Transcription
Do you freeze up and fumble when you get objections on cold calls? Then this video is for you because we're going to dive into the art of objection handling so you can approach them with confidence, hang in there, have better conversations, set more meetings, and get more commission.
Now, what this video isn't going to do is offer you dark psychology hacks that are going to help you manipulate any prospect like a marionette to do whatever you want and meet with you at any time. That doesn't exist and that's not what you need.
What you actually need, which this video is going to offer you, is a deeper understanding of three root problems with your sales approach that's leading to more friction in customer conversations and more objections that if solved, which this video will give you solutions to those problems, will immediately eliminate many of the objections you're actually facing.
But secondly, we're going to give you a three-step approach to handling any objections that might come your way so you can ultimately set more meetings. These strategies and approaches to objection handling are going to work for you and you're going to feel good using them. And I know they work because they've worked for me over 10 years selling at Oracle and Google Cloud and Big Tech, making many calls that have collectively added up to me bringing in over 15 million in closed revenue.
If you're still with me and you're ready to become an objection handling machine, let's rock. Let's get into it.
So, first off, before walking you through the three steps to respond effectively to any objection, let's look at three fundamental problems in your sales approach that are leading to more objections. If solved, which we will solve for you, will eliminate the number of objections you face in the first place.
The first problem is scattered, unfocused targeting. Imagine you're spraying and praying as a shotgun seller, reaching out to everyone and anyone without any focus. You're going to be wasting a lot of time on prospects that aren't a fit for you to help. They probably don't have a need and never will. And prospects that are unprofitable and can't afford your solution. Why would you spend a bunch of time with prospects who are never going to be a good fit anyways? You're spinning your wheels and costing yourself more than you realize.
What's the solution? Shift from being a shotgun seller to a sales sniper by targeting effectively, only obsessing over the accounts that move the needle, that you're a good fit to help and that are going to be profitable and actually have the budget to afford your solution. Targeting comes down to two things.
First off, do some studying and understand your company's ideal client profile. What do the customers that you're best suited to help look like? You can look at case studies. You can talk to other sellers who have had great win stories to understand specific characteristics like company size, maybe revenue and employee count, tech stack, compelling events and triggers, or changing dynamics in the prospects world that introduce a need for your solution. Look at these factors so you know what good looks like. You can snipe the best prospects and also find them at the right time.
Let's double click on triggers for a second because timing is everything in sales and you might have a prospect that perfectly fits the mold of your ICP, but it might not be the right timing. So, you want to monitor all the prospects on your finite focused account target list to see when triggers are occurring and changes are occurring in your prospect's world that introduce a need for your solution. Maybe if you're selling sales tech and a company is expanding sales department and growing Salesforce is an indication that they might have a need for your solution, you want to keep track using LinkedIn Sales Navigator or other tools like Google Alerts to understand when those changes are going on at that prospect so that you can pounce when the timing is right. When you're focused on the right ideal client in the first place and you're pouncing at the right time when triggers are happening in their world, you're going to have much less friction in your conversations and it's going to make a lot more sense to talk.
Now, the second aspect of targeting is targeting the right ideal personas. Who are the people, the decision makers, the influencers, and the end users who are impacted by your solution and the problems it solves? And you really want to focus on the right decision makers whose key performance indicators and metrics, the factors that determine how they get paid are impacted by your solution and the results you produce and the problems you solve. Reach out to those people and they're probably going to be open to what you have to say if you know you help people like them achieve their specific goals.
The second fundamental problem in your sales approach that's leading to more objections than you should be facing is being uninteresting and irrelevant with your messaging. It's our job as a salesperson to synthesize everything our company does and how we help clients to package up messaging that actually resonates with the prospects we're reaching out to. The problem is most of us salespeople are reaching out with boring messaging that turns the prospects off. Messaging that says, "Look at us and how great we are. Look at how many years in business. Look at our recognitions. Look at all our cool features and benefits and bells and whistles." Prospects don't care about those things and they're immediately going to put up resistance and rule you out as a vendor and not a strategic partner. Of course, you're going to get objections like, "I'm not interested" when you're the me monster and talking all about yourself and not putting yourself in the prospect's world.
