Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.
—Mike Tyson, retired professional boxer
Following the events of 9/11, record numbers of people stepped off the tarmac and behind the wheel. It’s estimated that in the aftermath of the worst attacks on American soil since Pearl Harbor, the national airlines lost up to 30 percent of their customers, causing the entire industry to teeter on the edge of collapse until the government stepped in to shore things up.
For days upon days, the 24-hour news channels blasted the horrific scenes of the planes crashing into the twin towers and the Pentagon, along with the last words of the heroes on Flight 93 before it crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.
It’s no wonder that people were suddenly afraid to get on planes. They imagined the horror of being trapped on a plane hijacked by terrorists. They saw themselves in those final desperate moments making their last call to loved ones to say goodbye.
Suddenly, travel by automobile, no matter how long the trip, seemed safer. People judged, based on recent events—the ones most available in memory—that their chances of dying were far lower in their cars than on a plane.
They were wrong. 2,977 people (not including the 19 terrorists) were killed as a direct result of the terrorists turning the planes into weapons. A conservative estimate is that 1,595 additional deaths occurred due to the increase in driving and decrease in flying immediately after 9/11.1 If you are doing the math, that is a little more than 50 percent of the total number of people killed in the attacks.
Diving deeper into the data, most of the 9/11 deaths were people on the ground. The total number of innocent people killed on the planes was just 246. Six-and-a-half times more people were killed on the roads following 9/11 than in the planes of 9/11 because people judged that driving was safer than flying.
According to the National Safety Council, you have a 1 in 114 probability of dying in a car crash versus a 1 in 9,821 chance of dying in a plane or spacecraft, including private planes.2 In fact, there is a higher probability that you will be killed by a shark attack than a plane crash.3 Simply put, you are far more likely to be killed driving to the airport than flying on the plane. Yet following the news of a rare plane crash, people will cancel flights in droves and get into cars.
So why did people after 9/11 falsely believe that they stood a better chance of survival in the family car than on a plane, and why should this matter to you? This strange human phenomenon is derived from the availability bias.4
Humans tend to believe that things that have just happened or are more easily recalled in memory are more likely to occur again and with greater frequency. Sadly, this makes us very, very bad at judging probability in virtually every area of life.
In a casino, for example, when a number hits and we win, our brains fool us into believing that the probability that the number will come up again is higher. Statistically speaking, the probability that the number will come up again did not change, nor did the probability that one might die in a plane crash following the terrorist attacks. That’s logical, mathematical, and indisputable. However, this is not how humans calculate probability.
Human decision making and perceptions begin at the emotional level. Our brains direct our attention and perception to anomalies, catastrophes, and events that evoke emotion.
In your role as a military recruiter, you run into this bias on an almost daily basis. People assign higher probabilities of dying or other bad things happening to them in the military because of the current news cycles or information they get from their circle of influence. Then they hit you with objections.
Certainly, compared to some occupations, a career in the military carries more risk. But you have a higher likelihood of dying from a car accident (1:114), the flu (1:63), cancer and heart disease (1:7), or falling down (1:127)5 than in the military (1:940).6 And unlike most occupations that carry risk, the benefits and opportunities offered in the military are exceptional and are a far better match of risk to reward.
The problem is, none of this logic matters a bit when you are dealing with an illogical human being whose behavior and perceptions are being shaped by emotion. You cannot reason with emotion; instead, you must disrupt it.
This is why, when you face resistance and objections, it is critical to avoid using logic to debate your point or attempt to get your prospect to change their mind. You cannot transform emotion to logic and you cannot argue people into believing that they are wrong.
We Feel, Then We Think
In every recruiting conversation, the person who exerts the greatest amount of emotional control has the highest probability of getting the outcome they desire. Because recruiting is human, because enlisting is human, both you and your prospects are being bombarded by disruptive emotions as you interact during the recruiting process.
After an objection has been thrown on the table, in the heat of the moment, we too often treat it as a rational and logical thing. Science tells us, though, that the human decision-making process, including objections, is emotional first, then logical.
Dr. Antonio Damasio changed the way science views human decision making. He proved that emotions, not logic, guide the way we make decisions.7 Damasio studied people whose limbic systems—the emotional center of the brain—were damaged and not working properly. Yet, these subjects had a normally functioning neocortex—the part of the brain that controls rational thought.
