Sales Chump

As we dive further into our FO’s (frequent objections) and after tackling the lack of a need existing objections or the knee jerk objections, we move on to the next set of objections likely to come up.  These objections you will run across will containe authority or responsibility issues.  They include but aren’t limited to:

• My boss isn’t going to authorize this
• I have to consult with…
• That’s not my area
• We have to use so and so
• That person isn’t here anymore

Most of them all group into one category and can all be handled the same way for the most part.  The biggest concern here if you’re getting some of these objections, you need to ask yourself: Why did I think this was the person who handles this?

Did you assume they handled this for the business?  Did you ask enough questions?  Chances are you assumed they handled and didn’t ask enough questions.  We want to try and not have these objections come up at all.  We can do this by asking the right questions at the right time.

I have to consult with… or My boss isn’t going to authorize this

All three of these mean you aren’t talking with the decision maker.  This could have been prevented by asking more questions in the beginning.  Don’t get me wrong… I work with large national accounts for big companies and run into this time to time regardless of how well I asked questions as some people will keep things hidden until it’s go time.  Nonetheless there are questions that you can ask before you get these objections that are much more effective before rather than after:

• Who else is involved in the decision making process?
• What do you think your boss would have a problem with?
• I understand you have to consult with other people and sometimes they will come up with some other questions, what time would be good to speak with all of the decision makers at the same time?
• Where do you see the other people involved getting hung up on this?

That’s not my area or That person isn’t here anymore

The “that’s not my area” and “that person isn’t here anymore” is simple.  You just need to figure out who you should talk to.  There are simple questions you can ask to get where you need to:

• My apologies, who’s area would that be?
• Who took over [person]’s position?

Those are simple enough and shouldn’t deter you away from proceeding.

We have to use so and so

This is a hard one.  Depending on the situation they might have to.  I have run into prospects that require you to do a ridiculous amount of advertising with them in order for them to use your services or they have a relationship with a competitor.  Use common sense and caution with these.  It can be tricky to not look cocky or arrogant with your response.

• When did you set up that kind of exclusive agreement? (chances are it’s not exclusive and this will open it up)
• What would allow you to be able to use someone else?

As you can see these questions answer why they have to use someone else without asking directly “why do you have to use them?”  That comes off rude a bit even if there’s no intention to be rude.

As in my other blog, don’t fear objections, welcome them.  Objections are good.  These are just a couple common objections or FO’s as I like to call them. Don’t give up on the first objection but use judgment.  There’s a difference between no and NO!.  Prospects have it in their gut reaction to reject you.  You have to fight through these false objections and work through them.

For those of us that aren’t rolling in the dough (that means you if you’re looking for sales tips) we are probably still cold calling and trying to build our prospects.  In this process we run into the knee-jerk objections:

• Not Interested
• We are satisfied with whom we have now
• Already have someone

Sometimes these can be a pain to get through but there are some steps to get around them.  My first question to you is are you talking with the correct person?  Often times you’ll get the gatekeeper or a receptionist that is trained to hang up on telemarketers or sales people regardless of the service.  These contacts at the company aren’t going to know if their interested, if their really satisfied, etc.  So before giving up let’s first make sure we’re talking with the right person.

Once we have confirmed we are talking with the correct person and we are still getting these objections there are steps to get the customer to open up and tell you why.

We’re Not Interested Objection

If this is the first time that the potential customer is talking with you and this is the first thing that comes out of their mouth… well how can they be?  You haven’t said anything interesting yet.  Dig a little bit into the objection:

• Are you not interested because you’ve already handled this?
• Are you not interested because you’re too busy to talk at the moment?
• Is this not the right time of year to talk with you about this?  When do you look at this?
• Are you not interested because you don’t use this service currently?

These questions can get to find out if they’re not interested or if they don’t want to talk to you.  It could be a busy time of the day or month and you’re timing is off.  Use common sense in timing… don’t call restaurants during lunch and dinner, don’t call hotels during check out times, etc.

We Are Satisified With Our Current Supplier Objection

Of course they’re satisfied or they would have called you.  They don’t realize they’re unsatisfied because they don’t know something better exists for them.  This is a good objection though.  It shows they do have interest in services you provide as they already have them, just with someone else.  So how do you show them things that they want that they aren’t currently getting?  Open ended questions.

• What about your current supplier do you like?
• What is one thing you wish you could change about your current supplier? (build on this answer if your service provides this change)
• Have you always been with this provider?  What made you choose them?

