are ahead of you. It comes to a stage where you even start thinking if you have chosen the right career.

It’s a common story for most of the starters in Sales or marketing career. One of the prime reasons of an initial failure for many new sales engineers is the lack of product knowledge and approach on the field.

Even though you had the best of education, add a management degree to it, if you don’t have the right product knowledge, you are done. The induction training programme, even if it covers the entire range of products, is not sufficient to survive in this demanding and result oriented sales career. The sales engineer takes the training programme very seriously however doesn’t brush up his knowledge on the product regularly. There are always some points which he doesn’t understand which makes it difficult for him while introducing the product range to the customers he meets. Most of the time, things are stuck for basic information and the result is ignorance of key points in the introduction. Whenever he makes the introduction, he tries to stay in his comfort zones and introduce only those products for which he is comfortable with. The customer is most of the times not appraised with the right information and with whatever little information, manages to cooperate with the engineer and suggests to get enquiries from his purchase department. Sometimes, it is just a curious enquiry to get a price even when he doesn’t need the product. Finally, the sales guy makes an offer for which he never knows if he can get an order. If the product is high priced, the case doesn’t even make for a negotiation, as the USPs( Unique Selling Points) were totally absent.

Things could have improved, if the Sales engineer had brushed up his product knowledge regularly. The best way to execute it, is to read the product catalog and ask questions to himself from the customers point of view. Be in the customers shoe, think the way he might think. Understand from his point of view on the benefit he can have by using the product that you offer. Try to gather information on the most difficult questions and write the answers of these in your sales workbook. Always, ensure to be ahead with information that even your colleagues might not have, whether its relevant or not, but make an attempt. The most difficult questions to answers are the most basic ones which most of the time, you as a fresh sales engineer pretend to be very silly ones. Never be ashamed to ask your superiors such questions time to time. Every successful sales person has a similar story when he starts and only learns after years of experience. To shorten this period, you need to work hard on self education on the products and success stories from your colleagues. Learn from their mistakes and develop yourself to handle simple as well as difficult questions. A thorough knowledge on the products do wonders to your personality as a sales professional as you gain confidence within a very short time and your successful journey begins your way.

Sales Talk!

How to Overcome “Brush Off” Objections with the 1QQ Techniques
Written by Jim Domanski

Are you frustrated with prospects that shut you down and brush you off after you’ve finished your opening statement?

You know the type of objection I am talking about: you barely utter your name and the prospect says, “We’re happy with our present supplier,” or “I’m in a meeting,” or “I am busy right now,” or “Just send me something in the mail,” or any number of other brush offs. And just like that, the call is over.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can reduce the impact of brush off objections and speak to more decision makers if you apply a smart little technique called “1 Quick Question” (1QQ).

Brush Off Objections

As the name implies, a brush off objection is a reflexive objection that typically occurs at the beginning of a call. They occur because the prospect was not expecting your call and the automatic response is to toss out an objection. They do so out of the compelling need to protect themselves “from being sold” and out of the desire to get rid of you as soon as possible. Most tele-sales reps oblige them by lamely mumbling an apology and hanging up.

Sound familiar? Don’t be a victim.

How to Deal With the Brush Off

Three are three steps to dealing with the brush off objections.

Step #1: Empathize

When you hear a brush off your first step is to empathize with the client. Say something like, “I understand,” or “I appreciate that.” This does two things. First, it acknowledges the prospect’s objection. It shows you have listened to the remark and that you understand. Second, it buys you a second or two to collect your thoughts and respond.

Step #2: Ignore the Objection

Ignore what you hear. Don’t fall for the objection. It’s a mistruth. You know it’s a brush off and so does the prospect. Responding to the stated objection is therefore a waste of time. So don’t honor it with a retort. Ignore it.

Step #3: Ask “1 Quick Question”

Apply the 1 Quick Question (1QQ) technique. The 1QQ is simply a way to forge ahead with the call before the prospect hangs up. It is extremely easy to apply. Here are some examples to give you a feel for how it works:

Example #1:

Prospect: “I’m in a meeting right now!”

Rep: “I understand completely. Just one quick question before I go…”

Example #2:

Prospect: “I’m happy with our present supplier.”

Rep: “I’m happy to hear that. Jeff, one quick question if you don’t mind…”

Example #3:

Prospect: “We don’t need anything right now.”

Rep: “I appreciate that. Before I go one quick question.”

You can see the pattern. The rep empathizes but does not directly respond to the objection. Instead he uses the 1QQ technique. It works because the majority of prospects realize that they have been a bit dismissive and possibly rude. By politely asking ‘one quick question’, many prospects feel the need to soften up a bit and give you a quick answer before they terminate the call.

Now here’s the interesting thing. Depending on the nature of your question, one quick question often leads to two or three or more questions. Think of it as a wedge in the door. The better your question, the greater the opportunity to get your prospect to open up further.

How to Create Your 1QQ

The key to making the 1QQ work for you is your question. Your first step to developing 1QQ is to identify a pain, a problem or a predicament that the prospect typically experiences and that you can solve. You only have one shot at getting the wedge in the door so your question has to go directly to an issue that is significant to the average prospect.

Developing your 1QQ will take some time and thought but once you have it you’ll be able to use it with virtually every call. So think hard: what is the number one problem your clients experience?

For example, suppose you sell magazine subscriptions to educators that help the teachers plan their curriculum. The problem that many teachers experience is time and it takes to develop new, creative and effective class plans. Here’s one quick question that might work.

“Mr. Gunderson, one quick question before I go: do you find it frustrating and time consuming to prepare a daily curriculum for your classes?”

The second step is to have another question prepared. If possible, create a question that quantifies the problem. For instance, if Gunderson does find it frustrating and time consuming to prepare a daily curriculum your next question might be:

“If I may, roughly how much time do you spend preparing…say, on a daily basis?”

By doing so, the prospect begins to see the magnitude of their problem and may get curious enough to let you continue.

The third step is to pursue your line of questioning, identify the need and proceed as you normally would.

Summary

The 1QQ technique gives you an edge by helping to create an opportunity. While not every client will answer your one quick question some will and that’s the strength of the technique.