Cold to Committed

by Kyle Vamvouris

  This is a very simple exercise and it may seem a little silly, but it’s a lot of fun, especially in a group. It’s fun to write down the character that you present over the phone, but more importantly, it gives you clarity. clarity on how you should come across on the phone will help you stay consistent.

  Oh, and don’t forget—this is the best part… Give your character a name. The one above we will call Good Old Boy Luke.

  Conclusion

  Telling a story can help create a connection that is vital to building strong rapport with the prospect. Storytelling comes naturally to some people, but many will need to spend time to improve in this area. Keeping a journal and writing down anything that happens to you that you feel would be a great story is important. Write often and practice story construction. You might even consider joining some public speaking groups or practice presenting your stories to friends and family.

  As with most aspects of cold calling, the more you practice the better you get.

  Overcoming Objections

  Why do some people seem natural when it comes to selling, while others struggle to pick up the phone? No one is born with the ability to persuade; much of that skill is developed over time through life experiences and your relationship with rejection. The fear of rejection is very crippling and many people struggle with it. This manifests when they try and speak in front of a crowd, approach someone in public, or even when they need to pick up the phone and make a call. I have seen it time and time again—a sales development rep fails because they cannot handle the continuous rejection they get over the phone every day.

  Rejection that stings the most comes in the form of an objection from the prospect. Different from the brush-off, the objection typically is near the end of the call when you’re asking for the meeting. The reason this stings so much is because of all the work put in on the phone to get to the point of asking for the meeting, only to be turned down. This fear of rejection can keep the salesperson from asking for a meeting. You should never be afraid to ask for a meeting, to ask for the opportunity to show the prospect a solution to their problem. But, after facing rejection on a daily basis, some salespeople are.

  You Aren’t Alone

  Every salesperson in every industry has come across an objection at one point or another. It’s baked into the role of being a salesperson. Prospects will have objections. They may say they’re too busy, or they don’t have the budget, or they don’t think you can help. It doesn’t matter how you slice it, the prospect is telling you no and it’s up to you to turn that into a yes. SDRs are lucky because they are only asking for the prospect’s time, not their money. A prospect is more likely to give you 15 minutes of their time than a $2000 startup fee, $250 a month, and a year contract.

  This doesn’t mean that the objections on a cold call have less impact. An objection is an objection; it’s a barrier to booking a meeting or closing a sale. The focus of this chapter is on the objections that you will encounter on a cold call. In this chapter, we will cover the main causes of these objections and how to overcome them. This will serve as the foundation for overcoming more challenging objections as you progress in your sales career. Let’s jump in and take a look at some reasons why an objection would be raised when trying to book a meeting.

  REASONS FOR Objections

  The prospect doesn’t see the value in your product or service

  The prospect doesn’t like you

  The prospect is afraid of change

  The prospect isn’t ready to have this conversation now

  In the vast majority of situations, the prospect is giving you an objection because they made a buying decision too early in the sales process. What do I mean by this? Typically, as an SDR, you want to build some interest and book a meeting for the prospect to speak with the salesperson whose job it is to motivate the them to make a buying decision. If the prospect makes a buying decision on the cold call, we have a problem on our hands. This is because they haven’t seen our product or service yet and as a result, they are lacking complete information. If the prospect makes a buying decision on the cold call, that would require them to make a lot of assumptions, many of which will most likely be wrong.

  Premature Buying Decisions

  If you are able to keep the prospect from making a buying decision on the cold call, you will dramatically reduce the number of objections you receive. Buying decisions are typically made because the prospect feels they know enough about your product or service to evaluate its impact. The part that can be challenging is the amount of information required to cause this and that varies between decision makers. Some prospects think they know exactly what your product or service is after your introduction; others need you to give them more information about “how it works.” It’s important, in both of these scenarios, that you are able to identify when the prospect is at risk of making a buying decision.

  The Technical Question

  The key indicator that a prospect is at risk of making a premature buying decision is if they ask technical questions. Asking questions can be a sign of interest which is why it’s easy to get excited and give the prospect too much information. If you do, it may result in a premature buying decision by the prospect. Combat this by careful answers to their technical questions and avoid what is called info dumping.

  The Info Dump

  Info dumping is when a sales development rep dumps a ton of information on the prospect all at once, hoping they will understand how great the product or service is. This can happen after the prospect asks a question or before the rep asks for the meeting. It’s a desperate attempt to persuade the prospect to say yes. It is unfortunate when this happens, because the information that the SDR is dumping on the prospect is giving them enough information about the product or service to make a premature buying decision and not enough to make an actual buying decision.

