What is the very first thing your business does with a newly hired sales representative? I would venture to guess that the sales manager begins by spending a great deal of time training the new hire on the ins and outs of your product or service. But do they ever end up delving into the actual art of selling, something to help build a reps actual selling foundation? Far too often sales reps are not coached on how to properly handle customer objections.
According to SiriusDecisions, 54% of sales reps are failing to meet their quota. With such an alarming percentage, it is vital that they be schooled in the art of objection. All is not lost if a prospect expresses a concern or raises a potential objection.
By becoming familiar with common objections, sales reps are better prepared with strategies or solutions to aid in overcoming those potential oppositions. They are no longer caught off guard floundering with what to say, but instead are ready to handle any opposition a prospect may shoot their way.
Below are five of the most routinely used sales objections heard in the B2B realm, with straightforward ideas on how to weather their challenging storm.
Explain to the prospect that although you understand that they aren’t currently on the lookout for your product or one similar to it, what you have to offer can help them operate more efficiently. What business wouldn’t want to run a little more smoothly?
If they are undergoing a large transformation within their company, such as software implementation or acquisition, find out when these things will be winding down and offer to follow up with them when things return to a more normal pace.
Most importantly—follow up! When you tell someone you’re going to follow up next month make certain that you do! Create a calendar invite or CRM task and then follow through.
Despite the fact that the person you are chatting with is not authorized to make the final decision, they are still able to relay pertinent information about your product to someone who is. In addition, they most likely participate at some point in the decision-making process if they are heavily involved in the area you are inquiring about.
Once you have helped this person see the need, ask to include the final decision maker on the next call.
It can be difficult to learn how to actually phrase this ask, or other follow-ups we recommend here. The reality is, it gets easier with practice and with effective sales coaching. This free guide provides more insight about how to conduct sales coaching.
The truth is, there is a simple way to avoid hearing this objection entirely: don’t ask any questions about budget until a need has been identified.
First and foremost, train your sales team to focus on the value you are offering your potential customers. If applicable, discuss ROI and how other organizations have seen measurable results.
If finances continue to be the only thing standing between you and them, find out when they set their budget for the upcoming year and regularly check back with them leading up to that time. If possible, get creative on your financing options or offer them a temporary credit to test our your product or service.
If they already use a product similar to yours, the solution really is quite simple: ask for more details about their current product.
By learning more about their current environment, reps will discover what prospects like and dislike about their current solution and be better able to formulate strategic responses to communicate the benefit of switching over to their product or service.
It is important for sales reps to know their competition. It may even be beneficial to give each of your reps a cheat sheet of key differences between yourself and your competitors to highlight if this objection surfaces during a call.
When this objection happens right off the bat, the real issues is often not what’s being presented. For example, the person could be on their way to a meeting or working towards an impending deadline and simply do not have the time or patience to talk about implementing something new at the current moment. Train your team to find out if they are simply connecting at a bad time.
Similar to what we have already discussed, it is also possible that the person you have been connected with is actually not the best person for your product discussion. Train your sales rep to politely ask the person if or how they are involved in the topic you want to discuss. Each company is unique in their structure and may have decision makers that are different than the norm, and even if your sales rep has done their research prior to the phone call they may not have connected with the correct individual. The person could simply not be interested in your product because it has nothing to do with their role in the company.
Why wait? Coach your sales development team to tackle these common, yet easily remedied, sales objections right now. The art of handling objections takes time and often continuous monitoring and coaching helps to reinforce these best practices. Overcoming objection requires reps to get creative, learning these 5 typical sales objections will give them the confidence they need. It will also help make the difference between failing to meet your sales quota and smashing your numbers out of the park.
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