Sales objections are actually good for any sales representative.
When a prospect raises an objection, it means that the person has considered your offering and found out couple of issues before going ahead with the deal. As a sales person it is your job to understand the objection, resolve the issue and convey the value of your solution.
Common Reasons Behind Sales Objections
- Budget Constraint
- Unidentified Problem
- Wrong Timing
- Limitation in Solution
- Ulterior Motive
- Alternate Solutions
- Stakeholder Approval
- Preconceived Notion
- Limited Information
Objection Handling Tactics
This is out of budget
There can be three scenarios when the prospect says that your solution is too expensive:
i) There is genuine cash crunch
Ask for the meeting anyway and convey the value, as the budget might open up in the future. Who knows if your prospect really likes the solution, he might work as the internal advocate and try to increase the budget.
ii) He didn’t understand the actual ROI and the benefits delivered by your solution in the long term
Dig deep and try to understand where exactly your product fails the benchmark. Explain how your solution adds value (example: reduction in total cost of ownership) and justify the pricing. Use case studies to strengthen your position.
iii) He properly assessed your solution and didn’t find it worth the investment
In this case connect with the prospect after couple of months and showcase the improved solution, better ROI, new clients, etc.
We’re working with [Competitor]
If your prospect is working with your competitor, try one of the following:
i) Ask your prospect for A/B test – deploy your solution along with your competitor’s to find out the better solution.
ii) Convey the additional value (if any) delivered by your solution. If your competitor is improving A and B, you can say that your solution improves C in addition to A and B.
Right now this is not a priority
When a prospect is immersed in something that requires her immediate attention, you’ll get this type of response. You might also get this response, if your solution comes off as something that would distort the established process.
First make sure that you have not approached the wrong prospect and the timing is correct. Then find out why your solution is taking a back seat.
Example:
[Prospect]: Right now we’re busy with new project requirements and we need to travel a lot.
[Sales Rep]: That’s great! You can use our mobile app to capture data during meetings and collaborate on the go.
We don’t need this solution
This reply might come up early in the sales cycle, when the prospect doesn’t know about the problem or has wrong information.
Sales rep should find out the reason behind this reply and educate the prospect about the problem they have.
If you get this reply later in the sales cycle, your solution actually might not be a good fit for the prospect.
We’ll purchase only if you add [additional deliverables]
It is quite common for prospects to demand additional offers, features, etc. They just want to customize the solution according to their need.
The key here is to find out why that particular additional feature is so important that it can break the deal. The answer you get might not be in-line your company’s vision or it might improve your offering.
If the requirement is genuine and in-line with company’s future plan, then promise that it’ll done. Also try to see if you can provide any work around. If the customer demand has no justification or not something that company can offer, then walk out of that deal.
We’ll purchase next month
Either the prospect is stalling you or genuinely interested in buying after some time.
In this kind of scenario you should ask the prospect about their buying process – what are the sequential steps taken by their company to complete the purchase. That way you would know exactly what needs to happen along with estimated timeline for closing the deal. This will help you customize your action plan in case there is any delay.
I need to run this through the board of directors
In B2B sales, you are bound to encounter multiple stakeholders. The number of meetings and stakeholders increase according to the size of the organisation.
In this case you should try to be present (physically/via phone) in that meeting. This will help you expedite the process, clarify doubts and give you a good shot at convincing others.
Mail the details and I’ll get back to you
The prospect might have said this with good intentions to evaluate your solution. But most probably you won’t receive any communication, as the onus of initiating the follow-up now lies with the prospect.
Just acknowledge that you’d be sending the required information and also add that you need to know what all information is important to the prospect. This will ease the tension and open up the door to have detailed conversation.
No time to talk!
Usually this response is given at the early stage of sales cycle. All you need to say is you need two minutes to explain how your offer can benefit them.
If you get this message in the later stages of sales cycle, it simply means that the prospect has become cold and it won’t be possible to close the deal without revamping your solution.
Five-step approach
Here are the five steps you can follow to handle sales objection.
1) Listen and empathise
Fully listen to the customer without any interruption and say ‘thank you’. Empathizing with customers helps them open up and leads to an engaging discussion.
Example: “I understand this can be disappointing and I think I can help”.
2) Ask questions and Identify the objection
Ask open-ended questions that would require more than yes/no and figure out the exact objection. If you’re stuck at some point, simply ask ‘why?’.
3) Probe and discover the root
Get to the root of the objection with the help of probing questions. Example: Sorry, I didn’t fully understand. Could you please give me an example.
4) Answer and confirm
Once you have fully understood the issue, answer the issue and get the confirmation from the prospect that your answer was satisfactory.
5) Show the value
Quantify the problem and show the ROI of your solution. Finally move the deal to the next stage in the sales cycle. If you’re at the last stage, ask for closure.
