Every salesperson must be practiced in the art of turning a “no” into a “yes.”
Along the way, they will need to come up with creative solutions to secure the sale. Since the reasons behind every objection are unique, the solutions must be tailored, too.
Elliot Osgood, a mid-market account executive for Navan, said that responding accordingly to a prospect’s objection always requires active listening to earn their respect first. That type of listening, he explained, means acknowledging the objection and asking for more information, which establishes trust in the process.
As a salesperson for a business travel management platform in the middle of a pandemic restricting global travel, Osgood is well-versed in hearing and overcoming rejection these days. One of his strategies is to draw objections out from a prospect as early as possible. Osgood shared with Built In San Francisco some specific tactics he uses, including asking, “With all that’s going on in the world, is it absolutely nuts for us to be discussing travel right now?”
The prospect has no choice but to answer “yes.” Meeting on that common ground makes the possibility of later ensuring a “yes” for the deal much more likely.
What strategies have you found to be most effective when handling objections from prospective customers?
With so much uncertainty in the world, two strategies have emerged as the strongest.
The first, as always, is deep, empathetic, active listening. Nothing counts if you haven’t earned the respect and trust of your prospect.
The second is getting to your objections as early as possible. Each objection is an opportunity to demonstrate that you care, you’re listening and that you understand.
Before you respond, always do the following:
- Acknowledge you’ve heard the objection: “What I’m hearing you say is...” For example, I would ask something like, “With all that’s going on in the world, is it absolutely nuts for us to be discussing travel right now?”
- Explore and widen: “Tell me more about...” An example of this would be asking, “We’re one of the more expensive solutions on the market. How does your team think about cost versus value?”
- Respond with social proof: “In working with your peer, XYZ company, we discovered the same concern. However, when we looked deeper we found...”
Draw all the objections out of your prospect early in the conversation. This gives you three advantages: earning their trust, an opportunity to overcome the objection, and a chance to pressure test your deal.
What strategies have you found to be ineffective or counterproductive when dealing with objections?
Challenging without earning respect and trust: I’m a huge fan of the “Challenger Sale” concept, in which the seller teaches the prospect new insights. However, if I haven’t earned their trust and respect first, I won’t be successful.
Too fast/too slow: A prospect recently said they would take me to their decision-maker when the time was right. I didn’t listen, went around the prospect, and the whole thing blew up. On the other hand, sometimes I burn months waiting for a prospect to bring me up the ladder, only to find out they have little influence or authority. This can be solved by finding creative reasons to cultivate multiple contacts within an account early in every deal.
Solving with price: If you haven’t established measurable pain or positive business outcomes in a deal, you should never be discussing specific numbers. Instead, speak to the business model. Don’t risk being “shopped,” commoditized, de-valuing your offering, or getting caught in a “race to the bottom.”
What’s an example of a time when you successfully overcame an objection? What were the keys to your success?
A recent objection we heard was, “I’ll be the decision-maker on this project.”
We set expectations early: We let our prospect know early that most successful outcomes always include executive alignment. Because we sold the value on this early, they were not surprised when we held firm and insisted later in the deal.
We ‘went wide’ alongside ‘going up’: Sometimes the fastest way to the decision-maker is a straight line. However, every prospect in the deal holds a unique perspective to the inner-workings of their internal organization. We actually uncovered that one of the junior members of the finance team commanded more respect from the CFO than other senior members of the team. This person was willing to send an email on our behalf requesting the time we ultimately needed to earn the business.
We traded for executive time: Not everyone on the finance team agreed we needed to hold this final executive ‘go/no go’ meeting. But when they asked for references, we saw our chance and proposed a trade: “If we ask our customers for their time, may we ask you for the same investment from your CFO?”
