How to Handle Sales Objections: The Thing Isn't the Thing
My rule for objections has always been that the thing isn't the thing. When a prospect says "we don't have budget for this" or "it's not a priority right now," that's almost never the whole story. People want mental shortcuts all over the place, and "it's too expensive" is the easiest one to grab when they don't feel like explaining what's really holding them back. It's on us to get to the root of it.
There are only four objections
You're going to run into four types of objections, and they rinse and repeat for your whole career: timing, need, budget, and permission. Permission is the "I need to get buy-in from IT" or "I have to run it by my boss" one.
Once you know there are only four, you stop getting rattled on calls. You've heard every objection before, just in different words.
Isolate before you reframe
Before I answer any objection, I isolate it. The first question I ask is some version of "budget aside, do you agree this would solve the problem you're trying to solve?"
If they say yes, great. Now we can talk about what their budget cycle looks like, because money is the only thing in the way and you can work on that together.
If they say no, you just learned something way more important. You can say, "OK, so it's not that you don't have budget for this. It's that you don't quite see how this solves your problem." That's a completely different conversation, and you'd never get to it by arguing about price.
I do the same thing with permission objections, before I let anyone go off and get buy-in from their colleagues: "Other than needing buy-in from IT, do you see how this would help you?" I want to know the person in front of me is actually bought in and isn't just placating me.
Keep going until they run out of reasons
I've gone four layers deep on this. "OK, so if budget was fine, would you go ahead?" No. "OK, what is it?" Timing. "If budget and timing were both fine, would you go ahead?" No. "Help me understand, then. What else is holding you back?"
It looks like a lot written down, but on a call it comes across as curiosity. All you're doing is giving people the chance to tell you what's actually holding them back. A lot of them have never been asked before.
When there's no pain, disqualify yourself
Sometimes you peel back every layer and there's nothing there. Don't burn it, because anybody could come back one day. I end those calls like this:
"It sounds like you've got a really mature setup, and it doesn't sound like you've got the kind of problems I help solve. I work best with people for whom this is a major point of friction. It doesn't sound like it is for you, so I'd suggest we reconnect down the road."
You make them feel good about where they are and you take the deal off the table. A lot of the time they come right back with "whoa, hold on, I'm really interested in this." Then you say, "OK, I'm hearing two things. You don't have the pain, but you do have the pain. Help me understand." Whatever they tell you next is the real objection.
Happy selling!