Handling: "Just tell me what you do" with ease

Avoiding their question or going into a product dump is not the answer.

Author

Dan Cons
June 30, 2024

Today, I'll explain how I handle it when a prospect says, "Just tell me what you do."

If you’ve worked in sales, you know the situation. The prospect shows up to the call with zero interest in following your sales process. They want to get some info and get off the call.

If you can’t turn these seemingly uninterested prospects into engaged ones, you’ll lose a lot of deals at this early stage.

Unfortunately, many people go wrong by completely refusing to answer, which pisses the client off and makes them shut down.

Or

By 100% caving into the prospect's demands, going into a product dump that bores the prospect, doesn’t provide a solution, and gives away all your power.

The result?

They leave the call, and you never hear from them again.

Don’t worry! I'll show you how to handle this like a pro so your prospects feel like you’ve given them enough information to satisfy their needs, but not so much that they can leave the call. This way, they feel OK about going along with your sales process.

Here's how I do it using a three-step framework I got from Jeb Blount:

Step 1: Ledge

When the prospect rejects your sales process and challenges you by saying, "Tell me what you do," managing your emotions and staying calm is essential.

Give yourself a moment to regain your composure by acknowledging their request.

I say something like this:

“Yeah, sure. I totally get that you want to know what we do, so I’m happy to share some top-level info with you now.”

I find prospects like this are often borderline aggressive, so this should also disarm the prospect a bit.

Step 2: Value

Next, tell the prospect at a high level what you offer, and explain the value of them giving you the information you need to progress.

You could say something like this:

“We help eCom brands increase their profitability and grow their sales revenue through three main pillars:

- Content creation for ads

- New customer acquisition using the main ad platforms

- Customer retention using Klaviyo

Now, in terms of how we implement solutions for clients, every business is different.

So instead of boring you with a generic list of ways Google Ads can help businesses, it probably makes more sense if I can ask you some questions about where you are now, what you’re looking to achieve, and what’s stopping you from getting there to see if this sounds like something we can help you with.

If it does, we can get the team to look at your ad account(s) so we can tailor a solution for you.”

Hopefully, they’ll realise going along with your sales process is in their best interest and open up.

Step 3: Ask

Finally, ask the prospect for their cooperation and to share more information with you.

You could say:

“Does that work for you?”

“With that in mind, (ask your next discovery question) e.g. you said X was your biggest challenge atm, why don’t you start by expanding on that?”

If the prospect still doesn’t want to play ball, allude to the fact that you are willing to walk away from this conversation if they refuse to do any discovery. 

To wrap up…

Follow this simple framework and you can easily handle most “Just tell me what you do” situations, increasing your chances of winning the business.

Remember, avoiding their question or going into a product dump is not the answer. 

It's about staying calm, giving them enough information to appease them without giving too much away, explaining why you need the information, and asking for their cooperation.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out by replying to this email or DM’ing me on Insta. 

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