Lesson 25 - Prepare for Common Objections

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Objections are inevitable in sales. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to anticipate and prepare responses to the most common objections you’ll face during outreach. Your assignment will involve creating a list of common objections and writing out your responses for each.

Transcript

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Nick welcome back to the daily quota. I'm your host, Nicholas Hill, and in today's lesson, you're going to prepare yourself to respond to some common objections. Now every salesperson is going to face objections right as you send email, as you send outreach, as you connect on LinkedIn, as you make phone calls, you are going to hear and face a lot of rejection. It is a natural part of the role. But an objection is not the end of the world. And in fact, I would argue that when someone is giving you thoughtful objections, it means that they are considering your solution, and you have an opportunity to respond professionally and succinctly in a way that shows expertise, confidence in your solution and the ability to get the deal back on track. So the only way that you're going to be able to do that, though, is if you are prepared to respond to the most common objections that you're going to hear, you don't want to be caught off guard by one right? So when you think about the top objections, your assignment today is that you're going to end up writing down the top five objections that you hear for your specific solution, but I want to go through the 10 most common objections that pretty much everyone hears no matter what solution you're selling, and I'll give you a few tips for how to respond to each one. The first objection you're likely to hear is we're not looking right now, right? They just don't really have an urgency to change their current solution is good enough. They're not really considering new options right now. So what you need to do at that point is you need to emphasize the cost of inaction. So if someone says we're not looking right now, you need to have a point of view on why they cannot continue doing exactly what they're doing today, why they cannot maintain the status quo. You need to be illuminating negative consequences that exist, that they may not know that they may not have thought about right? So I might say something like, you know, hey, delaying could mean missing out on insights that could streamline your strategies, enhance your engagement. You know, many of our clients have found that a brief introduction to our features has opened up new possibilities that they hadn't considered which led to significant competitive advantages. Would it be possible to schedule 15 minutes to discuss how this might be crucial for you right now, it could be worth exploring how even small improvements could lead to significant gains. So what you really want to show them is, hey, by talking to me, you can address problems that you might not know you have right now. You can obtain a competitive advantage. There is significant downside to delaying further. The second objective that you're likely to hear is, you know, we already have something. We have something in place. You call and they say, Yeah, you know, we've got that. At that point, you need to focus on differentiation. So if you can ask, you know, oh well, What tool do you currently have in place? If you don't mind me asking, or what are you currently using today for this workflow? And you should have at the ready a list of differentiators on how your solution differs or is better than the solution that they're using today. So you know, it's understandable to stick with a solution that seems to work, but it's also important to know what you might be missing, and I'd love to set up a quick call with you to show you some of the new features in the field that you might not know about, some of the new capabilities and some of the ways that that we can improve your workflows over your other solution. So you really want to kind of suss out what are they using, and also, are there any gaps in what they're using? Do you have any complaints about your current tool? Are there any gaps in your workflows today? Right, start to understand if there's any pain or frustration there, we don't have the budget. Someone says, Yeah, we just don't really have the budget right now, unless they truly don't have enough money as an organization to buy your solution, which is doubtful. It usually means they just don't see the value, right. Whenever companies are trying to solve serious business problems, they will make the budget. They will create the budget in order to do that, because it's an important problem that they need to solve. So if someone is saying. Saying they don't have the budget for your solution you need to understand, Okay, well, one, how can I get in front of the person that is in charge of budget? And you can ask for a referral to that, but if you haven't shown them any value, it's doubtful that they're going to do that. A more likely entry point is for you to ask them, what are the areas of your business that are receiving the most attention right now? The most focus, the most prioritization, the most budget prioritization, because you want to be tying your solution to those initiatives. And hopefully you're coming in with a point of view on what that is already but ultimately, you need to discuss, you know, tying it to those top down initiatives. The other thing that you can do if they say they don't have the budget is bring up case studies or proof points of other organizations that made budget for you and ended up seeing revenue gains or cost reductions. So if someone is saying, well, we don't have the budget right now, I might say, you know, one of our clients was able to achieve a 30% increase in their efficiency within the first three months of using us. It significantly offset their other their initial investment in us. I know that we can provide similar results to you, and I'd love to see how we can fit within your financial plans. So we don't have the budget right now. That is an overcomeable Objection. I think that was terrible grammar, but we're going to move on. Um, send me or send me more information, and I'll get back to you. That's another one that you'll hear a lot. Um, when someone says, send me more information and I'll get back to you, send them more information and get back to them do exactly what they asked you to do, right? So I might just say, you know, you want to show that you're willing to compromise and be a good partner with them. So I might say, of course, absolutely, I'll attach detailed information about how we've helped to elevate some of your peers. But by the way, here's the three bullet point highlights, right? So I might say you asked for information. Here's the information. Here are the highlights, though. Here are the things that really, really resonate and matter. And hopefully in those highlights, you can say something that kind of piques their interest, and then they asked you to follow up. So follow up, set a calendar reminder and let them know that you're going to follow up. Say, I'll follow up in two weeks to discuss any thoughts or questions you might have after reviewing what I've