He discovered that people in this condition shared a peculiar commonality. It was almost impossible for them to decide. They could objectively discuss the logic and rationality of different choices, but when asked to make a decision, they found it difficult, sometimes even impossible, to choose. Without their emotions to guide them, they agonized over even the simplest choices.
Damasio’s work demonstrated that emotions are central to human decision making. This is not to say that we don’t make rational decisions. We certainly attempt to make decisions that we believe are in our best interest. What Damasio proved, though, is that for humans, decisions begin with emotion.
We feel, and then we think.
It is in this context that we must accept that objections are emotional. Understanding this is important, because when you try to resolve an objection with logic, without first considering its emotional origin, it’s like arguing with a wall. You expend a ton of energy arguing with the wall, but the wall will not move.
Choosing a career path—especially a military career—is an emotional experience filled with stress. Prospects are overwhelmed by options, misinformation, and the endless “me-too” claims of each recruiter (military and civilian) they encounter. They are frustrated with the complicated, cluttered, and at times chaotic decision-making process. They have a cacophony of influencers chirping in their ear.
Even when prospects raise their hands and express an interest in the military, they throw out objections and resistance. They’ll say they need to think about it and consider other options, fixate on what can go wrong, focus on the negatives rather than the advantages, get other people involved for their opinions, and avoid you. It’s human nature.
Because objections are inherently emotional, you must first deal with objections at the emotional level before you can introduce logic. Of course, we all want those magic words that roll off our tongues like sugar and wow our prospects into complete submission. We secretly fantasize about having the perfect lines that get us past any objection. Recruiters are constantly asking:
“What do I say when they tell me . . .?”
“What should I do when they say . . .?”
“How do I respond if they ask . . .?”
In this chapter, our focus is on what to say after you ask for time or information and get an objection. This is when you are most likely to freeze up, argue logic, say nonsensical things, get embarrassed, and feel the sharp sting of rejection.
This inflection point is also the moment of truth when you either get past no and engage your prospect, or get your hat handed to you and walk away with nothing.
Instead of giving you generic scripts, though, we’ll focus on a Three-Step Prospecting Objection Turnaround Framework. Frameworks make you agile. They give you a set of rails to run on that flex to changing context. The Three-Step Prospecting Objection Turnaround Framework is designed for both managing your disruptive emotions in the moment and pulling your prospect toward you so that it becomes easier for them to say yes.
To be successful in getting past no, you must develop poise, confidence, and emotional control. You will need to master objection turnaround frameworks to break through resistance, move past objections, and get to yes.
The Rule of Thirds
With prospecting interactions, your goal should be to get to a yes, no, or maybe for a conversation or interview as quickly as possible.
Get to yes fast. About one-third of the time, your prospect will say yes because your approach and message were spot on or because you showed up at just the right time and asked confidently. Your goal is to get these yeses off the table fast and avoid talking your prospect into saying no. This is where confidence matters. When you anticipate rejection, allow your fear to derail you, and come off as insecure, weak, or passive, you’ll transfer those emotions to your prospect and create resistance where it didn’t exist—turning a sure yes into a no.
Get to no fast. About one-third of the time the prospect will say no and mean no. Sometimes the prospect will hang up the phone on you or turn their back and walk away. Sometimes they’ll be rude. Most times, the prospect will give you a direct and certain no! Although it sucks, a direct no is also a blessing, because it allows you to move on to the next call quickly.
Get to maybe fast. About one-third of the time the prospect will hesitate, say maybe, negotiate, or throw out an objection. This is where the rubber meets the road in recruiting—it’s where you have a chance to turn a maybe into a yes.
In military recruiting, maybe is where you earn your stripes. The maybes matter because these prospects are often your best opportunities—Alphas who have many options available to them. It’s the skill and poise to deal with prospecting objections and turn them into yeses that gets you in front of your highest-value, most qualified prospects.
In this chapter, I’m going to give you a framework for dealing with prospecting objections that will increase your probability of turning maybe into yes. Once you master this framework, you’ll gain the confidence to effectively handle anything that is thrown at you while prospecting.
The Three-Step Prospecting Objection Turnaround Framework helps you control the disruptive emotions that turn prospecting calls and interactions into painful train wrecks. Let’s begin with gaining a basic understanding of the responses you get from prospects when you interrupt their day.
Prospecting RBOs
When prospecting by phone, in person, or by e-mail, direct messages, and text messaging, you’ll run into three types of responses: reflex responses, brush-offs, and true objections. Collectively these are called prospecting RBOs.
