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.

Some people have FAQ’s on their site, well ours will put a little twist on this and we will call them FO’s (Frequent Objections) or common objections.  We have broken it down by type of objection for your convenience.  We can explore each set of objections as a separate blog or article upon request and go further into detail.  You should contact us to let us know.

Customer Doesn’t See a Need Exists

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

Customer isn’t responsible or have authority

• 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

Customer has some discomfort

• Send me something in writing
• Don’t have time right now
• It’s too much of a hassle
• We won’t use it

Customer doesn’t see it as a priority

• Not a priority now
• Call me next month or year
• I need to think this over
• Other things on my desk

Customer doesn’t believe it will work for them

• This isn’t for us
• You don’t have what we need
• We’re looking for something different
• I need better quality than what you offer

Customer doesn’t believe you

• We work with people in our industry
• Never heard of you
• I don’t like your company
• Bad experience with your company
• You don’t understand our problems (multiple issues here)

Customer doesn’t see you as the best solution

• Don’t see any reason to change
• We have to look at multiple suppliers
• Been doing business with them for years
• What makes you different?
• Why should I buy from you?
• My [insert friend or relative] is in the business
• Don’t see any difference

Customer doesn’t see any monetary reason

• Your competitor does it for less
• Price is too high, need a better price, etc
• Can’t afford it

Customer doesn’t believe that your solution would work

• Not sure how we would implement this
• Too much risk
• This is a lot to think about
• Change doesn’t go over well here

We will be writing separate blogs with each of these blocks of questions with ways to overcome these objections and move to the next step.  If you have other objections you would like to add to the list, please feel free leave a comment below.