Objection Handling – What would you say to I’m fine thanks.
Objection Handling
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.
3 Comments
This is typical and a tragic waste of human life by large companies that fail to engage, train, and deploy the right people for the right job. Covering the most common objections in the call opening is possible as well.
“Hi, this is NAME from British Telecom. I realise that it’s Sunday today Mr O’ Donoghue, I was wondering if you’d be happy to help me answer a couple of questions please. If you prefer that we do this another time, we can re-schedule the call. What’s best for you please?”
“What’s it about?”
“A lot of people have told us XYZ / expressed XYZ recently [show's they did some research / listened to customers]. In response to this, I was wondering if you’d be open to hearing about ABC”
The result then will be more favorable: 1. They can either outline the offer with any variables on the call, or
2 They can respond by sending literature outlining the offer which has a time-limited window for response and about which they can schedule a follow-up call for update/feedback.
Many people can add their own imput on how to tackle this situation, still what I describe above would likely be more relevant, measurable, and deliver better customer satisfaction as there is a genuine effort to connect with the person (yes person, not number) on the other end.
Shaun – fantastic inputs and a clear demonstration of why you are good at what you do. Thank you!
Pleasure as always – great blog here. Keep up the sterling work!