Reflex Responses
I was traveling and realized that I’d left the cord for my iPad at home. There was an office supply store within walking distance of my hotel, so I strolled over to get one. As I entered the store, a nice young man walked up to me and asked, “May I help you?”
I responded, “I’m just looking.”
As I walked away, I caught myself. I wasn’t “just looking.” Who the hell goes to an office supply store to “just look”? I’d gone there on purpose to get a power cord. So, I went back and asked for help, and he walked me over to the shelf where the cords were hanging.
Why did I respond this way when it clearly wasn’t the truth? It was automatic, something I’d said hundreds of times. You do the same thing, too. It’s a habit, a reflexive response that requires little cognitive investment.
Prospects respond to prospecting calls with reflex responses, and recruiters fall for it—treating reflex responses at face value. For the prospect it’s easy. When a recruiter interrupts, hit them with a reflex response, then like magic, the recruiter goes away.
“I’m not interested.”
“I’m already going to college.”
“I have a job.”
“I’m busy.”
“It’s not for me.”
“I’m driving.”
“I’m just running out the door.”
“No, my daughter isn’t interested in joining the military.”
These are just some of the conditioned, rote responses to your interruption. The prospect is just running on autopilot.
Because prospecting objections are usually conditioned responses, the most effective way to get past them is pattern painting—disrupting the prospect’s expectations for how you will respond. We’ll discuss pattern painting later in the chapter.
Brush-Off
A brush-off is your prospect’s nice way of telling you to bug off, avoid conflict, and let you down easy:
“Call me later.”
“Get back to me in a month.”
“I’m taking some time off this summer. Maybe call me in September.”
“Why don’t you just send over some information?” (The greatest brush-off of all time.)
Prospects have learned that recruiters, for the most part, are willing to accept these falsehoods and go away, because recruiters want to avoid conflict, too.
The brush-off doesn’t feel as much like rejection. When you accept a brush-off, your brain lets you off the hook. You still have hope. You fit in, didn’t cross the line, weren’t too pushy. You avoided being rejected—being kicked out of the cave.
Except that for recruiters, getting snowed by a brush-off is like pushing a rope. You delude yourself into believing that you’ve accomplished something:
“He must be interested because he said to call him back in a month or two.”
“She wants more information, so she must be interested.”
But you get nowhere. A brush-off is just a falsehood that both parties are conditioned to believe to circumvent the pain of conflict and rejection.
True Objections
True objections on prospecting calls tend to be more transparent and logical rebuttals to your request. They typically come with a reason:
“There is really no reason for us to meet right now because I was just accepted to college.”
“I’m leaving for a family vacation and can’t talk right now.”
“I spoke to the Air Force, and they said I wasn’t qualified.”
“I’d love to talk, but I’m going to move to Arizona to live with my brother and work for his company.”
“My parents won’t let me join the military.”
“I’m already talking to the Marine Corps.”
When you get true objections, you must use your good judgment. There are three decisions paths:
Turn the objection around and meet anyway.
Shift gears and gather information—or flip the call into a referral.
Hang up, move on, and come back to the prospect at a better time or never.
Prospecting RBOs Can Be Anticipated in Advance
At every Fanatical Military Recruiting Boot Camp, I ask a simple question of the participants: “How many ways can a prospect tell you no on a prospecting call?”
The most common answer (accompanied by the obligatory eye roll): It’s infinite.
Sadly, this is how most recruiters think. They approach each prospecting objection as a unique, random event and thus wing it on every call. This is a big mistake—in recruiting, winging it is always stupid and at no time more so than when prospecting. It is almost impossible to control the emotional and neurochemical responses to rejection in the harsh environment of prospecting without a plan.
The truth is, prospecting RBOs are not unique. There are a finite number of ways a prospect will tell you no. Better yet, there are a common set of RBOs faced by military recruiters, and usually just three to five of these make up 80 percent or more of prospecting objections. In general, most RBOs come in the form of:
Not interested
Don’t know what I’m going to do
Not qualified
Parents won’t let me join
Too dangerous
Don’t want to leave home
Don’t like the current Commander in Chief
Already talking to another branch
Already have a job
Want to take some time off first
Going to college
The military is not for me
I need to speak to someone else before . . .
Too busy
Just send information
Overwhelmed—too many things going on
Family obligations
Don’t want to go to boot camp
Just looking/checking you out (inbound leads)
Prospects don’t always use these exact words. For example, instead of saying, “I’m too busy” they may say, “I’ve got football practice and a test I need to study for.” The words are different, but the intent is the same—I’m busy.
