Sunday, January 6, 2013

Objection Handling "Ya But..."

Have you caught yourself in a ping-pong match of sales expertise vs. seemingly never ending objections? Your customer puts up a objection; you knock it down with a great sales prowess. Up comes another objection; away you blow it – today you are the Zig Zigler of Sales Ping Pong. Back and forth this goes – heck, we all know you are a great sales person so you can keep going for a long time if you have to (and today, you are really on it). At what point does your rebuttal become you being a “butt-for-all?” When does your defensiveness, just start sounding like you are being a butt? IMHO (in my humble opinion) the answer is - right away. Especially if this conversation is taking place in email. If you have to spend your time in an email defending yourself, your product, or your company in an email you are most likely sounding like a butt to the reader. What do I mean? A customer says “Thanks for the info, but we are happy with our current vendors and have no interest in changing at this time.” Now you answer - “ya, but…” maybe not those words, however (by the way “however” is just a fancy “but”) if you use that tone (the “ya but” tone) you are most likely sounding like a butt. So what should you do?

Here are 3 key ideas some sales guru friends and I came up with that may help:

1.​Head down the same path they just took you: “we are happy with” – This customer is willing to tell you that they like how they are doing business. Take this time to learn. You didn’t stop learning when you graduated college right? Every day is a learning experience, so take this opportunity and have the customer help you continue your life long learning experience. Ask them; what is it that makes you happy with this particular vendor or any of your vendors for that matter? How can Kramer get there with our customers? If there were one thing we could change or do better for our partners what would it be? Can you give me an example of what this vendor does? - of course the risk here is re-enforcing their decision to stick with this vendor, but what is the alternative? “thanks anyway”. They already told you to take a flying leap. If you are looking for a safer way to do this, you can use questions that are more general and geared toward what Kramer can do and not what this vendor is currently doing. Give them a little freedom to get creative with their answers so they can improve on what that vendor is doing – given the opportunity.

2.​Thank them for their honesty – remind them that sometimes you spend with potential partners who aren’t as honest as they are and they lead you to believe they will do business with you only to find their was never a chance. Ask them; since they are being so honest – if you can ask them questions that go along the lines of point #1. In the discussion that brought up this subject this week I totally missed this point. It took Alan and one of our esteemed RSMs to bring this one home. It is really important to thank our customers and potential customers for thinking so much of us to remain completely honest with us. One of the things I worry about more than when my wife being mad at me and telling me everything I do wrong is when she stops talking to me. So, remember to thank our customers for telling us everything we do wrong, because the alternative can be that they don’t talk to us at all.

3.​Plant a seed for later communication – Set a date that you would like to contact them and set a flag in Outlook to do it. Let them know you understand that currently you don’t have anything that may interest them and appreciate their response/time (the alternative was they ignore you). Ask their permission for you to contact them when we launch our next highly differentiated product line, pricing, or programs –(i.e. SummitView – “the only product of its kind in the industry”) and ask for permission to send materials on current materials now. One way to ask is a loaded question: i.e. “Thank you for your quick response to my request for a meeting. I understand that you are currently not interested. I would like to send you some information on Kramer and contact you again in 3 months when our more unique products in simplified control and integration have launched and you may have less conflict to consider in this particular product category. If this will not work please give me a call to let me know.” - most likely they will not take the time to call and have you not send the stuff.

The author:
Max Kopsho, CTS-D, CTS-I, MCSE, DSCE – Kramer’s Director of Group Sales and Consultant Relations

Max has worked in the AV industry for over 15 years in various management and technical roles. Over the last 26 years Max has acquired an extensive background in supporting A/V systems, computer networks, telecom, and VTC systems. Max developed one of the industry’s first networked AV solutions and that product is now deployed in a single network with over 15,000 network attached AV devices. Max has made considerable contributions to the InfoComm Education area in AV/IT and CTS preparations. He was awarded the 2010 Educator of the Year for InfoComm.

2 comments:

  1. Max,

    Great Post.

    I learned a long time ago to treat objections in a Pace, Pace, Lead strategy.

    It goes like this-

    Customer: I really don't have the budget to buy anything right now.

    Me: (Pace 1) I have heard that a lot. Many companies I work with are conserving their cash right now, which with tghe state of lending now, I think is a smart move.

    Me: (Pace 2)I know that in our company, we are taking steps to maximize our budget as well, and we would think very hard about any unplanned spending.

    Me: (Lead) I also know (notice the avoidance of "but", "yet", "however")that we have opportunities for companies to finance our equipment that reduce the initial cash outlay, letting you pay for it over time while it delivers a return on your investment. Would that be something of interest to your company?

    Many times it leads to another objection and you navigate using the same method. The theory is that you need to build deposits or paces, by validating what the customer has said and emapthizing, before you can make a withdrawal, or lead them into a question that may overcome the objection.

    It works well, if you mean it, and only if you avoid the fancy "but"s.

    Thanks!!!

    Mark C
    @AVphenom



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  2. Well Said Mark.

    Thank you for the additional ideas. I like your easy to remember "Pace, Pace, Lead" concept and I like they way it can be used as a type of mantra going on in your internal dialog to stay on track when working with customers.

    Keep checking in and giving your insights.

    Best regards,
    Max

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