PPB November 2018

Here are the four types of objections salespeople face, along with a few tactics to help you get in the door, shorten the sales cycle, increase pipeline velocity, avoid stalled deals and, of course, close the sale. 1 Prospecting Objections. Of all objections, these are the most severe. People are busy and see little value in spending time with salespeople. Through a combination of reflex responses, brush-offs and objections, they do their best to get rid of you. For this reason, millions of salespeople treat prospecting like the plague and avoid interrupting prospects at any cost. However, if you want success in your sales career, then you’ve got to interrupt prospects. Know that you are going to get prospecting objections, and they will trigger your disruptive emotions. But it’s possible to rise above your emotions and become effective at turning around prospecting objections. During prospecting, deploy a simple but powerful three-step framework: 1 Ledge. A ledge is a memorized, automatic response to perceived or real rejection that does not require you to think. Using a ledge gives your logical brain the moment it needs to catch up, rise above disruptive emotions and gain control. 2 Disrupt. Your prospect has been conditioned from hundreds of prospecting calls and expects you to act like every other salesperson. When they tell you no, they have an expectation for what you will most likely do next. To turn around your prospect’s objections, deliver a statement or question that disrupts this pattern and pulls the prospect toward you. For example, when they say they’re busy, instead of arguing with them that you will take only a little bit of their time, disrupt their pattern by agreeing with them: That’s exactly why I called; I figured you would be, and I want to find a time that’s more convenient for you. Or, when they say, “I’m not interested,” respond with: That makes sense. Most people aren’t the first time I call, and that’s exactly why we shouldmeet. 3 Ask. Here’s wheremost prospecting objection turnarounds fall apart. Many salespeople are hesitant to ask again. But youmust control your emotions and ask again for what you want, without hesitation. When you ask, about half of the time they’ll throwout another objection— one that tends to be closer to the truth. Be prepared to turn it around and ask again. (Just don’t fight. It isn’t worth it. Once you get two objections, graciously move on and come back to themanother day.) 2 Red Herrings. A red herring is an irrelevant topic or issue that gets introduced into the conversation by a stakeholder and distracts you from your focus or diverts your attention from the objective of your sales conversation. A stakeholder, typically early in the conversation, will throw out a red herring—sometimes to challenge you, sometimes because they don’t know what else to say, sometimes because it’s their habitual behavior pattern and sometimes because they have a valid concern or question. A red herring might be something like: “We are already in discussions with your competitor,” or “Just so you know, we’re not buying anything from you today.” Do not take the bait. You must avoid getting drawn in by red herring objections at all costs. When you chase red herrings, you blow up sales calls, skip steps in the sales process, hand control over to stakeholders and become their puppet. Red herrings, managed poorly, are emotional hijackers that turn sales calls into train wrecks. Moving past red herrings requires massive emotional control, so you need a simple and habitual system that keeps you in control: pause, acknowledge, ignore, save. • Push the pause button and collect your emotions. • Acknowledge and let the stakeholder know that you heard them. Youmight say: “ That makes sense,” or “ I get that,” or “ This sounds important. ” • Ignore the red herring unless it comes up again. • Save it and address at a later, more appropriate time. My default is to ignore the red herring unless it comes up again, because I’ve learned, over a lifetime in the sales profession, that they almost never do. I acknowledge the concern, and my favorite way to do this is Know that you are going to get prospecting objections, and theywill trigger your disruptive emotions. But it’s possible to rise above your emotions and become effective at turning around prospecting objections. | NOVEMBER 2018 | 59 GROW