So, what is interesting to a prospect? How do we create compelling messaging that actually resonates? Prospects love big expensive problems that are impacting them. They want to know more about those problems, how they can potentially solve them, and how they can achieve better results for themselves personally and for their organization. So, interesting messaging shifts from self-orientation to other orientation. And you're framing relevant problems and opportunities in the prospect's world. That messaging might look something like this. Hey, Mr. prospect. We talk to people like you in your specific role at companies like yours all the time, and what we're typically hearing is they're dealing with a few key challenges, X, Y, and Z. I'm curious, which of these challenges resonates most with your current priorities? I'm curious, are you seeing any of these current challenges today? I'm curious, how are you dealing with these challenges, or do you have them all figured out? Frame relevant problems in the prospect's world and invite them into a dialogue with you through an open-ended question and you're going to get them engaged. You're going to be interesting and you're going to reduce the objections you face like I'm not interested.
The third core problem with your sales approach that's probably leading to more objections than you should be getting is that you're reaching out thoughtlessly and mindlessly. Going back to point one of being unfocused, you're just spraying and praying. You're not putting in thoughtful research upfront to be relevant with the prospect and you're ultimately doing things like pile driving into a pitch. Opening up the conversation by saying, "Hey, it's Chris calling from XYZ. We help companies like you, blah, blah, blah." And you just go right into it, not acknowledging that you're an interruption to their day. And just thinking that you can run them over and they're going to be open to that.
So, what's the solution to this? Be thoughtful. Be mindful of the prospect and how they might be feeling and show that you actually did your homework and that you care. A permission-based opener where you allow the prospect to opt into the conversation and decide if you continue to talk or not can go a long way in earning trust, showing respect and thoughtfulness, and showing your humanity and that you can put yourself in the prospect's shoes. You actually have empathy and that might go something like this. Hey Tim, this is Chris calling from XYZ company. I probably caught you in the middle of something. So before I go any further, do you have a minute for me to share why I'm reaching out to you specifically? I'm not just jumping into things there. I'm acknowledging I'm an interruption and I'm asking for the prospect's permission to continue the conversation, putting them at ease and in control and reducing sales pressure.
Now, throwing in a thoughtful personal touch of relatedness or acknowledgement for the specific prospect you're reaching out to that wouldn't make sense for any other prospect or a trigger or change going on in their world that wouldn't make sense for other prospects but is tailored to them. That will go a long way to earning trust and greatly reducing any chance of objections because you're showing that you care. Bringing a personal touch and throwing in a relevant trigger that disarms the prospect and earns trust might look something like this in your opener. Hey Tim, this is Chris calling from XYZ company. Hoya Saxa, I saw you went to Georgetown as well. Thought that was so cool. And I was also on your website and I noticed your expanding sales team. Congratulations. I was hoping that I could ask you a couple quick questions to see if it's even worth a larger conversation. Would that be okay? Do you have a second? Boom. Personal nugget of relatedness that we went to the same university. Throwing in a relevant trigger, a justifier or reason for reaching out and showing that I did my homework by saying, "I was on your site. I noticed your team's growing. Congrats." And then, of course, the cherry on top is continuing to use that permission-based opener where I put the prospect in control. I'm respectful and I allow them to opt in. That comes together to really earn trust and show that I'm a thoughtful human being. And nine out of 10 times I'm going to get that opportunity to have a minute and share why I'm calling and I'm going to have their undivided attention. That sets a rosy context for the rest of the conversation to flow and I'm going to have much less resistance. It's amazing how effort can earn the opportunity to share why you're calling and ultimately earn trust and earn meetings.
So, now that we covered three root problems that are leading to more objections than you should be getting in the first place, and as a recap, it's unfocused, scattered targeting, irrelevant, uninteresting messaging, and being thoughtless and not being mindful of the prospect in their situation, not showing any respect or personal touch. Let's talk about three steps that you can use to effectively handle any objection you ever get. And we'll go through those three steps by looking at some real world objection examples and how to respond to those objections.
But wait a second. Let's take a step back before we get to the three steps to handle any objection. Let's talk about the underlying mindset of objection handling. You want to be unattached to the outcome. Rather than trying to force and manipulate a result like getting a meeting at all costs, you want to be okay with things not working out. When you're detached from the outcome, it's amazing how the results actually come to you and it leads to you showing up in a way that earns more trust with the prospect and actually creates openings for more conversations. Because the goal of objection handling isn't to set the meeting at all costs, but it's simply to earn the trust to create an opening for a mutual collaborative authentic dialogue with the prospect to authentically explore if there is a fit to solve a meaningful challenge together.
