Hi Peter.

I really need your help.

My name is Yari and I work as an independent sales contractor in Spain. I recently graduated and managed to sign/secure a contract with an events company as a delegate sales executive. I have designed a pitch which is somewhat OK in my opinion as it does get the prospect attention but as soon as mention EVENT,SUMMIT, B MEETING I really straggle when the prospect says things like “I don’t have time now” “send me an email” “I m not interested” send me an email is the most common one.  help me?

Please forgive me if I come across cheap since you have great packages I could buy for help. I just love what I do, I literally love getting on the phone to sale. so I’ve spent everything I had to set up an office in my house to run this little business and I m not going to get pay unless I bring the business in first!

I m crazy, I know!

Any advice or suggestion would be appreciated more than you can imagine. Thanks!

Kind regards

Yari.

Yari, Thanks for the question and here are some things for you to consider:

Great question with many possible responses so lets see what we can do to help you out as quick as possible.
If  I  read this right, you are working as a lead generation contractor who is setting meetings on behalf of your client. If this is the case I would hope that you have followed most of the principles outlined below. If not then don’t worry as you can see some dramatic sales prospecting upturns when you do.

Correct Targeting:

How did you develop the criteria for developing the list of people you were going to call? Our experience shows that developing the right criteria for the people you are going to contact will account for as much as 60% of your success rate. Determining the right prospects allows you to:

• Be focused on one key benefit in your initial approach that is likely to resonate with them, rather than having a vague, wishy washy, statement that is trying to appeal to all comers.

• Allows you to invest more time and energy to grab the attention of the prospect rather than skim through them without knowing how valuable they are. Instead of just one call and 1 voicemail, you can now develop a system of 4 (example purposes only) calls, voicemail, emails, faxes, and other touches.

• Allows you to demonstrate value to your client by ultimately producing appointments that are targeted and result in business increases rather than a drain on their resources.

You can’t do this alone. You have to have your clients agreement as to what constitues an ideal prospect. If they don’t know, consider charging them to do a mini consultancy project to help them find out. Start with their existing clients and profile their most desired prospect. This is their ‘dream’ prospect that they would love to work with.

Break it down into items that their ideal client can be identified by:

• Most profitable
• Business goals or challenges – Problems!
• Easiest to do business with
• Shortest sales cycle
• Average order value
• Highest margin
• Number of people in company
• Company Industry sector
• Annual Turnover
• Stage of business – i.e High growth or declining market

And this list can go on and on. As you are targeted on results it is imperative you get this right otherwise you will be wasting your time on people who are never going to be good clients and this can be demoralising and extremely difficult to sustain.

Once you have identified these characteristics then how have you sourced the names of the people you need to contact?

Have you randomly acquired a list from a cheap broker or have you invested in a quality list from an expert in your target market? Have you considered companies like  www.zoominfo.com
and www.jigsaw.com?

Value Proposition:

What is your value proposition?

What are you saying to grab immediate interest and attention?

What is your goal?

If your goal is to set a meeting then what is the value for them in having a meeting? You must carefully design value into the actual meeting so that they are curious to see you and want to see what it is you are offering at the meeting. You must be able to provide them some research, an answer to a problem they knew they had, or illustrate a problem they didn’t even know they had, or even ask some questions that no one else is capable of asking.  You must be able to offer value at the meeting.

Let’s face it, you are an interruption and peoples natural scepticism is to say No. Its ingrained in them. You have to have such a powerful message that it overcomes their natural reaction to say “No way”

A few other things stand out in your email:

• You mention ‘pitch’ this may be an unfortunate selection of words but a pitch is an old style one way conversation that does not include the other person. I, personally hate ‘pitches’ and would happily see the phrase disappear from the sales dictionary. You are trying to engage someone in a two way dialogue.
• You mention that you know there are products out there to help you but you did not give a valid reason why you won’t invest in yourself. Especially when you say “I m not going to get pay unless I bring the business in first!”. You have set yourself up as the expert at what you do and you have a responsibility to yourself and your clients to become that expert. You can do that by investing. You can either invest time in scouring free information of which there is a lot on the Internet or you can invest money in books and courses – or a mix of both. It is unlikely you will grow if you don’t.

