Summit Group International
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Management & Sales Training Newsletter
“Turning Objections into Appointments”
Your ability to turn common objections and questions experienced on the phone into face-to-face appointments with your prospects is critical. It is the constraint that will hold most sales professionals back and it’s also the reason that many good, competent and knowledgeable salespeople are afraid to pick up the phone. Look at it this way…if you knew you could handle anything that was thrown at you in a professional manner that made sense to your prospect, would you be more or less likely to make more calls?
We will look at a few ways to handle some of the most commonly mentioned objections experienced when phoning for an appointment…
I’m Happy with What I Have
A good technique to use if your prospect says that they’re happy with their current product or service is to ask a question that is easy for them to answer. Don’t get confrontational or to bad mouth your competition. Why? Well, who decided to choose to purchase the product or service from your competition? Your prospect did. So, aren’t you really just implying that they made a bad decision if you talk negatively about their current product or service?
What do you say instead? Well, for instance, if you’re in the insurance business you might ask, “How do you feel about your current agent or policy?” What will they respond with? How happy they are, right? Well that’s what you want. Why? Well, when they respond that they are fine, you ask, “How long have you been with that company or had that policy or investment?”
Then let’s say they respond with, “Three years.” Then you ask, “Did you have a different agent, company or policy before that?” When they say yes, you ask, “In the decision to change three years ago, what was major deciding factor to make a change…was it the amount of coverage? Was it the premium or fees? Was it your agent’s inattentiveness?”
Let’s say that they told you they changed to get better coverage. You now ask, “And have the results lived up to your expectations?” When they say yes, you say, “Since you’ve received greater coverage by considering and then making a change 3 years ago, wouldn’t you agree that the possibility must exist to do it again? All I need is ten minutes of your time and you can be the judge. Is midday or evening better for you?”
Another tool you can use after they’ve told you they’re happy is to say, “I’m curious, who/what are you using now? Great! We should get together to show you ways we’ve been able to compliment what you currently have with my other clients. All I need is ten minutes of your time and you can decide. You be the judge. Is midday or evening better for you?”
The key is once you’ve overcome the objection you should move directly into setting the appointment. If you hesitate it will give your prospect time to say, “Ok thanks for calling. I’ll call you back if we’re interested.”
Bad Experience
Some of you may be thinking…what if your prospect mentions that they’ve had a bad experience with your company, product or service? Here’s a tool to handle that situation. You can answer with, “Would you for a moment pretend that you’re in charge of my company and you’ve just found out about the challenge we had with that. What would you do?” When they tell you what they’d do you say, “When can we get together so that I can show you how we’ve overcome that issue…is midday or evening better for you?” The reason this is effective is that you’ve let your prospect take the driver’s seat and come to their own conclusions. They’ll have a hard time disagreeing with themselves, won’t they?
Price Question
If your prospect asks price over the phone what should you do? Well, what do most of us do? We simply state the price or fee and the prospect uses that information to disqualify us or pit us against our competition.
When your prospect asks you how much you charge you can say, “That’s the best part. If it’s not exactly right for you, there’s no charge. Why? Because if it’s not right for you, we won’t proceed. And if we don’t proceed, there’s no charge. All I need is 10 minutes of your time and you can be the judge. Is midday or evening better for you?”
Another tool you can use when hearing the price or cost question is to respond to them by saying that you don’t know. What do I mean? Well it might go like this…They say, “How much is it?” You respond with, “I don’t know…I don’t even know if what we have and what you need are compatible. First of all, I would have to ask you a few questions to identify your situation and then I can give you a price. Again, all I need is ten minutes of your time and you can be the judge. Is midday or morning better?”
