Recently I was driving down the street headed to the store and in my rear view mirror I see a police officer following behind me. The natural fear of me possibly doing something wrong kicks in and a ton of questions fly through my mind. Am I speeding? Driving straight? Did I use my turn signals? Am I wearing my seatbelt? Confident that I am just fine and following all the laws I relax but still keep checking the rearview mirror. Then the lights go on and I realize I am being pulled over.
License, Registration and Proof of Insurance
I pull off into an empty parking lot and wait to hear exactly what I did wrong. The officer walks up and just as I knew he would, he asks for my license, registration and proof of insurance. I fumble through the glove box hoping all the proper documents are there and when I find them, I hand them over.
After doing so I was relieved to find out that I actually hadn’t done anything wrong. I was pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt but I actually was wearing it. In my truck the seatbelt comes out of the seat and not the side panel. The officer could not see it and thought I did not have it on. He apologized for the mistake and I was back on the road again.
Get the Information First
Here is a great business lesson in this. If you ever get pulled over, a good officer will ask for you information before telling you what you did wrong. As someone who went through police training, I know the reason for this is so that you can’t get upset and not give it. If they tell you what you did wrong first, you could get defensive and not be willing to hand it over. Being accused of breaking a law that is going to cost you some money, does not exactly put you in the giving mood. But by getting the information first, there will be less resistance.
I hear so many times from clients that it is too hard to get the customers information. Getting their information is extremely important because “the money is in the list”. Getting your customer’s information allows you to contact them later on and possibly make additional sales. In the sales process it allows you to contact them later on if they do not buy at that moment. It is again, extremely important to get their information.
Many times the best way to do this is right away. When a prospect calls on the phone, you or your employees should be asking for their name and phone number immediately. A common line for this is “In case we get disconnected, what is the best number to reach you at?”
Most of the time you will receive very little resistance when asking for this. If you wait until the end of the call it will be 10 times harder. When you are making a sale, get their information as soon as possible in the process. They just got finished saying “yes” and making a purchase. This is the best time to get their info. Sign them up to a VIP Club or a newsletter. Just get the info!
The longer you wait in the process, the less likely you are to get it.
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