Getting Around Prospect Objections
•Download as PPT, PDF•
12 likes•10,899 views
Unfortunately, you are guaranteed to run into objections on just about every cold call. Either it is the prospect simply being busy or that they are not interested or that they ask you to just send your information. These objections can not only be challenging, they can also be down right frustrating and sometimes ruin your day. The good thing is that there are only about 10 objections that you will consistently face. With that being such a low number, you can easily build a list of the most common objections that will come up for you and from there you can prepare some responses.
Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
Viewers also liked
Viewers also liked (13)
More from SalesScripter
More from SalesScripter (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Getting Around Prospect Objections
- 1. Dealing with Objections Sales Training Michael Halper
- 2. What are Objections • A prospect’s best weapon – Mini stop signs – Used to take control of the call and take it in a direction of their choosing • Common Objections: – I am busy right now. – Who are you with? – What is this in regards to? – I am not interested. – Just send me some information. – We already use somebody. – We are not looking to make a change right now. – We do not have budget/money to spend.
- 3. Why this Step is Critical • Bad news: – Face on just about every cold call • Good news: – There are only around 10 objections that we will consistently face – By simply preparing for those, we can see an immediate improvement in performance – Improve mental fortitude
- 4. Objections Handling Options 1. Comply 1. Overcome 1. Redirect
- 5. Comply • To give in to the objection • Example: Prospect: “I am not interested” Caller: “OK, have a nice day.” • Weakest response - only use as a last resort • At some point, we have to comply • Rule of thumb: Comply after two to three other attempts
- 6. Overcome • To defuse the objection • Example: Prospect: “I am not interested” Caller: “OK, but we also have the auto tuning feature and are the global leader doing this for 30 years.” • Downside to trying to overcome: – Very challenging to change someone’s mind – Can be time consuming – Can give life to the objection • Tactics: (not recommended during cold calling) – Isolate, then get to the root – Feel, felt, found
- 7. Demonstration of Overcome Isolate, then get to the root Objection: Your prices are too high. Response: Just to confirm, are you saying that everything else fine and that the price is the only thing that concerns you? (Isolate) What is it that drives your concern about price? Is there a budget that you are trying to stay with in? Or is it more of a cash outlay factor? (Get to the root) Not real applicable to cold calling – Your goal is to get to a meeting. That is where you will want to talk about pricing and funding points.
- 8. Demonstration of Overcome Feel, Felt, Found Objection: Your prices are too high. Response: I understand why you feel that our prices are high. (Feel) A lot of IT managers that I have brought over felt that same way. (Felt) But once they switched over, they found that when you add in the reliability of service, the total cost of ownership actually lead to a lower total cost. (Found) Not real applicable to cold calling – Your goal is to get to a meeting. That is where you will want to talk about pricing and funding points.
- 9. Redirect • To redirect the objection into a related area • Example: Prospect: “I am not interested” Caller: “I understand. Do you mind if I ask what you are doing today in this area?” • Goal of the redirect is to keep the conversation going without focusing on the objection itself • Tactics: – Redirect qualifying questions – Redirect to value statement – Redirect to pain points – Redirect to building interest points
- 10. Demonstration of Redirecting Objection: I am busy right now. Response: I can be very brief or I can call you back at another time.
- 11. Demonstration of Redirecting Objection: Who are you with? Response: (Redirect to value statement) I am with ArgaTech and we work with Chemical Companies and help them to improve inventory turnover by 20 to 25%.
- 12. Demonstration of Redirecting Objection: What is this in regards to? Response: (Redirect to value statement) Purpose for my call is that we work with Chemical Companies and help them to improve inventory turnover by 20 to 25%.
- 13. Demonstration of Redirecting Objection: I am not interested. Response: I understand. (Redirect to one of the qualifying questions) Are you currently using any automation tools to manage your inventory levels? - Or - I understand. And I want you to know that we are not trying to sell anything at this point. (Redirect to one of the qualifying questions) Are you currently using any automation tools to manage your inventory levels?
- 14. Demonstration of Redirecting Objection: Just send me some information. (Early in a cold call – BLOW OFF) Response: Sure, I definitely will. So that I know exactly what to send you, let me ask you, (Redirect to one of the qualifying questions) Are you currently using any automation tools to manage your inventory levels?
- 15. Demonstration of Redirecting Objection: Just send me some information. (Late in a cold call – NONCOMMITTAL) Response: Sure, I definitely will. Are there some particular details that you have questions about? If you have a level of interest, it may be easier to have a quick conversation with over the phone on another day instead of me sending over a bunch of information.
