During my time running In The Funnel, I’ve had the privilege of coaching hundreds of salespeople in private and public sales workshops in downtown Toronto. It’s amazing how many have the exact same challenges! One of the things I found most engaging in 2019 was coaching demand generation calls for both inexperienced and experienced sales teams.
As I reflect on what worked in 2019 and going forward into 2020, I want to focus on developing new tools specifically for those common issues I’ve seen time and time again. We know we have a better chance of making our coaching “stick” if we leverage tools to teach key concepts (we teach you how to use the tool and you will remember long after we are gone). Let’s start with one of the most common problems... handling basic objections.
The objections you’re going to face in your sales cycles are repeatedly the same. 70% of them will repeat time and again (I can promise you). The same way you don’t jump onto the court without warming up, you should not jump into a cold call without a strategy to address common sales objections for your business, your sales role, and your given industry.
Our process for handling objections is simple:
Acknowledge the objection
Clarify the objection (it’s really critical to “smoke out” fake objections)
Address the objection, and
move ahead with your sales process.
Of these, the most common challenge is addressing the objection. You can overcome it by recording the common objections you face repeatedly, writing your responses, and workshopping them with your team.
Get clear on what the common objections are and roleplay them with the team, so you’re warmed up when it counts on a call! It sounds simple but is HIGHLY effective.
There are fantastic resources everywhere to help prepare you for common responses to objections in a sales call. Just as no objections are truly new (e.g., I don’t have time to talk, we are happy with our current provider, it’s too expensive, I need to talk to my colleagues before deciding, etc.), well thought out objections have been crafted by LOTS of resources available online. I would personally recommend Power Phone Scripts by Mike Brooks. He provides hundreds of thoughtful responses to common objections. You will NOT agree with all of them, but that does not matter. Find a couple that are appropriate for YOUR sales cycles, business, industry, and YOUR voice then make them your own. The last part is very important. Wherever you find those resources, make sure you put them into your voice so they sound authentic! Inauthentic answers will only put up more roadblocks.
The Objection Handler tool outlines a template of what we find to be the most common objections at In The Funnel, as well as some immediate solutions to get around them!
When preparation meets opportunity, great things can happen! This could not be more relevant when it comes to objection handling.