Execute Your Process Successfully to Avoid Objections

Objections come in many forms but they always seem to pop up at the end of the sales process and leave the unprepared salesperson scrambling for rebuttals. But rather than focusing on how to handle objections, I’d like to focus on anticipating and preventing them by making a few changes to your sales process.

A few key objections are heard time and time again and can be addressed by fundamental changes to your sales process…

Budget issues

The standard budget objection is complete BS 99% of the time. They DO have the budget; they just don’t want to or can’t commit what you asked. If they insist they don’t have the budget now, they need to be aware of a trial offer that really proves your value. Get the agreement signed with a start date of when the budget frees up.

Another budget issue that frequently comes up is “I have the budget but I can’t” because they don’t have the ability to say yes. If you were unaware that this person doesn’t have the authority to allocate budget, you have a true process problem…

“I don’t have the authority…”

Fixing the true decision makers non-involvement requires a few strategic moves earlier in the game that save you a lot of stress later. First, take the time in discovery to determine who the decision makers are, and get a feel for how difficult it will be to actually get them in a meeting. Next, when you’re ending meeting two, act as if it is normal to bring those decision makers in on the next meeting. A simply phrase like “typically, we bring in so-and-so on the next meeting” has a psychological impact that makes them feel like it’s the natural next step.

Barriers to implementation

The barriers to implementation should be addressed from the first meeting; you need to make them feel as if implementation will be seamless and that you’ll handle most of the work (even when there is a lot to be done from their end). Go the extra mile and write out the plan for partnership instead of asking them to figure out how to deploy internal resources.

The barriers issue needs to be addressed in detail in the proposal, but this could also be ameliorated in discovery: ask the right questions and make sure you understand their process so that you can anticipate any complications.

Key takeaways to locking up your process

On a basic level, review your process and make sure you’re clearly communicating their problems first and then how you plan to solve those problems. Then when you factor in ROI, your case is much more air tight. The key to rebuttals is trying to find ways to eliminate them in future meetings by addressing gaps in your current process.