- 16. Demonstration of Redirecting Objection: We already use somebody for that. Response: Oh, good. How long have you been using them? How is it going? What product are you using of theirs? What do you like about working with them? Is there anything that you need that they are not able to provide? (Redirect to any of the qualifying questions if applicable)
- 17. Demonstration of Redirecting Objection: We are not looking at making a change right now. Response: I understand. And I want you to know that we are not trying to sell anything at this point as we don’t even know if you are a good fit or not. Our goal is to simply open the dialogue between our two companies so that if you reach a point where you are ready or looking to make a change, you will know who we are and what we have to offer. (Redirect to one of the qualifying questions) Are you currently using any automation tools to manage your inventory levels?
- 18. Demonstration of Redirecting Objection: We do not have any budget / money to spend on that right now. Response: I understand. And I want you to know that we are not trying to sell anything at this point as we don’t even know if you are a good fit or not. Our goal is to simply open the dialogue between our two companies so that if you reach a point where there is budget available, you will know who we are and what we have to offer. (Redirect to one of the qualifying questions) Are you currently using any automation tools to manage your inventory levels?
- 19. Building an Objections Map • Tool to build to use as a guide for dealing with objections • List out anticipated objections • Formulate best responses • Can include redirects and overcome responses
- 20. Reflect Back to Improve Forward • When a call ends, reflect on what objections the prospect had • Identify how you responded and if your responses were effective at keeping the call going • Was there a response that could have been better? • Update objections map – Add new objections – Improve existing responses
- 21. Key Takeaways • You are guaranteed to get objections on every cold call • You can immediately improve your results by simply listing out the main objections that you can anticipate and scripting responses that stand to keep the calls going • Not only can this improve results, but it can also help to decrease stress, improve confidence, and improve your mental state • Focus on redirecting ahead of overcoming to keep calls going • When a call ends, reflect back to improve your ability to handle future calls
- 23. SalesScripter www.salesscripter.com What do you sell? ___________ How does it help? ___________ What problems do you fix? ___________ What questions should you ask? ___________ 1. Asks all the key questions 2. Maps answers to document library
- 24. If You Want More Help • The Cold Calling Equation – Problem Solved – Available on Amazon - $15.95 • Web-based training program – Week 1: Ideal Sales Process and Communicating Value – Week 2: Finding Prospect Pain – Week 3: Ideal Prospect and Qualifying – Week 4: Dealing with Objections and Getting Around the Gatekeeper – Week 5: Building Rapport, Interest, and Credibility – Week 6: Generating Leads and SalesScripter Overview – Week 7: Improving the Connect Rate – Week 8: Inner Game – Week 9: Managing Prospecting Meetings and Managing Sales Cycles – Week 10: Improving the Close Rate and Disqualifying • SalesScripter – www.salesscripter.com – Walk-through services available • SalesScripter Demonstration – Every Thursday
- 25. www.salesscripter.com | info@salesscripter.com | 713-802-2026
Editor's Notes
- Before we go any further, let’s clearly discuss what objections are. Objections are a prospect’s best weapon when they answer your cold call. They are statements or questions that the prospect will throw at you and they are like mini stops signs that the prospect will hold up. They use to try to take a control of the call and take it in a direction of their choosing. And if they begin to feel like you are selling something when they are not looking to buy, they will want try to end the call and will use objections to get there as soon as possible. Now let’s take a look at common objections and ones that you are just about guaranteed to run up against. I am busy right now. Who are you with? What is this in regards to? I am not interested. Just send me some information. We already use somebody. We are not looking to make a change right now. We do not have any budge to spend. Those are eight objections that consistently come up. You could maybe tweak those for your situation, and add a couple that are specific to your products, you would have a complete list of objections to be prepared for. As part of this training, we will explain these one at a time and show you how to get around them.