You can build on those core questions.  Listen to their answers.  They will lead you into how to build value in your company and service.

We Already Have Someone Objection

This one is better than the one above.  As they stated they have the service but they didn’t state they were happy with that provider.  You can use the same line of questions to get answers that will lead you into the next step of the sales process.

As in my other blog, don’t fear objections, welcome them.  Objections are good.  These are just a couple common objections or FO’s as I like to call them. Don’t give up on the first objection but use judgment.  There’s a difference between no and NO!.  Prospects have it in their gut reaction to reject you.  You have to fight through these false objections and work through them.

Open ended questions can be the most important tool sales reps have to determine customer needs.  Too many times will sales reps just talk and talk and never find out a prospects true needs.  When this happens, the sale is usually not made or money is left on the table.

You wouldn’t expect a car salesman to show you every car on the lot, with every option, in every price and in ever color.  How inefficient is that?  The sale is likely to be lost unless the car they want is the first one shown.

All sales should be viewed this way.  The product you’re selling much likely has multiple options, terms and pricing.  How do you know what best fits the customer’s need without asking open ended questions?

When you ask open ended questions, questions that require a response that is more than yes or no, it allows the customer to open up.  You should be able to determine their wants, their concerns, their needs and other things that are on their mind from these questions.  Make sure you take good notes and even repeat certain things to make sure you fully understand.

Below are several open ended questions.  Use them and watch your customers do all the talking and you do all the listening.

• How has the economy affected your business?
• What is your competition like?
• When you go over your monthly expenses, are there any that remain constant?
• Where do you see your business in five years?
• What got you into this type of business?
• If you could freeze any of your expenses, would you do it and why if so?
• When you got into business, what were your expectations?
• When analyzing your expenses, do you look for ways to improve your bottom line?
• Have you entered into fixed contracts before? How did that work out for you?
• What do you think about having the ability to protect your upside while taking advantage of the downside?
• What type of protection are you looking for?
• What are some of the things your current supplier does that you like?
• What are some of the things you would like your current supplier to provide that they don’t now?
• Who else is involved in the final decision?
• What risks do you want to avoid?
• What other factors come into your decision making process?
• Other than price, what other things are you concerned with?
• What time frame are you looking at?
• What steps do we need to take to move forward?

No, I’m not crazy.  Objections are good.  Very rarely will you find yourself in a sales presentation that the potential customer really has no objections.  Sometimes they just yes you to death to get through it with no real intention of buying.  So how do we bring these out the right way?

First, I find objections as a sign of a smart buyer.  A buyer who has no questions or objections means 1 of 2 things:

1. You talked way too much and didn’t ask the customer questions
2. Very naive buyer who can’t say no

Neither of which are really a solid sales approach.  From time to time you will have those customers that a piece of cheese could have sold.  Those aren’t the kind of sales you should focus on as the reality of this is that this situation will rarely come around.  A naive buyer will result in someone that will be calling you quite a bit after the sale is completed with questions and/or complaints.

Don’t fear objections, welcome them.  It is a lot easier to handle objections early in the sales process rather than later.  You can do this a variety of ways.  The best is open ended questions.  You can start with a direct question: Do you feel this would fit your needs?  Don’t move on to closing, there might be other things.

• What about this product do you feel suits your needs?

Then build the value about that particular point.  Ask them other questions: What else is important to you when selecting…?

The last thing you want is to find yourself near the end of the sales process fitting one need but missing 2 of the more important ones which will bring objections and they may arise at a time that is too late to save the sale.

Too many sales reps fear rejection and try to steer away from objections.  Bringing out objections the customer has shows the customer that you actually care about what is good for them.  Sometimes you will find that you saved a future sale or sales by not selling something the customer would not need by realizing their true objections.

Bringing out objections early in the sales process also will help keep false objections from coming up where the customer just makes up reasons not to buy.  They feel comfortable with you and know they can share the real reasons they don’t feel comfortable with something and won’t feel pushed into something they don’t want to do.

So don’t try to bury customer objections, welcome them with open arms and you will find your relationship much stronger with the customer and will have built trust up.  You may not have something that will fit what they need today, but you never know what the future will bring and you don’t want to miss future opportunities.

We here at Sales Chump would like to welcome “Garibaldi of Gab” to the site.  He is also a top performer and leader at his current employer and is known for “gabbing” up potential customers to where they can’t do anything but like him.

He brings a plethora of knowledge on sales and how to open conversations and figure out what is important to the customer.  We look forward to reading his articles and blogs in the future.