Understanding sales objections

They’ve done studies you know, 60% of the time, it works every time! Actually, when sales leaders review calls and demos in their real-time call coaching platform, they find that the takeaway actually works closer to 100% of the time.

When tools like Abstrakt are deployed, and recognize objections or pick up decent, recommended responses can help reps with overcoming sales objections by highlighting options for reps to use like the takeaway.

Below, we are going to dive into some reasons why 100% of the time, the takeaway works every time.

The almighty ego! 

It all comes back to ego. A prospect has done hours of research, they have reviewed your website, told their boss they are looking at vendors, they have even gotten a preliminary thumbs up to go and buy their organization’s first real-time call coaching platform.

Now, they have submitted their demo request, the sales representative has booked the meeting and all of a sudden they are told “no” within the first couple minutes of meeting with the account executive. Doesn’t matter why, but the sales rep for some reason doesn’t want the business.

Go back and review all your calls in your call coaching software, how many times has our team pushed business away? I’m guessing not many. So, what does the prospect’s ego have to do with sales?

There are a couple of things that most folks don’t like to have happened, especially in a professional setting. They don’t want to be proven wrong, and they especially don’t want to be proven wrong in front of their peers.

Being proven wrong in private is one thing, being proven wrong in front of your boss, and peers is a whole different ball game.

A sales representative tells a prospect they aren’t a good fit for their solution, and their defense mechanism immediately kicks in. So what happens to someone who is told no?

• Prospect begins to immediately get excited about the thrill of the chase
• The prospect begins to believe that being accepted by the sales representative, representing the solution they want, will validate their time and dedication to the solution evaluation.
• The less the sales representative reciprocates the desire to earn the business, the more time the prospect invests in getting the sales rep to believe they are a good fit for the solution they want.

A gentle nudge off the fence 

Which of these three options works best for you? Would you like fries with that? Looking around society, organizations have learned that the fewer options they provide to a prospect or customer the easier it is for the ultimate decision to be made. In sales, the answer of “yes” is of course a good one, “no” works great as well so no more time is wasted, and “maybe” is a sales representative’s worst nightmare. Conversational Intelligence software (aka call intelligence platform) has become so advanced that it does a great job of reactively letting sales leaders know when deals are at risk due to things like time lapsed between meetings.

In situations like this, where a prospect is on the fence, give them a gentle nudge off the fence by deploying the takeaway. Chances are, your prospect is secretly hoping for it. Some easy things to say to your prospect might be:

• “Based upon your requirements list, it does not appear that we will be a good fit for you, I would recommend taking a look at our competition.”
• “During our first meeting, you expressed an urgency to have this implemented and live by November and we agreed upon an 8-week implementation timeline. Given we are 4 weeks out, is it fair to say something has changed and you will not be moving forward with us?”
• “We are a great fit to help you solve this problem, but the budget you allocated does not allow me an opportunity to work with you. Wish you the best of luck.”
• “It’s ok to say ‘no’ to me”

Personally, it is our belief that sales representatives should actively look for opportunities to use the takeaway at the right time, even if it’s not needed. It helps accomplish so many things that positively impact the outcome of an opportunity, without all the hassle of the back and forth.

Using Abstrakt, intentionally deploy the takeaway as part of the agenda-setting step the prospect at ease that their time will be respected and almost guaranteeing they will lean into the conversation more. That is one of the benefits of call coaching software, if a prospect even shows any sign of hesitation a takeaway can be triggered to help immediately overcome sales objections.

By deploying a real-time call coaching platform, sales leaders can ensure that their reps are proactively, and reactively getting to a “Yes” and “No” faster, and avoiding the maybes one hundred percent of the time.

By simply using the tools that science has taught us about humans and our disposition towards having things we can’t, sales leaders around the world can boost their win rates!