- Before we get into the tactics, I want to just talk about why this is such an important area. Spending some time in this area is critical to consistently being successful. And the more exciting way to put that, by spending some time in this area, you will see an immediate improvement in results and performance. Let me explain why. First, there is some bad news and that is that you are likely to face some sort of objections on just about every call that you make. Either right when the prospect answers or after talking for a little while. If you are not prepared for those, you will likely struggle and have very inconsistent results. The good new against that is that there are really only around 10 objections that you will consistently run up against. With that being such a low number, you can easily list those out and prepare responses ahead of time and then being armed with those ready when you pick up the phone, you will see a drastic improvement in performance. One of the key things to be aware of here, is that cold calling can be very challenging mentally. You are calling a somewhat hostile environment by calling people that are not expecting your call and do not want to talk to you. With that you face objections and sometimes rejection. This can wear on a person mentally. But the great thing here is that by simply improving your ability to handle objections, you not only improve the calls that you make, but you feel better mentally by being more in control and more ready and that can help to improve your confidence and mental stamina and fortitude, and that can sometimes be the difference in being successful long-term.
- Now that we know what objections to expect, what are our options when the come up? Well, we have basically three primary options. We can comply with the objection, we can try to overcome the objection, or we can redirect the objection. Let’s go through each option in a little more detail.
- To comply is basically to go along with and give in to the objection that the prospect is giving. For example, if a prospect were to say, “I am not interested”, to respond by complying would be to say “OK, have a nice day.” Obviously, this weakest response and option that you have. If you complied with every objection that you encountered, you would have minimal to no results. With that, only use the option of complying as a last resort. And even though complying is the weakest response, at some point, you do need to comply. This is when there is either nothing you can do to get around it or change the prospect’s mind, or sometimes it may cause too much damage to persist forward without complying. So how do you know when to comply? One rule of thumb is to try to deal with an objection another way two or three times. And if the objection is still there, go ahead and comply.
- Looking at the option to try to overcome the objection, this is to face the objection head on and try to defuse it or change the prospect’s mind. For example, if the prospect says “I am not interested”, to try to overcome this is to try to make the prospect interested, with something like “OK, but we also have the auto tuning feature and we are the global leader doing this for 30 years.” Basically trying to give more information in that example that changes the prospect’s mind to being interested. The main thing about the option to overcome an objection is that there is a time and place for this approach. And a cold call is often not the best place to use this approach. There are some very clear reasons why and those are that to overcome an objection is to essentially change someone’s mind and that is a very difficult thing to do. Not only is that tough, but it is also time consuming, and a cold call really does not provide time and forum available to take that on. Lastly, when you taken on an objection, you bring attention to it, and this can give it more life and energy. When you get to the meeting or appointment that is scheduled by the cold call, that is where you want to face and try to overcome objections, and some tactics to use are Isolate, then get to the root and Feel Felt Found. Even though cold calling might not be the best time to use those tactics, we will still talk about them here in a little more detail.
- To demonstrate the Isolate, then get to the root tactic, if a prospect were to object that your prices are too high, if you wanted to defuse this, whether on the cold call or at a meeting after, you could begin by trying to isolate the objection. This is basically to clearly identify what the prospect is objecting to and identify what they are good with. In this example, this is good opportunity to identify if the price is the only concern but asking, “ Just to confirm, are you saying that everything else fine and that the price is the only thing that concerns you?” Once you are able to isolate the key area that the prospect is concerned about or objecting to, you can then work to get to the root of their concern. In this example, we try to get to the root by asking questions like, “What is it that drives your concern about price? Is there a budget that you are trying to stay with in? Or is it more of a cash outlay factor?” Every situation would be different, but in this example, the answers to these questions may reveal that it is not really the price that is a concern, it is that the prospect needs to spread the cost out, or has a budget that they need to stay within. When we identify this we are able to propose a solution that fits their needs from a structure standpoint enabling us to overcome the objection without complying. Getting to the root makes it easier for you to find solutions to the objection and this can help you to overcome.
- Another tactic that can be used to try to overcome an objection is called the Feel Felt Found tactic. If a prospect were to respond that “Your prices are too high.” You could respond with I understand why you feel that our prices are high. That is the “feel” step. A lot of IT managers that I have brought over felt that same way. The “felt” step. But once they switched over, they found that when you add in the reliability of service, the total cost of ownership actually lead to a lower total cost. And that is the found step. You basically share three statements that align with that feel, felt, found progression to paint a picture for another prospect that was shared the prospect’s point of view and show how their objection was overcome once they purchased from you.