When I ask participants in our Fanatical Military Recruiting courses to list all the possible RBOs they can think of, we rarely get past 15. When I ask them to list the ones they hear most often, it’s rarely more than five.
Making a list of the most common RBOs you encounter during prospecting interactions is the first step toward learning to anticipate RBOs and crafting effective responses. Take a moment right now and use Table 21.1 to list all the prospecting RBOs you run into. Then rank them from most frequent to least frequent.
You are going to get prospecting objections, and they will trigger your disruptive emotions. But since virtually every RBO you get on a prospecting call can be anticipated, you may plan responses in advance, gain control of your emotions, disrupt your prospects’ patterns, and flip the script.
To master and become effective at turning around prospecting RBOs, you simply need to:
Identify all the potential RBOs (see the previous exercise).
Leverage the Three-Step Prospecting Objection Turnaround Framework to develop simple, repeatable scripts that you say without having to think—thus allowing you to rise above your emotions.
Why have a repeatable practiced script for RBOs? We’ve explored the emotional response to anticipated, perceived, or real rejection. The fight-or-flight response kicks in, blood rushes from your neocortex (rational brain), and you can’t think. This makes it very difficult to construct messages that address the RBO in the moment, during lightning-fast prospecting exchanges.
In emotionally tense situations, scripts free your mind, releasing you from the burden of worrying about what to say and putting you in complete control of the situation. A practiced script makes your voice intonation, speaking style, and flow sound confident, relaxed, authentic, and professional—even when your emotions are raging beneath the surface.
Scripts work especially well with prospecting RBOs because you tend to get the same ones again and again. To observe the power of scripts, just go see a movie. Every TV show, movie, and play is scripted. Were they not, they wouldn’t be entertaining.
Notice the difference when a politician is speaking off script in a confrontation with reporters as opposed to giving a speech with the aid of a teleprompter. On stage, the politician is incredibly convincing. But without a script, he stumbles on his words and makes many of the same mistakes recruiters make when winging it with RBOs on prospecting calls.
The worry for most recruiters, though, is “I won’t sound like myself when I use a script.” The concern about sounding canned is legitimate. In recruiting, authenticity matters. This is exactly why actors, politicians, and top recruiters rehearse and practice. They work and work until the script sounds natural and becomes their voice.
Scripts are a powerful way to control your emotions and manage your message, but they must be internalized. Developing your RBO turnaround scripts requires effort. You must tailor your messages to your unique situation. You must practice, test your assumptions, and iterate until you hone messages that work and sound authentic.
The good news is that you already have the habit of saying certain things certain ways on prospecting calls. So begin with analyzing what you are already doing. Then formalize what is working into a script that can be repeated with success, time and again.
Take a moment now to write down in Table 21.2 your five most frequent prospecting RBOs and how you currently respond to them. Consider what is working and what is not working. Look for patterns in your messages. Think about the messages that make you feel and sound the most authentic.
You learned earlier in the chapter that a framework is like a set of rails. It acts as a guide to give you structure but doesn’t lock you into a one-size-fits-all process. Frameworks give you agility and authenticity in the heat of the moment, allowing you to shift your message to the unique situation of each prospect.
The Ledge
We’ve established that the initial physiological fight-or-flight response is involuntary. The adrenaline rushing through your bloodstream is released without your consent. In this state, with your body and brain drunk on neurochemicals, it is very difficult to retain your emotional composure.
But the effect of adrenaline is short-lived. The fight-or-flight response is only meant to get you out of trouble long enough to allow you to consider your options rationally and make the next move. The secret to gaining control of disruptive emotions in the moment is simply giving your rational brain (neocortex) a chance to catch up and take executive control.
In her book Emotional Alchemy, Tara Bennett-Goleman calls this the “magic quarter second”8 that allows you to keep the disruptive emotions you feel from becoming emotional reactions you express.
In fast-moving situations—like prospecting objections—to deal with disruptive emotions effectively, you need to quickly regain your poise and control of the conversation. Because prospecting objections tend to evoke strong emotional responses, the ledge gives you the magic quarter second you need to rise above your emotions and choose your response.
The ledge can be a statement, acknowledgment, agreement, or question. It is a simple but powerful technique for gaining control of your disruptive emotions when you feel fight or flight kicking in. Examples include:
“It sounds like you’ve been through this before.”
