How to Overcome 4 Common Objections

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  1

  Tom Canning

  01/20/09 | Report as spam

  RE: How to Overcome 4 Common Objections

  Geoffrey,
  
  I am with you on this one. Too old school. You will waste a lot of time and energy meeting with unqualified people. The new school is Sales 2.0. It's time to stop pressuring prospects into a meeting but to develop a collaborative and mutually rewarding relationship so that meeting face face is the next logical step.
  
  -Tom
  http://www.connectize.com

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  2

  LeahRust

  01/20/09 | Report as spam

  RE: How to Overcome 4 Common Objections

  Geoffrey,
  
  I'm also with you on this one. I'm planning a wedding and recently had a national photography company cold call me. I couldn't wait to get this woman off the phone because I knew I wasn't interested in their services.
  
  I'm sorry to admit that I agreed to the appointment just so the woman would stop talking, and I e-mailed her two of three days later and told her that my fiancee had made other arrangements without me knowing.
  
  I'm not proud of my lie... but I felt such pressure to say yes that I agreed and then backed out later.
  
  I think Andrea's techniques are old school and we need to wake up to new world of setting appointments. Prospects want your services because you add value or solve their issue, not because you tricked them.

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  3

  ollyl@...

  01/20/09 | Report as spam

  RE: How to Overcome 4 Common Objections

  The objection handling demonstrated certainly works provided you have set the appropriate context for the conversation. Also, you need to be interested enough and listen intently to judge whether it's a genuine objection or a 'fob off."
  
  It's not the words that are spoken so much as the subtext you can communicate that shows "It's all about them."
  
  Regards,
  
  Ollie Lind

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  4

  yenomysae

  01/20/09 | Report as spam

  RE: How to Overcome 4 Common Objections

  Why waste your time going after people that really don't want to talk to you?
  
  These scripts are right out of almost every sales book that every decent sales person reads. And every prospect has probably heard several times beforehand.
  
  I'm not saying at the first sign of resistance you stop and give up, but these make you sound like a telemarketer.
  
  If they work for her or you're comfortable using them, then great, but I really think it makes you sound unprofessional.
  
  Thank them for their time, make a note to follow up in the future(with a better reason to call) and ask for a referral.

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  5

  dave.hampton@...

  01/21/09 | Report as spam

  RE: How to Overcome 4 Common Objections

  I understand the pros and cons to this method, but I think a common principle determines many salespeople's success...
  
  If you have a desired product/service that you truly believe in, the face-to-face meeting with a prospect will likely be successful.
  
  Success isn't necessarily measured by a quick sale. As we all know, sales cycles can vary greatly. Instead, I have found that planting the seed with a solid, honest message will pay off over time.
  
  Many prospects that my company has called on were not converted into sales for years. It just so happens that some of these cold called prospects are contacting us now looking for more information.
  
  It's amazing to see it, but it makes sense. If you talk to a prospect that has no immediate need for your product/service, you will not have a positive response. If you do your job well enough and sell the true value of your product/service the first time, you are much more inclined to get a positive response now or in the future.
  
  One more thing about cold calling - There are so many different types of cold calling, so the types of success vary. My company does three types of cold calling: Appointment setting, Contact retrieval (retrieving emails and getting permission to email), Awareness calling.
  
  How anyone can say that cold calling is a complete waste of time, I do not understand. It will always be a numbers game, with most people not responding favorably at first. You have to be persistent and narrow the numbers game with excellent communication skills and effective research.

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  6

  MelissaRyder

  01/21/09 | Report as spam

  RE: How to Overcome 4 Common Objections

  Having been on the receiving end of these types of calls... I can tell you that they leave me cold (as a customer).
  
  If there is a compelling match between their product/service and my need, I will listen (with or without a budget). When I say, "no interest," I mean "no interest," and having them then ask for the appointment just tells me they are not listening.

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  7

  bcallahan

  01/21/09 | Report as spam

  RE: How to Overcome 4 Common Objections

  These tactics are humorous at best. It
  mystifies me that these tactics or other Tom
  Hopkins-like tactics ever worked in the first
  place. I understand the idea behind each
  response but the wording is atrocious.

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  8

  Elaine Leonetti

  01/21/09 | Report as spam

  RE: How to Overcome 4 Common Objections

  People do not want to feel like they are being sold to. They want to feel that the person calling has their best interest at heart. That means asking questions, listening to their responses and not being to eager to tell them your story.
  
  I enjoy returning calls of people who are selling to me - it's a great way to remind myself what to do and not to do on a call. If I'm really bothered by the rep, I often stop them and politely critique their sales approach. I've never had anyone hang up on me and I've actually had a few people say thanks! Try it some time and share your results.

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  9

  joannesblack

  01/21/09 | Report as spam

  RE: How to Overcome 4 Common Objections

  You wouldn't encounter any of these objections if you'd been referred.
  
  Forgot about cold calling and get a meeting through a referral with your perfect client. You will collapse your sales process and increase the velocity of prospects through your sales funnel--because you will not get these kind of objections when you've been referred.
  
  Get smart. Sell smart. Become 'referral smart.'

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  10

  tarnow19

  01/22/09 | Report as spam

  RE: How to Overcome 4 Common Objections

  I'm with Ollie Lind & Dave Hampton on this.
  As OL says: is this fob of or genuine not interested? Not interested, to me, means not interested now, for what ever reason. If the prospect has sufficient authority, and is prepared to take time to tell me exactly why he is not interested then I'll listen and take proper note. Otherwise I'll recycle them. In the main, with persistence, you are always moving towards the prospects point of interest, or if not, the next time you call the situation at the site might have changed beyond all recognition. New DMs new budget.
  3P's of cold calling are, for me, perserverence, politeness and presentation.

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  11

  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine

  01/22/09 | Report as spam

  RE: How to Overcome 4 Common Objections

  Once again, these comments have been graced by greatness... "joannesblack" above is the amazing Joanne Black, world's foremost expert on B2B referral selling. Since she too modest to plug herself, here is her website:
  
  
  
  http://www.nomorecoldcalling.com/

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  12

  mensoelrey

  01/22/09 | Report as spam

  RE: How to Overcome 4 Common Objections

  I agree that cold calling is generally a waste of time, but there might be an exception. If you are calling from a big name that you can use, it warms the call up a bit. I used to be the president of AIESEC, an international student organisation, at my university. Few people had heard of AIESEC but everyone knew the university, so I said I was calling from the university, which was true. If you can say, "This is Chris Haynes calling from Procter and Gamble" you can probably keep them on the line; but for many people, "This is Chris Haynes calling from a company you have never heard of" justifies any objection.

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  13

  peter.dilger@...

  01/23/09 | Report as spam

  RE: How to Overcome 4 Common Objections

  Just two comments as I agree with previous contributors
  
  As soon as you apply pressure then the law of equal and opposite reactions occurs - resistance and failure to close. Do we believe that all buyers are totaly niaive and that they have never heard those phrases before and that they will blindly fall into our "trap"!!!
  
  Secondly todays selling is about relationship building and using what are obviously contrived ploys does nothing to build a relationship infact the opposite is true.

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  14

  jeffreyquek

  01/29/09 | Report as spam

  RE: How to Overcome 4 Common Objections

  Any creative ways to handle :
  'I know it is good service, but it is not the right time for me to buy...'