“When you don’t know what to do next in the process of trying to get a prospective client to hire you,” I told a group of professionals recently, “do what you do best: ask a question.”

A hand went up.  “Any question?” asked Ben, a very young-looking financial advisor.

“That was a good question,” I replied, and the group chuckled.

Then, an experienced litigation attorney, Natalie, asked me specifically about what to do when you’ve explained everything to a prospect and you hear those dreaded words—“Let me think about it…”.

“Well, what do you do now when someone says that to you?” I asked Natalie.

“My usual response,” she replied, “is something like, ‘Sure, take your time. When do you want me to check back with you?'”  “But,” Natalie complained, “once they leave, they usually don’t respond to my calls, and I’ve lost them.”

“Let me think about it” is a statement that can mean anything:??”I’m not sure about your approach.”?”You haven’t convinced me that your firm is the best one to handle this problem.”?”I’m not happy with your fees and costs.”?”Maybe if ignore my problem, it will just go away.”

As a result, you can’t do much with the statement unless you understand what it means to the person who spoke it.  A good response here, once again, involves questions.  So, it might look something like this:

Great!  This is an important decision and you should definitely think about it.  Let me see if I can help you, though:

Are you unsure about the approach I explained?  Do you think there might be a better solution??Are you not convinced that we’re the right firm to handle your needs??Is there any issue with the fees we discussed??Is there someone else you need to involve in the decision-making process?  Do you agree that you need to start taking care of this right away?

“Your questions will eliminate the non-issues one-by-one, and you’ll find out exactly what your prospect needs to think about,” I told the group.  “Then, you can ask more questions about whatever his particular concern happens to be and make sure you’ve satisfied him—if satisfying him is at all possible.”

“At that point, you can ask him again if he wants to get started,” I concluded.  “Does that answer your question, Natalie?”

“I don’t know,” she replied, “let me think about it.”

I can help you get more clients and feel more motivated, but you need to reach out and ask.  Start with good questions, and keep REACHING…