“That’s exactly why I called.”
“I figured you might say that.”
“A lot of people feel the same way.”
“I get why you might feel that way.”
“That makes sense.”
“That’s interesting—can you tell me why this is important to you?”
“How so?”
“Would you help me understand?
“Interesting—could you walk me through your concern?”
“Just to be sure I understand your question, could you elaborate a little more?”
The ledge technique works because it’s a memorized, automatic response that does not require you to think. This is important because as soon as our old friend fight or flight takes over, cognitive capacity deteriorates.9
Instead of stumbling through a nonsensical answer that makes you come off as defensive, weak, or unknowledgeable, or damaging the relationship with an argument, you simply use the ledge technique that you have prepared in advance.
Disrupt
Traditionally, trainers have taught recruiters to “overcome objections.” I often hear trainers use the phrase “combatting objections.” Some teach “rebuttals.” Sadly, this poor advice derails recruiters in their quest to get past no.
It’s also common to hear leaders tell recruiters to “never take ‘no’ for an answer.” The intention is to encourage persistence. I get it and understand the intent. In recruiting, persistence and resilience are critical mind-sets. Especially with prospecting and top-of-the-funnel activities, not letting no stop you is an asset.
But some recruiters mistake “never take ‘no’ for an answer” with “argue your prospect into submission.” This is one of the many reasons, including the disruptive emotions of attachment and desperation, that recruiters attempt to argue or pitch prospects into changing their minds. Objections become debates that must be won. Prospects and their parents are viewed as adversaries who must be conquered. No becomes a competition.
Overcoming doesn’t work. It has never really worked. The more you push, the more they’ll dig their heels in and resist you. This behavior is called psychological reactance.
People predictably rebel in the face of a debate or when choices are taken away from them. When someone tells you that you’re wrong, your response is quick and emotional (even when you really are wrong): “Oh yeah? I’ll show you!”
Psychological reactance unleashes your inner brat. This is the reason you cannot argue other people into believing they are wrong. No matter the logic of your argument, data, or supporting facts, the people you are arguing with will dig their heels in and argue back. When you trigger reactance, you push your prospects away from you rather than pulling them toward you. For this reason, overcoming, combatting, rebutting, and debating do not work.
The attempt to overcome creates animosity, exasperation, and frustration for both the prospects, who get bulldozed with an argument about why they are wrong, and the recruiter, who creates even more resistance and harsher rejection with this approach. So, prospects obfuscate, put up smoke screens, become stubborn and illogical, and even lie.
There is a better way. Rather than viewing prospects as adversaries, rather than attempting to prevail in an argument, leverage the way the brain works to paint patterns, disrupt your prospect’s expectations, turn them around, and pull them in.
Pattern Painting
Much like a computer, our brains can process only so much information at one time. As the cognitive load10 grows, the brain slows down and becomes less efficient. It is unable to focus, and attention control diminishes.
From a purely evolutionary sense, this inability to focus can put you in danger. Should there be a threat nearby—say a saber-toothed tiger crouched in the weeds, a bus rolling down the street, or a shooter on a rooftop—and you are so overwhelmed with incoming sensory information that you fail to see it, then bam! You’re dead.
Moving slowly tended to remove a person’s DNA from the gene pool, so human brains evolved to think fast. With so much sensory information hitting us at one time, we needed a way to focus on only those environmental anomalies that might be dangers or opportunities.
The human brain became a pattern monster, ignoring most incoming data so it could focus on things that stuck out—different, new, dangerous. Your brain is a master at grabbing the billions of bits of information in the environment around you, interpreting the patterns in them, and behaving appropriately (in most cases) in response to those patterns.11
If your brain did not leverage patterns for decision making and adaptive response to the world around you, you’d become overwhelmed and be unable to function. Disrupting patterns begins with understanding two facts about the human brain.
It is tasked with keeping you alive and therefore focuses on things in the environment that are unexpected and could pose a threat, while ignoring things that are the same (patterns) to ensure that it does not miss the former.
It is lazy, preferring the path of least resistance or cognitive load when making decisions. When the brain sees a pattern that is similar to other patterns, instead of taking the time to analyze whether the two things are different in any way, it assumes they are the same and uses that shortcut to make a quick decision.