So now that we know that a detached mindset is underpinning all of these three steps to handling objections, step number one is to not resist, but go with the objection. You might have heard of a Chinese finger trap where your fingers are caught together in this finger trap and the more you pull and resist, the tighter the vice grip of the Chinese finger trap. But what's funny is when you stop resisting and stop pulling your fingers apart frantically and you just let go, the Chinese finger trap loosens its grip. It's the same with objections. When someone meets you with resistance, don't push back against it, which is going to be your natural knee-jerk response, but acknowledge it, empathize with it, and go with it in the same direction. This is going to be a pattern interrupt for the prospect. They're not going to expect you to do this, and as a result, it's going to break them out of their automatic response patterns and get them to see you as someone who is not a pushy salesperson, but an actual human being. and it's going to create an opening for a more meaningful conversation.
So, if the prospect hits you with, "I'm not interested. We're all set." You might go with it and say, "That's okay. It's not a problem. I know you didn't ask me to call you." If the prospect says, "Hey, we're with your competitor." You might say, "Hey, that's not a problem. I actually did some homework and I expected you to say that. They're actually really good at X, Y, and Z. You're going with it." If the prospect pushes back and says, "Hey, how'd you get my number?" You'll fall on the sword and you'll be honest and say, "Hey, I used a contact database Zoom info that my company gave me. I know you didn't ask me to call you. I'm sorry for being such a jerk." Boom, you're going with it. If the prospect says, "I'm not the right person." You might go with it and say, "Hey, I'm sorry about that. I don't want to waste your time." And if they say, "Hey, you're too expensive." You might say, "Yeah, you know what? We have heard we're expensive." Or, "Yeah, you know what? We're not the cheapest in the market." In all of these objection scenarios that we just went over, you're seeing different flavors of going with the objection rather than pushing up against it, which is going to earn trust and reduce sales pressure and create an opening for a more meaningful conversation.
And that brings me to step number two, which is to discover, to be curious, and seek to understand the source of the objection. Seek to understand if there's opportunities to cause a shift in the prospect's perspective and what the best next steps might be. Going back to the objection, we're all set. I'm not interested. The problem here is we don't know why they think they're all set or why they're not interested. So, we need a way to get to the source of the objection and understand what's really going on to see if it's a legitimate reason for not being interested and being all set, like they're locked into a multi-year contract with a competitor that they can't get out of, or if it's an information gap, or there's some opportunity to actually shift their perspective to have a meaningful conversation and actually solve a meaningful problem.
One of the best tools to earn the trust with the prospect to get them to open up and share why they're saying they're all set and not interested is an accusation audit. And this is a technique that top hostage negotiators use that we can apply to specific sales scenarios like this to deploy what's called tactical empathy. We're making an effort to guess the reasons why the prospect is all set or not interested based on what we've heard from other prospects and why they were all set and not interested. And by trying to guess, even if we're not exactly right, it earns trust by showing we want to put ourselves in the prospect's world. And if we do hit on the right reason, that earns even more trust. But even if we don't, they'll have the opportunity to correct us and tell us why they're actually not interested. And that will earn even more trust and influence with the prospect. The accusation audit works. And in the case of we're all set, we're not interested, it's going to look something like this. That's okay. That's not a problem at all. I know you didn't ask me to call you. I'm just curious. So, you're not interested because one, you already know about our company and what we do, and you just don't think we're a fit to help. Two, you have another solution in place getting the job done. Three, you think you just have more pressing priorities. Or four, you just want to get me off the phone cuz you don't like salespeople. And if it's the latter, that's okay. I've already been fired five times today. By extending myself and making an effort to put myself in the prospect's shoes and guess why they're not interested and why they're all set, that'll ultimately get them to open up and share more information, which is ultimately the goal of objection handling.
Now, going back to the objection, we're on your competitor. We started out by going with the objection by acknowledging the competitor and even flattering them a little bit. That's not a problem. I actually did some homework and I noticed you're on XYZ competitor and that's exactly why I reached out. They do a great job with X Y and Z. From here, you're going to discover by asking a pointed question about how the prospect is handling a specific process or capability or problem that you know is a gap that is not addressed or solved by your competitor. By asking a question like this, you're going to lead the prospect down a path of self-discovery to realize, oh man, we've got a gap here that our current solution doesn't address that maybe it's worth exploring with this person and the solution that they're offering. Maybe they could be an alternative that amplifies our options and helps us achieve better results. So maybe it's worth my time. So an open-ended question that could lead to your relevant differentiation might look something like this. I'm curious, what are you doing to reduce the number of calls and hours spent in your feedback prospect with your clients to make sure they get the best websites possible? To give a little context on where this question came from, one of my SDR coaching clients who I'm helping become a better cold caller and master outbound sells for a company called Duda. And they offer a software that helps publishers and companies that build websites for clients reduce the time spent on the process where they're collecting feedback with their customers. And basically the status quo or the competitor WordPress which is the old way of doing things introduces a lot of manual processes when it comes to feedback. So this question was designed to ask how are they handling it to eventually lead towards a gap or an issue about overspending time on manual calls and too many hours on this specific process. So the question was designed with intention and that's how you ultimately want to discover to see if you can lead the prospect to an aha moment that oh we've got a gap. Maybe we should have a conversation to look at addressing this. Maybe we're not all set like I thought we were.