Some other resources you should check out:

Home study course – It was on offer recently and I  haven’t got around to changing the sales page so grab a great product at a great price quickly – sales objections click here

http://www.salesdnaltd.com/blog/cold-calling-opening-lines/

http://www.salesdnaltd.com/blog/the-value-bullseye-if-youre-not-hitting-the-3-core-componments-you-are-leaving-money-on-the-table/

Yari, I hope that helps and I would love to hear how you get on with your sales prospecting activities.

Peter

I was just reading the book ’10 steps to sales success’ which you can check out here .

In it I was reminded of an old Zig Ziglar sales objections handling line that has stood the test of time well and still stands strong today as a great way of getting some one to think when they throw an unwarranted price objection at you. Remember, value, value, value…………

“Our company made the decision to explain a higher price once rather than justify poor service and quality several times.”  “You only cry once when you pay a higher price.”

Stuck with sales objections?

We invite you to gain instant access to the most comprehensive Sales Objections Home Study Course Here: SALES OBJECTIONS Or click the image below

Have a look at the home study course and never get stuck with sales objections again.

As I sat down to write a few articles, my phone rang. I got up to answer the phone  to be greeted with:

“Hi, this is British Telecom” …. Which was then followed by a pitch about extending our BT contract. As soon as the person had finished I said:

“I’m fine thanks”

The response that came back  from the other person was :

“Ok, thanks.”

And then they hung up.

Wow.

Tips in Objection Handling

That persons  sales figures must be terrible. This is a classic case of an employee just going through the motions in their role. I can’t even call them a salesperson because no attempt was even made to continue the conversation with me, ask me questions or to just find out why I said that – to make an attempt in objection handling.

This person probably thinks sales is awful and sets themselves up every day to fail. They might be saying to themselves “No one is going to want to speak to me on a Sunday” or something similar.

What to do achieve an effective Objection Handling

Now before I share a few things they could have done, let me just nail my flag to the mast. I think calling people at home is pre-historic and should have died out long ago. The only possible exceptions are from someone you have an existing relationship with such as your bank, credit card company and phone provider.

If they cared a bit more about the outcomes they needed  they could have said:

“I’m sure you have a good reason for saying that. Do you mind me asking what that is?” or

“Sorry. I couldn’t have done a very good job at explain how much this will benefit you – can I have 5 seconds to see if I could explain again?”

It doesn’t necessarily matter what you say, as long as you say something. If you are going to give up as easily as that then realistically what was the point in calling.

If you are going to make a telesales call then make sure you have prepared the strong reasons for your call, your fantastic answers to most common sales objections that you get and that you get into a positive state of mind and expect a positive outcome – proper objection handling.

If you want to know more about how you can do this then make sure you sign up for our free sales newsletter above where we regularly cover modern day objection handling strategies and sales training.

Very often when making cold (or warm) calls, the other person will say one of the best sales objections in the world:

“No I’m not interested!”

This usually comes just after you have made your introduction. There are a couple of ways you can deal with this effectively and we will look at these in a minute after we look at what not to do:

Sales Objections Don’ts:

• Never argue back or try to be clever. Saying something like “How do you know your not interested, you don’t know what I’m selling” will end up getting a  response similar to “You are right and I never will – so pi** off!”
• Never just carry on the pitch as if you haven’t heard them. This will wind them up and close any potentail doors you ever had.

