When a sales call isn’t going your way, tension builds quicklyas you scramble to find some last second Hail Mary question to keepthe conversation going.

The problem with that strategy is it often annoys the prospecteven more, which makes them even less likely to want to take yourcalls in the future.

Here’s what I’ve found that works best in these situations:

Plant a seed

Planting a seed means:

1. You’ve recognized that this call needs to come to an end,and
2. You want to leave them with something that causes them to keepbringing their thoughts back to you, every time a “trigger event”happens.

Trigger events

A “trigger event” is when something causes your prospect to feel apain that you can solve for them. It’s their hot button. It’ssomething that makes your prospects stand up and say “Help me solvethis problem — and I'll pay you for it."

So for the “plant a seed” play to work, you need to know whatproblems your primary prospects must have that will cause them tobecome your best clients.

Here’s an example of how the “planting the seed” play works.

Let’s say the sales call hasn’t gone the way you had hoped andyou can sense the call needs to come to an end in order for you tolive to fight another day. Instead of trying to keep them on thephone (only to annoy them even more) try this:

Salesperson: Mr. Prospect, it doesn’tsound like we have anything at the moment that would be a good fitfor you.

This is only the first sentence in the “plant the seed” play.But let’s stop here and analyze why this is so important: Itlowers your prospect's guard.

Once they hear you say “It doesn’t sound like we have anythingat the moment that would be a good fit for you,” they sense you arebacking off.

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When your prospects aren't focused on trying to end thecall, they are more likely to hear a message that could lead to asale. (Photo: iStock)

Now that their guard is down, they are more open to hearing you.So here’s one example of what you could say next to plant theseed:

Salesperson: “Mr. Prospect, it doesn’tsound like we have anything at the moment that would be a good fitfor you. We specialize in (hot Button 1, 2 and 3). What I’m goingto do is this, I’ll send you an email with my contact info and if(hot button 1, 2 and 3) become a concern for you, you’ll know whoto reach out to. Fair enough?”

The prospect will A) have their guard down and B) hear what yousaid and C) if you are truly speaking to a real prospect, your hotbutton messages will grow a little more every time one of thoseissues pop up. Hence the term “plant the seed.”

Here is an example I've used.

Salesperson: “Mr. Prospect, it doesn’tsound like we have anything at the moment that would be a good fitfor you. We specialize in helping inside sales people who arestruggling to hit their numbers due to constantly being rejected bygatekeepers, leaving voicemail message that don’t get returned andfrequently hear “we’re all set/no budget/already have someone thatdoes that” responses. What I’m going to do is this, I’ll send youan email with my contact info and if any of those issues become aconcern for you, you’ll know who to reach out to, fair enough?”

Prospect: "Umm OK. That sounds good.Thanks for the call."

I can’t tell you how many times I would come in the next day andhave a voicemail from that prospect, or an email from them askingme to call them or a phone call from them saying, “You know, Ithought about what you said. I have a few questions for you.” Nowyou’re right back in the game!

A word of caution

If you find yourself having to run the “plant the seed” play waytoo often, that’s an indicator that your sales call process (whatyou say in your qualifying/needs analysis stage) is off the markand needs to be corrected.

Related: How to warm up cold leads

Michael Pedone is the CEO and founder of SalesBuzz.com,an onlinesales training company that shows inside sales teams howto: avoid being rejected by gatekeepers, leave voicemail messagesthat get callbacks and overcome tough pricing objections. Contacthim at [email protected].