Many of you are in businesses where a customer’s credit history is an important piece in the qualifying process. The social security number is just as essential as the name on the application. But what do you say to increase the likelihood of receiving that increasingly important “444-55-7777”?

After building a bridge of rapport with your customer, asking questions to dig for the true needs and hot buttons, and summarizing your understanding - you are ready to receive permission to look at their credit. Don’t even bother unless you have earned the right by completing the previous steps mentioned.

Before we can go the next step in the sales process and propose any real solutions we have to see a credit history. This can be difficult because it often resembles a close situation. You may have to sell the customer on trusting you with their personal information. As always, look at this as an opportunity - a great way to measure how hot your customer really is. If they are just jerking your chain, you will definitely find out when you ask this scary, sales question:

“Can I have permission to pull your credit?”

Like most things in sales, if you make a big deal of it; so will the customer. Don’t use words like “pull your credit” or “check your credit”. These sound painful and invasive. I can’t tell you how many times I have listened to sales people prepare their customers for the absolute worst and set the table for a big, fat “NO!”.

“Well…umm…the next thing I have to do is pull your credit history. But don’t worry it won’t hurt your score that bad. I mean nobody really knows how bad your score drops when you run a customer’s credit but we have to do it if you want to see if you’re approved. I’m really sorry…but can I have your social security number? ”

What a loser. Imagine if you were trying to take a splinter out of your child’s hand. This is a fairly simple procedure that has little to no pain involved. However, if you were to tell your son or daughter “Brace yourself! This is going to really hurt!” You certainly wouldn’t expect for little Johnny to stand idly by and wait for the tweezers.

It’s no different when we go on and on about how a customer’s FICO will drop, their information is sensitive, etc. To increase your success try more innocent phrases like “take a quick look at your credit” or “take a peek at your credit history” to ease your prospect’s fears. Both of these sound much less invasive and threatening. You know it’s necessary and essential to see that credit report. Use a summary statement, mention their hot button, and make it a logical next move to see the credit.

“To summarize our conversation so far, you said your payments are making it really uncomfortable every month and you are starting to feel the pressure. Is that right?"

“The next step to getting this payment under control is to take a quick look at your credit. Then we can determine which program is best for you and get rid of all that worry. What’s your social security number?”

Make it seem perfectly natural. No pauses, no stopping, just straight through to what you need to meet their need. You’ll find that when a customer does allow you to take a look at their credit it is a tremendous buying signal and lets you know that the customer is serious about doing business with you. So next time you get ready to RUN or PULL someone’s credit, set yourself up for a sale instead of a scare.