Sales Objections Do’s:

• Develop a better opening statement and Value staement that will significantly decrease resistance and the number of times you hear this. I covered this in a previous sales blog article – telesales opening lines

• Try understanding their position and keeping the conversation going “I’m sure you have a very good reason for saying that. Do you mind me asking what that is?” This is a tried and tested way of dealing with Im not interested and seeks to understand the real reason why they are not interested. They might be in a rush to get to a meeting, they might have an existing supplier, they might not be the right person or they might just be rude. If you don’t ask you will never know, will never continue the sales dialogue and could close that door for ever.

• If you are feeling confident and secure in yourself, why not diffusing the situation with the confident delivery of something like “Well, that was blunt. Where do we go from here?

Give these two a try next time you are faced with sales objections specifically “I’m not interested”. If you don’t like these, that’s OK. Just make sure you have a few that work because there is one thing for certain – you will hear sales objections especially that phrase!

Objection handling must be up there with closing as the two most debated parts of  sales training. Much has been written telling you what you should do, what lines to use and how to deliver them.

This article is refreshingly different because it tells you what not to do. There are a few key things that you should never do when faced with a sales  objection. They are:

Objection Handling “The Wrongs”

• Don’t pounce: an instant response, sometimes even before the prospect has finished speaking, creates an emotional barrier because it suggests you have not considered what has been said. It also indicates a ‘canned’ answer that you give to every one. People like to be heard and made to feel special and this does not help you do that!

• Don’t be glib: too quick an answer to your customers’ objection will seem unconvincing, because it suggests you have heard it all before and are just repeating a page in your sales manual.

• Don’t argue: never say, “…I don’t agree with you…” “…that’s not really true is it…?” “…no that’s not right and here’s why…” or anything similar; don’t even suggest that you disagree. One of the recent apprentice programs was a fantastic example of how not to do it. The female team arrived at a luxury ‘stretch’ limo hire business to pitch for the valeting  business. One of them (can’t remember the name) starts of at around £80 per vehicle to be told the current supplier does it for around £20 (going on a dodgy memory here!). The apprentice – or apprentee? – looked incredulous and insisted “You are wrong. That simply can’t be right.” She had been in the business a whole 2 hours by that time.  She was lucky the T.V. cameras were there as the business owner looked liked he was about to show her the door with the point of his expensive designer shoes. I have searched youtube and can’t find that clip. If you ever find it then let me know, please.

• Don’t point score: proving that they do not understand or have made a mistake will simply make them feel foolish or angry.

Would you like to know the 3 most successful objection handling techniques you can ever use?

Ok!  They are:

• Demonstrate so much value in your discussions and proposals that choosing you  is a ‘no brainer’. Develop a record of all provable business value you have created for clients and apply that knowledge and those facts into proving potential Return On Investment for your new clients.

• Deal with objections before they ever come up. This is the objection handling technique of  the ‘superstars’. If you are the most expensive on the marketplace and you know it, and you know they know it, then don’t leave it unsaid. Clearly demonstrate in your proposal and discussion,  why i.e.  “John, on first glance it might seem we are the most expensive provider in the marketplace per case of product. When you take into account your average order values, and order schedule,  and the fact that we don’t charge a premium for next day international shipping, we are actually one of the most cost effective. I have drawn up a total pricing plan for your planned purchases next year which shoes this.  Are you OK with that?”

• Brainstorm professional, credible answers to all of your common objections with every member of your sales team, your customer service team, your management team and draw up value proving answers. This one strategy alone could double your sales success in a 6 month period.

If you get into the habit of killing off the ‘wrongs’ and using the 3 best objection handling techniques in your business, your sales will take a huge surge.

Use these effective objection handling tips – let me know how it goes. If you want to make sure you get rid of sales objections in your sales once and for all then you really need to get your instant access to the most comprehensive, sales objections Manual available anywhere. You can access it here: Sales Objections Course

Get Instant Access to The Most Advanced Sales Objections Resource here (click the image):

This will solve your objection handling challenges once and for all!

“Sales Resistance is what happens when the customer is asked to jump too deeply into the well, too quickly”

Roy H Williams – Magical Worlds of The Wizard Of Adds