  When the prospect asks you a question about your product or service, you should answer with a high-level response, but then follow up with a question to them. Avoid going into too much detail, leaving the prospect with more to be desired. This works well for a basic question that may be asked, but what if the question does require greater detail? If the question can’t be answered with a high-level response, you should defer the answer to the next meeting. Here’s an example of what that looks like.

  Prospect: So, tell me, how exactly does your system know when to prompt my reps to input the data?

  SDR: That’s a great question and it’s a bit technical for me. We can set up a time to have our product expert, Michelle, walk you through it. I’m curious though...what’s the current process for your reps to input data?

  As you can see from this example, we admit we can’t answer the question and imply that there will be another meeting. At this point the SDR might feel the urge to try and book that meeting. Remember, to avoid objections, the prospect must believe that your product or service could be the solution to their problem. If they don’t believe that yet, you shouldn’t ask for the meeting, but follow up with a question that will keep the conversation moving forward.

  Too Late?

  That’s how we prevent a premature buying decision from being made, but what if it’s too late? An indicator that the prospect has already made a buying decision, that we must reverse, would be if their tone changes from conversational to uninterested. The second that you notice this you must figure out what caused this sudden shift. It may be linked to the info dumping we talked about earlier, or a selling story that did not resonate. It could even be something you said that irritated them. Whatever the cause you must figure it out quickly and begin trying to repair the call.

  Take a Step Back

  Admit that you’re far from where you should be. Follow this up by taking the prospect back to a time in the call where the conversation was going much better. The goal is to reverse the premature buying decision they might have mad
e. Once you bring them back to that earlier point, ask a relevant question to keep the call moving. This should feel a bit like a reset. Take a look at the next example.

  SDR: Let me take a step back here, because I went on a bit of a tangent. Earlier you were talking about how your reps don’t input data consistently. Can you tell me more about how you’re tackling this problem?

  Another indicator that you need to reverse a buying decision made by the prospect is when they tell you (Who would’ve thought?). If the prospect interrupts you to say that, they don’t think your product or service would be valuable for them, you may become confused. How could they know that without understanding exactly what the product or service is? This is your opportunity to learn more. Ask them why they believe that and this will pull the objection out of them. Here is an example.

  Prospect: You know, I just don’t think this would be helpful for us.

  SDR: I understand and thanks for the honesty. Typically, when someone tells me that it’s because I haven’t done a great job explaining what we do. Would you mind giving me some insight into why you feel that this wouldn’t be helpful for you?

  In this scenario we lost the opportunity to avoid or reverse the buying decision from being made, so we must now tackle the objection head on. This is ok and there is no need to be upset that your prospect has an objection. At the very least, receiving an objection means that they were listening.

  So how do we overcome objections? Great question, reader

  ...a very thoughtful one indeed!

  Overcoming Objections

  In this section we are going to cover how to overcome objections in the context of a cold call. The vast majority of cold calls are made with the intention of booking a meeting, which means we are asking for someone’s time. This is very different than a closing call where we ask for the prospect to spend money. Because the technique is similar, getting good at overcoming objections on the cold call will also help you when you’re in a closing role.

  Understanding

  The first step to overcome an objection is going to seem simple. You need to make sure you actually understand the objection. It’s very easy to get nervous, over-think things, or make incorrect assumptions when the prospect starts to give you an objection and you end up not fully understanding what they’re telling you. If you don’t listen carefully to the prospect and fully understand their objection, you will have a very low chance of overcoming it. Conversely, by understanding the prospect’s perspective, you will be able to respond to their objection in a way that is thoughtful. You will actually convince them to meet despite originally declining.

  Sometimes you will need more context to get a deeper understanding of the objection. This requires asking questions and intently listening so you understand everything connected to the prospect’s objection. Let’s walk through a quick example to illustrate this.

  Prospect: I appreciate the call Kyle, but I just don’t think your product will be able to help us.

  SDR: I hear you and that’s not a problem. I would love to get some feedback. Why don’t you think this will help you?

  Prospect: Well, we have a very old system in place and I know it’s going to be a headache to change.

  BOOM! That’s the objection! Did you see that!?

  Sorry, I get excited about these things. Let’s break this down so you fully understand what happened. The prospect gave us a classic objection “I just don’t think your product will be able to help us.” If we try to overcome that objection without knowing the context, we will most likely fail because we have no idea what we have to overcome. Never assume you know what the prospect means. Always have them elaborate. In the example above once the prospect elaborated, we learned it’s not that they don’t think our product would benefit them—its that they believe changing from their current system is so challenging that they would never be able to receive the benefits of our product. Now that’s a lot easier of an objection to overcome. After understanding their objection it’s time for us to respond, so let’s continue with our example.

