Posts with Category "Overcoming Objections"

"Your Fees Are Too High": Steps to Handling Objections That Will Get You Closer to the Sale

If you really do put a small value upon yourself, rest assured that the world will not raise your price. - Anonymous

How many of us, as professional service providers, have heard from prospects, "Your fees are too high," "Someone else will do it for less," or "I don't see why I have to pay all that money just to have you do an audit, write a brief, create a marketing plan, etc.?" And, more important, how many resist the urge to simply lower our fees to get the work?

The answer: all of us and few of us. The problem with lowering our fees for a particular piece of work is that we forever have established our value as that lower amount. As our anonymous friend said, if we ourselves put a low value on our work, certainly no one else is going to suggest our value is any higher.

Why do so many of us fall victim to these worst tendencies? To answer this, we first have to look at objections in general and how they fit into the selling process for professional services...

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Are Sales Objections Driving You NUT$? Keys to Overcoming the 4 Types of Objections

By Bob Croston

Master the 4 types of sales objections, and you'll be on the road to much greater sales success.

An objection is not a rejection; it is simply a request for more information.

- Bo Bennett

Are you the type of person who quickly deals with sales objections, providing answers immediately, trying to overcome them as quickly as possible and move towards the close?

If so, you are probably not:

Taking the time to fully understand the objection and what’s behind it by asking clarifying questions

Dealing with the issue thoroughly enough and to the level of satisfaction the prospect desires

Presenting a compelling enough argument to overcome the objection and ultimately win the business

Imagine you have a $450,000 deal on the line. You are at the altar. Six months have gone into this deal and uncountable hours. You can see the finish line… you just have to overcome the last few objections. All too many sales fall apart late in the game because sellers are so anxious to rush through this crucial phase in the sales process. I have consistently seen objections mishandled because sellers simply do not understand the basis for the actual objection.

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Is the “Wuss Factor” Hindering Your Sales Success?

By Bob Croston

Is this "wuss factor" dragging you down?

I had the pleasure of meeting Ed Rendell when he was the mayor of Philadelphia. He was pointed and direct, quite different from the other politicians I have met over the years. So it came as little surprise when early this winter, Rendell, then Governor of Pennsylvania, called NFL officials “wimps” for canceling a game between the Eagles and Vikings due to snow.

When asked about the NFL’s decision the next day, Governor Rendell made his stance clear: "My biggest beef is that this is part of what's happened in this country. We've become a nation of wusses.”

This nation of wusses has extended into the field of sales. There’s no hiding that sales is difficult. Day in and day out you face rejection, you must constantly be filling the pipeline with new leads, you have quotas you must meet, and results are often inconsistent.

Yet too many sales people use these difficulties as excuses and let them hinder their own success – they wuss out.

How can you tell if the wuss factor is dragging you down? Look out for the following 5 symptoms...

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The 8 Buyer Personas (and How to Sell to Them)

By Mike Schultz

Warp 9 Walt is a change agent with a strong sense of urgency. He's just one of the eight buyer personas...

A while ago at a conference I had dinner with two people. The first, (we’ll call her Janine) I had known since we worked together six years earlier. The second person (Ed), Janine and I had just met.

Janine described a sales challenge she was facing. She’d been working with two prospects at two different organizations, one for over a year and one for almost two. The typical sales cycle is 6 to 9 months, and these were both well beyond. She felt she was nearing a sale with both, but for all she knew, “nearing” might mean a year or two to go.

This is a fairly common sales challenge: The sale looks good, but it’s taking forever. Janine happened to be facing two at the same time...

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Overcoming 3 Common Cold Calling Objections

By Mike Schultz

Cold calls don't always start perfectly. But learn to overcome these objections, and you'll instantly find more success in it.

A business-to-business client we at RAIN Group work with recently closed a mid-six figure deal that started with a cold call.

But it started out rocky. Indeed, about 20 seconds in to the cold call it almost fell apart.

After the prospect answered the phone, Jim, a sales person that works for our client, began speaking and the prospect immediately said, “I’m not interested.” This is where many salespeople give up.

Jim didn’t.

He knew that this was just the first of three common cold calling objections. He persisted and, as a result, he got our client on the prospect’s radar screen and ended up winning a major deal.

If your initial attempt to capture attention and create interest on a cold call doesn’t work, don’t just wilt! It’s easy to say “okay” and just move on, but, then again, it’s easy to fail at cold calling.

All is not lost. You can overcome common objections and make saves.

Here are the three common cold calling objections along with examples for how you can overcome them.

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