- The third objection handling option that we have and that is to redirect the objection to new, but related area. For example, if the prospect says “I am not interested.” Redirecting the objection could be to say “ I understand. Do you mind if I ask what you are doing today in this area?” In that response, we are not directly focusing on and responding to the prospect’s point that they are not interested. And we are also not completely changing the subject and ignoring the objection. What we are doing is redirecting or deflecting by asking a question that keeps the conversation going into a new, yet still related area. In this example, the prospect may answer with what they are doing and then we can follow that with additional questions and we may end up getting far away from their original comment of not being interested. And the great thing about this, not only does this stand to keep the conversation going, but it also creates a scenario where you might obtain valuable information. Think about how valuable that is when executed properly, you go from a point where the call is about to end to one where the prospect is sharing information that you can use to begin to build your business case. When thinking about how to respond to objections, there is one thing that we never want to lose sight of and that is that our primary goal for the cold call is to progress to some sort of formal discussion like a meeting, appointment, demo, or event likely on another day. And with that being the case, we don’t want to spend time defusing objections. Instead, we want to focus on keeping calls going, and by redirecting to get around objections, we can improve our ability to keep calls going and get more meetings scheduled. The tactics to use to redirect are basically redirecting by asking certain questions. These can vary depending on your situation, but if you follow along with our other training modules and use our call script methodology, then you likely have qualifying questions, a value statement, common pain points, and building interest points, and these are all good areas to redirect toward.
- We are now going to demonstrate in more detail how to redirect objections and we will do this by going through each of the common objections that were pointed out earlier in the module. The first one is “I am busy right now”. You can expect this on a good portion of your calls, especially when doing B2B calling as you are calling prospects that are not expecting your call and are likely working or doing something else, and thus, they are very often busy when you call. To comply with this would be to always say ok and call back, which we do not want to do. To overcome would be to try to talk the prospect into not being busy, or not being too busy for you. Again, possible but not the easiest thing to do and you could cause damage trying. And to redirect, we can respond with the response of “Oh, ok. I can be very brief or I can call you back at another time.” With this response, if they are not completely distracted, they may respond by asking what you are calling about or just giving you a few minutes. And if they are truly not available, they will tell you to call them back and we do not want to try to execute the cold call anyways if they are mentally unavailable.
- Who are you with is an objection that does not really sound like an objection. But when gatekeepers and target prospects ask this, they are looking for you to answer with something that tells them that you are a salesperson trying to sell something. Like when you say, “I am with PipeFit and we are the leading provider of pipe fitting equipment.” That is the direct answer and when they hear that, they can easily respond with and another objection like we are not interested or we do not need that. So what you want to do when asked this is to redirect to your value statement. I am with ArgaTech and we work with Chemical Companies and help them to improve inventory turnover by 20 to 25%. When they hear this, they might not be saying yes, but they also did not hear what they were looking for to say no.
- Here is one of the gatekeepers favorite objections – What is this in regards to? This is a gatekeepers number one tactic to get you to say something that flags you as a salesperson trying to sell something so they can quickly shoot you down. For example, the direct or comply response would be “I am calling to introduce myself and schedule an appointment where we can discuss your business and see if you need to buy our services.” At which point you will then get another objection thrown right at you with the call ending shortly after. But if you redirect again to the value statement by saying Purpose for my call is that we work with Chemical Companies and help them to improve inventory turnover by 20 to 25%. When a gatekeeper hears this, it actually can throw them off because it is an answer that they are not prepared for or one that does not clearly say “troublesome salesperson calling”. And as result, this can help you to keep the call going.
- Let’s go back to the I am not interested objection and talk about it in more detail. I am not interested is actually not a legitimate objection for the cold call as you are not trying to sell anything. Our goal is to open the dialogue, so to say I do not want to talk to you would be more fitting, but to say they are not interested in buying your product actually does not make sense. A great place to redirect this objection is to any qualifying questions that you typically ask prospect. Questions about the prospect’s current technical and business environment are often good questions to ask whether facing an objection or not, but when a prospect says they are not interested, you can reply with a response like I understand. Are you currently using any automation tools to manage your inventory levels? - Or - I understand. And I want you to know that we are not trying to sell anything at this point. Are you currently using any automation tools to manage your inventory levels? Of course, this does not work every time, but remember that we our goal is to keep the call going and using this approach over a large number of calls will typically yield good results in getting around the objection.
- Here is a good one – just send me some info. Prospects love this one as it allows them to get off of the phone without sounding mean or hurting your feelings. You end up getting excited because you think they are interested and you spend time writing an email and they end up often just deleting your finely word smithed email. It is important to point out that this objection can come up at two different times on a cold call so let’s first discuss the first. When it comes up early or delivered by the gatekeeper, it is more of a blow off objection. Meaning, there is little interest and they are just trying to get rid of you. Here is the play for the first type, you can reply with, Sure, I definitely will. So that I know exactly what to send you, let me ask you, and then redirect to one of your qualifying questions Are you currently using any automation tools to manage your inventory levels?