Now, going back to the objection, how did you get my number? We originally went with it by saying something like this. I actually got your number from a contact database. My company gave me Zoom info. I know you didn't ask me to call you and I'm sorry for being such a jerk. We can build on that and discover by asking a question like this. Let me get to the point cuz I don't want to waste your time. We actually work with leaders like you in your specific role at companies like yours to solve X challenge. Is that something that you're focused on? You're framing yourself as a trusted adviser who talks to people like them and you're framing a relevant challenge to see if it's an area of focus for that specific person. Now, if they are the right person to talk about that, then boom, you roll with it and you frame relevant value. You share a customer story. You talk about relevant problems and use those problems hopefully that you find to be relevant to be the hook to set a meeting. If they're not the right person, then that brings me to the other objection that we mentioned before, which is I'm not the right person. When they say that, you can go with it and say, "Oh, you know, I'm sorry. I don't want to waste your time." From there, you can discover and ask a question like this. I know your job isn't to help sales people who are lost like me, and I'm kind of embarrassed to even ask, but who is the right person? In this case, your goal is to get to the right contact who actually cares about solving the problems that your solution solves, because you don't want to waste anyone's time, including the prospects and yours. Once you get to the right person, then you can frame relevant value and have a meaningful conversation. Getting to the right person is table stakes. And going back to the first problem in your sales approach that leads to more objections is lack of focus and being scattered with your targeting. So if you solve that problem and actually focus not just on the right ideal clients but the right personas, you're going to eliminate this objection for the most part altogether.
And finally going back to the objection, you're too expensive. We originally went with it by saying, you know what, we hear that a lot. We aren't the cheapest option in the market. You know what? We can be considered as expensive. You can follow up with a question like this to discover more. I'm curious when it comes to evaluating a solution like ours. Is price the only thing you care about or do you also care about quality or X or Y capability? You're ultimately trying to understand is price all they care about or do they actually care about true value, a true partnership? They might end up saying, "You know what? We actually do value X or Y or Z capability." And from there, you can ask them to tell you more about that and why that specifically matters for their business. And ultimately figure out, pricing aside, what are they really looking for in a partnership. Maybe you can offer that and get creative with the pricing.
And the third step in handling any objection that comes your way as the cherry on top after going with the objection rather than resisting it and discovering more is to offer value in exchange for the prospect's time to meet with you. Anytime we enter into a conversation with a prospect and we're trying to set a first meeting, a second meeting, a meeting for a demo, whatever it may be, in order to get their time, we need to offer it value in exchange for their time. It's the value for time exchange. So, what do prospects find valuable? Ideas and insights that are going to help them be more successful as a business. They value access to expert resources that are going to also give them more ideas and insights and better business outcomes. And they value experiences, generosity like a meal, networking opportunities, other fun events. Sometimes I have brought prospects to Topgolf, especially in an account executive role where I had resources available from my company that I could leverage.
Now, I want to bring this three-step objection handling process together with the story. We're going to illustrate how to go with rather than resist an objection, how to discover more and ultimately offer value to create an opening for a conversation that can lead to more meetings. I remember I was pacing around in the 27th floor of a skyrise in downtown Austin, Texas, when I had started in my new inside sales role at Google Cloud, and I was nervous because I was about to pick up the phone and cold call the CTO at my highest potential account in my book of business. I click dial, ring, ring, ring, ring, and I get the prospect to pick up. I opened with a permission-based opener. Hey, Aaron, this is Chris calling from Google Cloud. Probably caught you in the middle of something. So before I go any further, do you have a minute for me to tell you why I'm reaching out to you specifically? And he hit me with the objection. We're all set on AWS.
