#343 - Sell Playbook: The 5 Most Common Cold Call Objections

Folks, there are a million different objections you could get, and it can be super overwhelming. But the good news is that the top five account for 74% of all objections. So if you can handle these, you're in a good place.

Yep, we partnered with Gong, we analyzed over 300 million cold calls to identify the top five objections. And in this video, we are going to be teaching you how to overcome the top five objections by first giving you the philosophy related to how to overcome the each objection. And then we're going to role play each of those objections so you can see what it looks like in practice. A three, a two, a one. Let's do this.

Alrighty, folks. So objection number one comes in at a 17% likelihood, and that is not interested. It is no surprise that this is the most common objection that you will get on a cold call, because it's the first SWAT that comes to mind. There is no real reason behind this objection, and that's the key to handling it. You have to realize that not interested in is not a real objection. So using the Mr. Miyagi method that we've covered in other videos on this channel, we're going to agree with the objection. And then we're going to incentivize them to have a conversation with us and share more about why they aren't interested. And then we're going to use that to handle the next objection that they give us, which will bring us to step three in future objections. So here's how it sounds. Ring, ring.

Look, I'm not interested.

Totally get it, Nick. Look, I should have assumed that you would have called me if you were just. So no one else cold calls you again, Would you mind letting me know? Is it because the problem that I shared isn't something you're focused on? Is it that you've already got something in place? Or you could be honest. Is it just that you hate getting cold calls?

We're already working with sales goon. Great.

So from there, I got the real objection, and now I'm going to run the Miyagi method again on that objection. So let's go to objection number two. Objection number two is product fit, which is basically any issues with your product, like, it's not made for us, it doesn't work for us types of customers. Your solution is made for small customers. Your solution is made for big customers. We're not ready yet. That clocks in at a 17% likelihood. Very close to not interested. The key to handling this one is you cannot rewrite your product reputation. If a prospect thinks that they're not a fit for your product. Instead, what you want to do is you want to use other prospects experiences to explain that. No, we've actually worked with folks like you, so here's how that sounds. Ring, ring.

Look, I'm sorry. I just. I heard it's not made for enterprise companies.

I totally get that, man. Look, I wouldn't want to sign up for a solution that wouldn't scale either. Just so no one cold calls you from my team again, I'm curious, is that something that you had heard from a rep in the past, or is that just something that you had heard in the general community?

I think I'd mostly heard it in the CFO networking group that you guys just don't scale well with public companies.

Oh, well, you know, it's interesting what you see floating around. Look, my guess is you have good sources and all that stuff, but we've actually had a couple of public companies recently sign on with us, and I'd be happy to introduce you to them, but honestly, it sounds like you really know your stuff. Would you be completely against taking a look at this thing? Not assuming you're going to buy this, but just so you can see it with your own two eyes yourself? So what I did there is I basically said, hey, you're probably not going to buy this. You seem really, really smart. I'm stroking your ego because product fit objections usually come from technical experts or people who think they know everything. And then I said, hey, other folks like you actually switched over to us. Don't you at least want to see what this thing looks like for yourself? I'm assuming that they're not going to buy this thing, but I'm offering them the test drive. And that's step three of the Mr. Miyagi method, which we didn't cover in not interested is you agree with the objection, you incentivize conversation, and then you sell the test drive, not the car. I'm not pressuring him to buy my product right now. I'm just trying to get him to take a look so I can show him how other public companies have worked with us as well. That brings us to objection number three, no budget, which is especially common today in today's economic environment. Look, the reality, folks, is no one I've ever sold to just had budget laying around for things. And you almost always have to create budget or take from existing budget and fight competitors for that budget. So the key to handling this one is you want to agree with the objection in the same way We've done with the other ones. And then what you want to do is you want to understand the nature of their budget issue. It could either be an issue with the budget this cycle, or it could be an issue with the fact that anytime they want to buy something, they get put through the wringer. Regardless of what they say. My goal is to get them to take a look. I want them to test drive the Tesla, get in the car, and then later I'll talk about all the ways they can finance the package.

But.

But for now, why don't you just take a look in case Budget comes up later on? Here's how that sounds. Ring, ring.

Hey, look, we just don't have any Budget. I'm sorry.

Totally get it, man. Look, honestly, it's hard enough to keep a tool nowadays, let alone get something new. Just so no one cold calls you again, could you give me a sense? Is it just because Budget on this cycle is completely out, or is it any time you try to buy anything, you literally just get put through the wringer?

A little bit of both. Right now, things are pretty tight. Okay.