- But this same objection can come up at the end of the cold call when you are going for the meeting and the prospect asks you to send info. This is more of a noncommittal response vs. a blow off. At this point, you may have gone through your pitch and triggered some interest, but the prospect simply does not want to commit to moving forward. Not a horrible place to be, but we do not want to comply and if this is at the end of the call, we might not have any points to redirect to or much time left to keep the call going. One way to try to redirect is by responding with something like Sure, I definitely will. Are there some particular details that you have questions about? If you have a level of interest, it may be easier to have a quick conversation with over the phone on another day instead of me sending over a bunch of information.
- Let’s look at the objection of We already use somebody for that, or some variation where they use your competitor or something in your area. To try to overcome this would be to respond by talking about your key areas of strengths and your features to try to build interest. At this point with a prospect in that mind set and with the time limits that come with a cold call, this is a very low probability play. What you can do instead is easily redirect to ask any number of questions about what they are doing with a response like: Oh, good. How long have you been using them? How is it going? What product are you using of theirs? What do you like about working with them? Is there anything that you need that they are not able to provide? Of course, you will not want to just ask those questions one after another, but that is a flow that you could work along with discussion in between and only need to ask a few questions to get away from the objection. The great thing about this play is, not only does it have a high probability of keeping the call going, but it also allows you to gather some great information. You could identify pain with your questions that helps you to create a lead, or you might find out that the prospect is good and has a very low probability of purchasing anything and you can bring the call to an end from there.
- The objection of We are not looking at making a change right now is realistic to come up since you cold calling the prospect out of the blue and it is very likely that even if they do need to purchase what you have, they might not need to make a purchase when you are calling. But the thing to remember and always keep in mind is that the goal of the cold call is to open the dialogue rather than close a sale, so the objection that they don’t need anything right now is not a legitimate reason to stop. You can still respond with a redirect, but you could add a little message to educate the prospect what angle you are coming from by saying something like I understand. And I want you to know that we are not trying to sell anything at this point as we don’t even know if you are a good fit or not. Our goal is to simply open the dialogue between our two companies so that if you reach a point where you are ready or looking to make a change, you will know who we are and what we have to offer. From there you can redirect to one of your qualifying questions. The play is to keep the conversation going and get to a formal meeting where you can then have an opportunity to build a case for making a change now. And if you don’t then, you can hopefully be there later when they do decide to make a change.
- The objection of not having any budget or money available to spend right now is similar to not looking to make a change. And the response is same as the not making a change now as you can present yourself as just trying to open the dialogue. You could use the exact same response that we just went through or you could tweak your language to say that, Our goal is to simply open the dialogue between our two companies so that if you reach a point where there is budget available, you will know who we are and what we have to offer.
- Now that we have outlined some of the objections that we are likely to face and we have talked about some ways to respond, we can now build a tool called an objections map. This is basically a document that lists out your anticipated objections and then shows you the response for each that has the best chances of keeping the call going. The tool basically can then be used as a guide or a map that tells you what to do when on the phone. This tool can drastically improve your results and it is pretty easy to build, just list out your anticipated objections, then formulate the best responses. And we have spent a lot of time talking about redirecting, but your objections map could also include responses to overcome objections in case there are times to use that approach.
- This last step that we will discuss is what will be needed to achieve mastery in this area and this is to reflect back on cold calls after they end. Right after a call ends, spend a few seconds to identify what objections the prospect had. Think about how you responded and if your responses were effective at keeping the call going. This is basically a learning and fine tuning step and we are trying to identify if the response that we gave was not effective, would there be one that would have been better. From there, we can work to update the objections map. It could be the case that the objections we faced were not on there and we need to get them on there. Or may we need to tweak our responses to ones that might work a little better. Remember, these objections are going to come up again and again. And by reflecting back, we can improve moving forward.
- That is the objections training module. Here a few points to summarize before we close this. You are guaranteed to get objections on every cold call You can immediately improve your results by simply listing out the main objections that you can anticipate and scripting responses that stand to keep the calls going Not only can this improve results, but it can also help to decrease stress, improve confidence, and improve your mental state Focus on redirecting ahead of overcoming to keep calls going When a call ends, reflect back to improve your ability to handle future calls