At Incept when performing my daily duties on the front lines of recruiting blood donors, I hear the word “No” quite often in my pursuits of appointment scheduling.
Being able to take a “No” in this line of work is a necessity. You have to be able to avoid taking it personally. But when it comes down to it, a person saying “No” either in an unassertive, aggressive, or even indirect way can tell you a lot about your own approach when it finally comes time to deliver the pitch you want your donor to act upon.
In the blood donor recruitment industry, the word “No” is unavoidable. Oftentimes, a simple “No” can mean that you aren’t asking your donors in the right way.
When someone tells me “No”, I thoroughly make sure I give them a solid LAMA. If you are new to LAMA, it is actually an extremely useful technique used by Incept and our Conversational Marketing™ Experts (CMEs) to help create a comfortable, intelligent, and cooperative rebuttal when speaking with our donors. LAMA is when you listen to what the donor is saying; acknowledge what they have told you, usually by repeating what has been said so they know you listened; make a statement about how you can handle their issue or what you can do to help them make a decision; and then ask a question, usually pertaining to making a decision on your call to action.
In the world of blood donor recruitment, if we didn’t second-attempt or rebuttal at all things would be nowhere near as productive as they could be! So keep in mind, successful second-attempting does in fact equal higher productivity!
Making Your Second Attempts Solid
- Keep a professional tone after the “No.” Remember: it is nothing personal against you.
- Openly and verbally identify with why your donor said “No.”
- How do you word your pitch? Remember: sometimes it’s not what you ask, but how you ask it that will produce the response you seek.
- Gear your pitch to your specific donor based upon what has been said, their gender, their lifetime donation number, or another identifying factor. Do anything you can to personalize and customize your second attempt so it feels personable.
- Never be afraid of being assumptive! The more assumptive you sound, the more likely the donor is to say “Yes.”
- Be a champion of what you are asking your donor to do! Donating blood is a very positive and helpful thing someone can do for another. Don’t be afraid to sound excited and promote the actual act of saving lives!
Solid second attempts can help you in multiple ways. You aren’t simply going through your call records, but rather maximizing the potential for better productivity. Your representatives themselves also will be more productive. Overall, second-attempting the correct way is just a smart and profitable thing for any telecommunications company to take seriously.
How effective are your company’s representatives second attempts?
For more information about LAMA, please visit McKee Consulting LLC