If suddenly there was a loud noise nearby, your attention would be torn from these words and pulled toward that sound. Your brain would begin scanning your surroundings for anything out of place that could be a threat while also preparing you to deal with that threat. This is your fight-or-flight response. For the moment, a part of your brain called the amygdala has taken control of your emotions and behavior.
Think of the brain as a nesting Russian doll.
The big doll on the outside is the neocortex. This is your gray matter—your rational brain.
The middle doll is the limbic system—your emotional brain.
The smallest doll is your cerebellum or autonomic brain—it manages all the little (but still important) things like breathing, so you can concentrate on thinking.
All three brains are connected by the amygdala, a small structure within the brain that is housed in the limbic system.
The amygdala is the hub that processes all sensory input, connecting the rational, emotional, and autonomic parts of your brain. It is the center for emotions, emotional behavior, and motivation. Fear and pleasure are the language of the amygdala, and it exerts a massive and compulsory influence over your emotional behavior.
To avoid wasting precious resources on things that don’t matter, the amygdala focuses on and responds to environmental disruptions—anything different, unexpected, or new that it deems important to your survival, both physically and socially. The simple cognitive shortcut of ignoring boring patterns and being alert to anything that disrupts patterns is a key reason for our success as a species.
Your prospect has an expectation for how you will respond when they tell you no. They have an expectation for what you will most likely do next. When your behaviors match their expectations, no thinking is required; they just react.
When you disrupt expectations, though, it pulls prospects toward you. Different is sexy. Different sells. The amygdala loves bright, shiny things. Pattern painting—grabbing attention—is at the heart of the objection turnaround framework. Doing the unexpected is how you flip your prospect’s reflex script, turn them around, and pull them toward you.
Some examples of disrupt statements
When they say they’re already going to college, instead of arguing that you can help them with money if they just give you a chance, respond with something that is completely unexpected:
“Awesome. Sounds like you really have it together. All I want is a few minutes of your time to learn more about you and provide some additional information on our college tuition benefits. At a minimum, you’ll have the peace of mind that you’ve fully explored all of your options.”
When they say they’re busy, instead of arguing them into how you will only take a little bit of their time, disrupt their pattern by agreeing with them:
“That’s exactly why I called; I figured you would be. All I want to do is find a time that’s more convenient for you.”
When they say, “Just send me some information,” you can call their bluff and force engagement, or bring another RBO to the surface with:
“That’s fantastic! I’m happy to hear that you are interested in learning more. But we have so much information available and the last thing I want to do is overwhelm you. Can you tell me specifically what information you’d like to see?”
If they identify information they’d like to see, respond with:
“That’s exactly why we should get together. Once I learn more about your situation, I’ll tailor an information package just for you.”
When they say, “I’m not interested,” respond with:
“That makes sense. Most people aren’t interested the first time I call, and that’s exactly why we should meet.”
It is also important to avoid using words that only recruiters use. As soon as you do, you play right into expectations, become a pattern, and trigger another reflex response. Overused phrases like “Reaching out,” “I just wanted to,” “That’s great,” and “I understand” turn you into an easy-to-ignore pattern.
Ask
Back to the most important discipline in recruiting. To get what you want, you must ask for what you want. You may deliver the perfect objection turnaround, but if you don’t ask again, you won’t get the outcome you desire.
The ask step is where most prospecting objection turnarounds fall apart. The recruiter hesitates and waits for the prospect to do the work. They don’t, and they won’t.
You must control your emotions and ask again for what you want, assumptively and assertively, without hesitation, directly following your turnaround script. When you ask, about half of the time they’ll throw out another RBO—one that tends to be closer to the truth. Be prepared to turn it around and ask again.
What you should never do, though, is fight. It isn’t worth it. When you get two RBOs and still can’t turn your prospect around, graciously move on and come back to them another day. As they say, there are plenty of fish in the sea.
Putting It All Together
It is essential that you avoid overcomplicating this process. You need turnaround scripts that work for you and sound natural coming from your lips. They need to make you sound authentic, real, and confident.
Keep them simple so that they are easy for you to remember and repeat. They don’t need to be perfect, and they won’t work every time, but you need scripts that give you the highest probability of getting a yes.
Now it’s time to build your own scripts. Using Table 21.3, start with your five most common RBOs and consider your unique situation. Write down a ledge and construct a disrupt statement.
Once you complete the first pass, walk away from it for a day, and then come back and do it again. You’ll find that this process gives your brain a chance to adjust to the messaging process and will help you revise your scripts and make them better.