What did I do? Rather than resist, I went with it and I said, "Aaron, I did my homework and I read up that you were on AWS and that's exactly why I called. Now they're great. They invented the infrastructure market and they're a reliable platform. But I did some research on why prospects move to us from AWS and I noticed that one of the key business initiatives that's important to your growth global expansion was one of the reasons they would move from AWS to Google Cloud because we have a differentiated approach. So I'm curious, what are you doing to manage the process of scaling globally into Europe like you called out in your press release in order to avoid misransactions and outages? How are you what are you doing to make sure that goes smoothly?" Now, that might not have been the exact way I worded it at the time, but the point was go with and acknowledge the objection, flatter the competitor, and then ask an open-ended question about how they're handling an area where we're differentiated, which is global expansion. Asking that question got the CTO to start to think, hm, maybe we will run into some issues with global expansion. Maybe there's a better way. Maybe we should at least explore our options.
And the cherry on top was an offer I made to the CTO and it was a compelling one. And I basically said, I'm not asking you to change today, which showed that I had some awareness that moving from one cloud provider to another was a big shift and a big move and a big ask, and it also reduced sales pressure. I and I followed up on that and I said, "But I'd love to invite you to Google Cloud Next, our biggest conference of the year, where you can connect with other top executives at top companies, leading experts, and you're going to gain a lot of useful ideas and information and have a great time. The tickets are typically $2,000, but I got my leadership to approve covering those tickets for free. I'm curious, would it be worth you going to Google Cloud Next?" That was the ultimate offer. I brought together all of the things that I mentioned previously that prospects find valuable. Ideas and insights that are useful to their business, access to technical experts and trusted advisers that can help their business, and fun great experiences between us guys. If you can get a prospect to a big conference or in-person experience, that's like eight virtual sales meetings in one because you build a lot of trust in person and prospects are much more likely to open up and have a positive experience with you and your company.
So, what was the outcome? Aaron volunteered even more information and he said, "I'm about to move to the board, but a new CTO is coming in in 3 months and you should reach out to him and invite him to next." I then asked Darien for the information, asked him if we could stay in touch and if I could reference him when the new CTO came on board. He said yes. And I put a tickler in the calendar for three months out. And what do you know? When the new CTO comes in and it's 3 months later, I send him a personalized email subject line, "Congrats, Aryan referred me to you." That executive got back to me within an hour and I ended up getting the meeting and eventually six months later closed the biggest deal in my career at the time, 10 million over three. That's the power of picking up the phone and interrupting your largest prospects who aren't going to fall on your lap coming through the inbound lead flow. And being able to meet their resistance and be prepared like a professional and actually handle objections in a way that creates an opening to further the conversation with the right person at the right time and ultimately close deals that can change your quarter, year, and career. Sales development and sales mastery happens in the space of discovery, objection handling, and following up.
So guys, I hope you enjoyed this video and now you have more confidence than ever to hit the phones and to one, reduce objections altogether by focusing your targeting on the right ICP and personas, having more relevant and interesting messaging by framing problems that are expensive and important to solve for the prospects you're reaching out to, being more thoughtful and personal and respectful when you open up conversations, and ultimately using the three-step process when you do get objections by going with the objection rather than resisting it, discovering more by asking great questions and using tactical empathy through accusation audits, and ultimately offering value that is compelling as you enter into a value for time exchange to show the prospect that meeting with you is going to be worth their time.
Now guys, if you want to go even deeper on objection handling, I've got a podcast that I dropped with my guy Mikey Planter, who's made seven figures in one year selling in the data and AI space, where we talked about mindset and even walk through real world objections at the end of the conversation. Check that out. And also make sure to download my free cold calling system linked in the description of this video that will give you three cold call scripts to try on like clothing based on your style to see what fits best, while also giving you 15 objections and example responses that you will face in the real world and build on what we covered today. And finally, if you're an SDR or account executive in tech sales where outbound is key to your ability to succeed in your role, get promoted, and get paid, and you want to get to the next level, I've got your back. I offer one-on-one personalized coaching and I've got a bench of elite coaches that have crushed it at Oracle, AWS, the data and AI space. They've worked at top companies and we're ready to help you win on the phones and beyond. So, make sure to apply for coaching if that sounds like something you're interested in. And the link to apply for coaching is linked in the description of this video. Thank you guys for showing up and being a part of this growing sales community. I respect you for investing in your professional development and being curious to become the best you can be. And to your success in tech sales and in life, happy selling and happy living. And we'll see you in the next one.
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