  Prospect: Well, we have a very old system in place and I know it’s going to be a headache to change from.

  SDR: Just so I understand…you see the value of moving to a new ticketing system, but you just don’t think it will be worth it because of the amount of difficulty you’ll experience trying to switch?

  Prospect: Yeah, I just know that it’ll be a pain.

  SDR: I totally understand your concern. Some of these old systems make it incredibly hard to move away from. Why don’t we do this… Let’s set aside 20 minutes to show you how simple it would be to change systems. We can walk you through how it will help insure that your reps input all the data you need them to. So, you’ll have a stronger understanding of the quality of support a new system is giving you. If at that point you still think the transition process will be too painful, we understand. Do you have time tomorrow at 11am?

  In this response to an objection, the sales development rep is making the ask very small…ie Can I have 20 minutes? Doing this is important because the prospect’s objection was very premature—no one had asked the prospect to make a painful change. In the next part of this response the SDR reminds the prospect of the result of their product, the result that’s desired. Finally, the rep takes the pressure of the meeting away by giving all the control over the next meeting to the prospect, “If at that point you still think the transition process will be too painful we understand.” Finally, the rep is assumptive and gives a time, making the meeting request very simple to agree to.

  This is just one of the many objections you may get over the phone. You are going to be surprised at some of the reasons people give you for not being able to take a meeting.

  Let’s take a look at some common objections.

  I’m not interested

  I’m too busy

  I don’t want to change

  We don’t have the budget

  We’re already going through this process with a competitor

  These are basic objections and will be expressed in many different ways. It’s your job to ask questions to get to the core of the objection, like we did in the example earlier. Regardless of the objection that you receive, you must respond and, you must respond well. Part of having a good response to an objection is about what you say and it must be done with confidence, caring, and patience.

  The Most Important ELEMENTS OF OVERCOMING AN OBJECTION

  Confidence

  I know this is going to come across as repetitive, so bear with me. Confidence is one the most important traits you can possess when making cold calls. The more confident you sound, the higher your perceived value, and this applies to objection handling just like it does other aspects of the call.

  The difference is, when you ask the prospect a question and you don’t sound confident, it’s hard to recover. When you respond to an objection with a lack of confidence, you don’t get that opportunity. Practice overcoming objections with colleagues and really put the emphasis on sounding confident, because there is simply no room for error.

  Caring

  Confidence is great, but it’s only one piece of what’s required to effectively respond to an objection. You must also have a caring attitude. If you truly don’t have the prospect’s best interest at heart, you should not be selling, period. Empathy goes a long way and, if you aren’t genuine, the prospect will know. Having a caring attitude means coming at the objection from the side of the prospect and not your own interests. That’s what’s going to make you look good. You must be in their corner fighting for their needs, even if you have some bias to the situation. A cold call has very little to do with you and a lot to do with the prospect. It’s about their needs, not your commission.

  Patience

  Finally, overcoming objections is about having patience. Not all objections make sense; not all prospec
ts understand value right away. When you are overcoming an objection, you must have patience and be willing to work with the prospect. What this means is when they don’t understand the value or you don’t understand their objection, don’t get frustrated. Get back into the conversation and ask the prospect more questions to get a better idea of their perspective. Don’t try to rush the prospect into booking a meeting. Take your time and respect their needs; it will go a long way.

  The prospect isn’t ready to have this conversation

  In the vast majority of cases you received an objection because the prospect made a premature buying decision. However, you will run into the situation where the prospect is not making a premature decision—they are pushing off the decision. The prospect is telling you that they aren’t ready to have a conversation now. In my opinion this is hands down, the hardest objection to overcome and let me explain why.

  When a prospect asks you to reach out to them at a future time, it feels good, great even. You didn’t get rejected and that feeling is similar to the one you get when you book a meeting. The reason this is the hardest objection to overcome is because there is no way to know if reaching out in the future will lead to a scheduled meeting. The prospect could be lying, procrastinating, or genuinely interested in speaking to you in the future. Another thing you have to remember is that you don’t know what the future holds. Is the prospect going to quit their job in six months, forgetting they asked for a call back? Will the company’s initiatives shift and they no longer have a need for your product or service? Worse-case scenario is that you call back and they’ve already signed with your competitor.

  If all that wasn’t enough, there is another reason why this is the hardest objection to overcome—if you try to overcome the objection, you could risk coming across as pushy. This is probably the worst part because we spend so much time building rapport and trust with the decision maker. All that work will be thrown out the window if they feel like we are pushing them into making a decision before they’re ready. The question is, how do we navigate this objection? It’s reminiscent of Shakespeare’s Hamlet…