In this video, we provide a real example of a salesperson responding to I am not interested during a cold call. After the call recording, we provide tips and alternatives for what to do when facing this sales objection.

 

The Salesperson’s Objection Response

The salesperson responding to I am not interested in the call recording by basically saying:

Gotcha. So, yeah, new business isn’t really a priority right now, you’d say?

The prospect then responded with:

Not really.

The problem with this type of objection response is that it is an attempt to overcome the objection by changing the prospect’s mind from not interested to interested. While you do need to change the prospect’s mind when selling, we recommend not to try to do this when cold calling because you do not have the time and attention needed.

 

Respond With Pain Questions

Another option for responding to I am not interested is to deflect back to your pain questions. For example, you could say something like:

Okay. Yeah. I understand. How do you feel about your ability to see the businesses that are actively purchasing what you sell in your geographic area?

When you ask one of these questions, you are most likely going to get a response to the question you ask. And after that, you have a few different options. You can then follow up the prospect’s response with a follow-up question, drilling deeper into the area that you asked about. Or you could ask different questions in an effort to learn more and keep the call going. Or, if the prospect’s response helps to identify a need, a concern, or a pain, you can use that as a justification for talking more and go for the close.

 

Respond With Current State Questions

In the same way that you can use your pain questions when responding to I am not interested, you can also deflect with current state questions in the exact same way. For example, on this call, the salesperson could say:

Okay. If I could ask you real quick, do you have sales reps performing cold outreach today?

Similar to using a pain question, the prospect is very likely to answer the current state questions with some sort of response. After that, you can ask follow-up questions or close the prospect if they give you an answer that indicates that they need the product or service that you sell.

 

Respond With Pain Points

Another option you have for responding to I am not interested is that you can deflect to the pain points that your product or service helps to fix. For example, this salesperson could say:

Hey, I understand you know, we work with a lot of small businesses, and they often have difficulty knowing which businesses in their geographic area are actively purchasing what they sell, and it’s difficult to find good quality contact information for the prospects that they’re trying to reach.

Have you experienced either of those, or do the reps on your team have challenges in either of those areas?

 

This response works in the same way as we use it to keep the conversation going and get away from the prospect’s point that they are not interested. Then, based on how the prospect responds, we can either ask follow-up questions or close the prospect if we identify that the prospect has the pain that we can help to solve.

 

We hope this helps you with responding to I am not interested when talking with sales prospects!