My guess is you're probably not going to buy this, Nick, and I would hate to apply any more pressure than you're already under from your cfo. But look, every once in a while, if Budget somehow opens up in the next year, the folks who usually get it are the ones who know what's number one, two, and three on their list. So I know you're not going to buy this, but would you be against taking a look? Not for now, but just in case Budget opens up. So again, we pushed away. We removed all pressure of the sale, and then we said, hey, why don't you take a look? And the reason you would is because, hey, if Budget does open up, don't you at least want to be the one who gets it? That brings us to objection number four. Not my responsibility. This one's funny. One of two things is true. They're either the right person and they're lying, or they're the wrong person, at which point, I don't want to book a meeting with them. I want to get a referral. Regardless of if they're the right person or the wrong person. What you want to do is you want to pull up the account as you're dialing, and you want to know the other people on the account. So you can suggest other people that it might be if they are the right person for it. They'll usually fess up if they were lying at that point, because they'll be like, shoot, I don't want you to, like, go cold call my colleague because I told them that they were the right person, when in reality I was. But if they were the wrong person, they'll usually say, no, it was one of those folks. And at which point I'm going to ask for the referral. So here's how that sounds. Ring, ring.

Look, I'm sorry. I just don't handle this kind of thing.

Totally get it, Nick. Look, this one's on me. It's. It's a little bit of a roulette, where sometimes this sits with your head of content, and then the other half of the time it sits with someone like your head of demand Gen Jane over there, just so I don't call the wrong person again. Is that something that would be on Jane's plate, you think?

Yeah, I think this is something Jane would oversee, now that I think about it.

Okay, cool. Well, I really appreciate you pointing me in the right direction. Can I ask you for the most unreasonable favor in the world?

Sure.

I would hate for Jane to think that I'm a total rando because I know I'm going in the right place. I'm not asking you to make a referral or anything, but would you be completely against me mentioning that we spoke when I reach out to her?

Yeah. I mean, I don't. I don't want her to think that I'm advocating for this, but sure, you can mention me.

Totally fine. Cool. So Nick just gave a perfect example of he was the wrong person. And the reason that I'm not asking him for a referral is he's not advocating for me yet. And so I know if I ask Nick to make a referral for me, there's no way he's going to do it, or he's going to make the referral, and then in Slack, he's going to say, hey, I don't really know who this guy is. I would rather control the message myself. At which point I will usually send an email to the next prospect or call them and I'll have the subject line say, spoke with Nick, and I'll almost always get a response.

And this brings us to our last one, which is no objection at all. It's actually getting hung up on. And that came in at 11%, the fifth most likely objection you're gonna get. And there's a lot of salespeople and sales trainers out there that say when you get hung up on, you should immediately call your prospect back and say, hey, I think we got disconnected. And I don't think you should do that because you know you got hung up on, they know they hung up on you. And you're really just gonna piss em off more because by trying to call back and acting like they didn't terminate the call. And so instead when you get hung up on, you can actually increase your chances of success the next time you call them by doing the following. The first thing you want to do is when they hang up, you want to note down what they said right before they hung up. You want to note down the date and you want to note down the time of when this happened. And when you call them back, this is what it's going to sound like. So let's do the hang up and then I'll talk about what I would do later. So ring, ring.

Dude, I can't talk right now. I'm literally preparing for a massive meeting. I got a dash. Peace.

So one week later I'm gonna call him back and I'm gonna say something like this.

Hello.

Hey Armand. You and I last spoke on October 19th around 2:30 in the afternoon. And at the time you told me you couldn't talk cause you were crazy busy preparing for a big meeting. And admittedly you hung up on me. And I know I was interrupting you then and I guess I'm bugging you again now. But look, I promise I did some prep for this one and there was a reason that I called you. I. And I'm wondering if I can get 30 seconds to share why I called you back and you could totally hang up on me if it doesn't make sense for us to speak from there. What I'm doing here is I'm reminding Armand we've spoken before, we had a really, really quick conversation. And I'm reminding him by using those words you were crazy busy preparing for a big meeting. We spoke at this time. And then what I'm doing is I'm using a little bit of guilt and trying to show the person behind the phone, look, you admittedly hung up on me. I wanted to recreate that moment of like he hung up on a human being that had done some prep for this call, had done some research. And I'm going back to my permission to get a chance at sharing that prep and research I did when I gave my pitch.

Folks, if you like this, these were the top five objections. There are 18 objections that we have talk tracks written out for you for free. You can get those at 30mpc.com cold call as part of a cold calling care package. And we put that care package together because we are about to release our upcoming book on cold calling. Cold calling sucks. And that's why it works. You can preorder it now or if you're watching this video in, like, late August or September, you can just buy it now at 30mpc.com book catch you on the next one.