When a sales call isn't going your way, tension builds quickly as you scramble to find some last second, but related, question to keep the conversation going.

The problem with that strategy is that it often annoys the prospects even more, which makes them even less likely to want to take your calls 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 the prospects with something that causes them to keep bringing their thoughts back to you, every time a "trigger event" happen. A "trigger event" is something that causes your prospects to feel a pain that you can solve for them. It's their hot button. It's something that makes your prospects stand up and say "Help me solve this problem —and I'll pay you for it."

For the "plant a seed" play to work, you need to know what problems your primary prospects have that will lead them to become your best clients.

Strategies in action

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 and you can sense the call needs to come to an end in order for you to live to fight another day. Instead of trying to keep them on the phone (only to irritate them further) try this:

Salesperson: "Ms. Prospect, it doesn't sound like we have anything at the moment that would be a good fit for 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: It lowers your prospect's guard.

Now that your prospect's guard is down, she is more open to hearing what you have to say. Here's one example of how you can move forward to plant the seed:

Salesperson: "Ms. Prospect, it doesn't sound like we have anything at the moment that would be a good fit for you. We specialize in (hot button issues 1, 2 and 3). What I'm going to do is this: I'll send you an e-mail with my contact info and if (hot button issues 1, 2 or 3) become a concern for you, you'll know who to reach out to. Fair enough?"

The prospect will have her guard down, hear what you said and if you are truly speaking to a real prospect, your hot button messages will grow a little more every time one of those issues pops up. Hence the term "plant the seed."

Here is an actual example that I have used:

Salesperson: "Mr. Prospect, it doesn't sound like we have anything at the moment that would be a good fit for you. We specialize in helping inside sales people who are struggling to hit their numbers because they are constantly being rejected by gatekeepers, leaving voicemail messages that don't get returned and frequently hearing "we're all set/no budget/already have someone that does that" responses. What I'm going to do is this, I'll send you an e-mail with my contact info and if any of those issues become a concern 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 and have a voicemail or e-mail from that prospect, or a phone call from them saying, "You know, I thought about what you said. I have a few questions for you." Now you're right back in the game!

A word of caution: If you find yourself having to run the "plant the seed" play way too often, that's an indicator that your sales call process, and what you say in your qualifying or needs analysis stage is off the mark and needs to be corrected.

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