sent over today, looking forward to helping you optimize your you know, XYZ, Nick, so, yeah, someone saying, send me more information. That's a good way to think about it, now's not a good time. This is a really smart objection, because it gives you nothing to work with. When someone says, now's not a good time, it's like, okay, well, what do I do with that? This is a tough one, I'll be honest. And in fact, if you know of a good way to respond to this one, I'd love to hear it. I have not found the perfect way to respond to this yet. Normally, I will concede a little bit, but I'll make plans to follow up. So I might say, you know, hey, I completely understand if now isn't a good time. If you don't mind me asking is, is there a date coming up in the next few weeks that might be better for me to reach out to you? Right? I want to make sure that I'm reaching out at a time that's convenient for you. I do believe that we can help your organization. I do believe that we can achieve significant results for you, and I want to make sure that that we're both able to spend the right amount of attention on it. So it's okay to concede a little here, but make sure that you're following up. Your solution is too expensive. This is, again, it's very similar to the we don't have budget, but this one is a little bit more aggressive, right? It's like, yeah, you're just too expensive for us. Typically, in that situation, you need to prove that the pain you're solving costs them more than your solution. You need to have numbers, metrics, Results, ROI, impact statements. You need to have some sort of point of view on the cost savings that you can you can obtain for them. So you might say, you know, I strongly believe that implementing our solution could actually reduce your costs in several areas, such as x, y, z, and bring greater efficiencies to your organization. For example, your peers over here were able to do this, and they were able to see this cost reduction, right? So again, I know I'm sounding like a broken record in some of these objections, but attaching yourself to the pain, showing the cost savings of that pain, the cost of that pain that you can save them how you've done it for their peers. That's going to go a long way. We need to focus on other priorities right now. That comes back to what I said earlier about attaching yourself to better priorities. So if someone is saying, Oh, that's not a priority for us, we have other priorities. Great. What are they? Right? That's amazing. I'd love to learn more about those I'd love to learn more about what your goals are, because we've helped people in your space for over a decade now, and I'm, I'm confident that we can find a way to help with what you're doing. Right? We just need to learn a little bit more about what you're looking to achieve. Again, it's better if you have a point of view on this, but if you don't just ask them, it's important to me that I'm aligned to your priorities, there might be a way that we can enhance your current projects. Is this something you'd be interested in exploring with me? If someone says, I'm not the decision maker, right? Hey, I This isn't my decision. I need to consult my team. I need to consult my decision maker. Absolutely right? I might say, okay, you know, ensuring that all of the key stakeholders are on board is is definitely essential for making the right decision for your team. I do believe that we can help both you directly and your team, and I'd be happy to provide, you know, a tailored demonstration, or whatever you think would be valuable for them to see in order to make that argument. And I can bring case studies, I can bring, you know, examples of how we've helped other organizations in the past. Would you be willing to introduce me to the person in charge of making this decision. And as long as you're clear about the fact that you're planning to give value, like I've said this on a few previous lessons, you know, this isn't just, Oh, can you introduce me to them? It's I will give them value if you are willing to put me in touch, and let's talk about what that value looks like. And then the last objection, you know, we've had a bad experience with similar products or solutions in the past. This is a common one, right? They've, they've had, you know, a terrible experience with another vendor, with one of your competitors, with one of your peers, etc. Your goal there should be to seek to understand, right? You want to show that that you are a more empathetic, more professional, more valuable partner than the person they worked with before. So you might say, Hey, I definitely understand if a previous experience left a bad taste in your mouth. You know? I want to hear more about this story. I want to make sure that this is something that we're not doing with our prospects, not just you, but others as well. I want to make sure that we're you know if, especially if, they say they've had a bad experience with you in the past, you might say, I want to make sure that we're working to address that experience and and seek to understand. And ask if you can get a call not to sell them something, but to understand what their previous experience was. Only by breaking through that friction will you ever start to make progress. And then the last one is, yeah, you know, we thought about your solution in the past, but it just doesn't have XYZ feature that we're looking for. It doesn't have XYZ capability that we're looking for. Again, you should be seeking to understand, but not just what feature is missing. Because, remember, teams and organizations, they don't buy features, they buy solutions, they buy impact, they buy results. So you need to be asking, Well, why do you need that feature? Why is that feature important? What outcome is that feature or capability driving for your organization? Your solution may not have that feature, and you just have to own that gap, but if you can seek to understand how that feature is being used, now you can come back with a potential workaround as well as other value that can get them in the right spot. It's also possible that the feature they're looking for is just on your product roadmap, and if it is, then great, you can show that to them and show them some other stuff as well. Cool. So those are the ways that I would handle the top objections that you're likely to hear. Now it's your turn. I want you to get with your mentor, manager, new hire buddy, ask your peers on this one, ask your peers first, what are the top objections that we hear when it comes to our solution? In fact, your solution engineers are definitely going to know the answer to this if you have access to a solution engineer, if that's a member of your team, so ask them, what are the gaps that we hear? What are the objections that we hear? And I want you for your assignment to write down the top five objections and craft responses to each one bonus points, if you practice, if you record yourself responding to these objections, you need to be audible ready. I promise you these objections are going to come up. You should be ready to answer them in a professional, charismatic manner that shows you know exactly what you're doing. And that is it for today's lesson. On the daily quarter, thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time bye. You.