The Most Confusing Objection in Cold Calling

Your prospect is confused. So they'll say something like, oh, we've already got a solution for that. But when they describe their solution, it's actually like, not what you do at all. There's a saying in sales where, like, when you're explaining, you're losing. And one of the worst things you can do in this scenario is be like, hey, hold on. No, no, no. Like, here's how we're different. Because the moment you do that, they're like, oh, this person's trying to pitch me. And they're already, like, one foot out the door. Instead, what you need to do is you actually need to, like, what's going on, folks? Good friend of mine who runs a pretty big sales team, lots of SDRs said that the team was strugg this one objection. That actually sounds kind of weird, but it comes up really often in sales. I'll call it, your prospect is confused. So they'll say something like, oh, we've already got a solution for that. But when they describe their solution, it's actually like, not what you do at all. I'll give an example. Like, if you were selling Soul Cycle classes, it would be like, if someone was like, I've got a gym membership, it's like, yeah, like, that kind of works. I guess if you had, like, a gym membership that had fitness classes, that would be an objection. But it's like, that's not exactly what SoulCycle does. SoulCycle and a gym membership can actually coexist, and they usually do. There's a saying in sales where, like, when you're explaining, you're losing. And one of the worst things you can do in this scenario is be like, hey, hold on. No, no, no. Like, here's how we're different. Because the moment you do that, they're like, ah, this person's trying to pitch me. And they're already, like, one foot out the door. Instead, what you need to do is you actually need to, like, play dead and agree with the objection and be like, I totally get it. You got that thing taken care of. And then you need to ask them a question that gets them to realize it on their own terms that you're different. And that's when you can go in and explain or educate. And, folks, I'm gonna be, like, whiteboarding a lot of this stuff out. And so I definitely recommend, like, watching this on YouTube if you aren't already. So let's dive in. So we'll handle this one in three steps using what I call the Mr. Miyagi method to Handle any objection if you haven't heard it before. We've talked about it a lot on this channel and in our book. But the three steps are you need to, one, agree with the objection, which is the wax on. You don't try to, like, counter the punch right away with another punch. You need to redirect the momentum of the punch or the objection in this case by agreeing with it. So when you agree with an object, usually a prospect's like, oh, like this. This. This guy's not gonna try to, like, pitch here. And all of a sudden, like, this pressure of the sales released, where they open their mind again, they're actually, like, listening to you. And that's what allows you to ask them a question. And that's what we call incentivize conversation. In other words, I'm gonna say something like, hey, just so no one from my team calls you again, could you tell me about this? And that question is what usually exposes more information about the objection? Because you don't have enough information to handle it. Or it gets, like, the prospect to realize something on their own terms. All right, so that's step two. And then once they're like, we don't do that, or like, that does sort of suck. That's when you don't come in with the pressure pitch. You don't try to sell the product. You don't try to sell the car. You sell the test drive. In other words, you're like, hey, are you, like, open to taking a look at this thing? Not for now, but for later. Like, don't try to pitch. The moment you pitch on a cold call, you reapply the pressure. And that's when your prospects run away. The goal is to, like, get them to sit in the car. So we'll call this the confused objection. Let's run this through these three steps. Okay, So I used to sell compensation software at a company called pave. I was VP of Sales there. Let them from 0 to 10 million, 18 months, and we would run into this objection all the time. What would happen is most companies have some sort of, like, HR platform. If you've ever been paid by a company, you probably got paid on, like, Gusto or Rippling or justworks or Workday. Wherever you were getting your pay stubs was where, like, their HR platform was. The vast majority of HR platforms do not handle compensation planning, which is what Pave does. So Pave basically says, hey, I'm going to take all your employees and all of your performance ratings and, like, market data based on like, the average rate for a software engineer, I'm going to say, like, based on the performance of this engineer and where they are relative to market, like, here's what comp increase you should give them. And most companies do this in spreadsheets with, like, a million different, like, vlookups and macros. And then they just, like, plug the results into their H R S. So a lot of times people would confuse it because they'd be like, no, we run payroll with gusto. Or they'll, like, think we're a payroll provider because we're talking about compensation. And that wasn't true. So step one is I've actually got to agree with the objection because I can't just explain or pitch pave on why it's different because they're already resisting on a cold call. Remember, this is like, the first reaction. Okay? So agreeing with the objection, let's say that they're on Gusto. It might say, like, hey, Jane, totally get it. Like, honestly, I should have assumed that your team had this totally taken care of with Gusto. Like, it seems like you run a pretty tight ship. That's step one. Jane's like, okay. He's like, not going to pitch me. I guess we can go now. And now I'm going to say, hey, step two, incentivize. Just so no one from my team calls you again. That must mean that you're not doing any, like, performance based comp increases, right? Where it's like you've got a merit matrix where if someone has, like, a performance rating of a 3 and they're below market, like, they get a 5% increase versus a performance rating of 4 and above market, then they get, like, a 6% increase. You're not doing, like, anything like that. It's probably just like, straight flat comp increases. And they'll usually be like, uh, no, we are doing that. Like, we do that on spreadsheets and we plug it into Gusto. And that's when they come to the answer on their own. They're like, oh. Like, is that what you do? And that's where I'm gonna match their O with, like, my O. I'm gonna be like, oh, yeah. Like, honestly, I was a little bit confused when you said you do this thing on Gusto because I imagined you wouldn't be doing, like, flat increases anymore. Yeah. So, like, the way this thing works, it's like, now I can start to, like, explain oranges versus apples, right? We'll go OJ Versus Apples, and I can be like, we Never replace Gusto. Like, usually, like that process in spreadsheets is like a huge pain. And PAVE essentially takes care of like all that stuff that you're doing with like the macros and the vlookups and like pulling in your compounds. We handle all that. My guess is you're probably not going to buy this thing anyway. Got a pretty good process with Gusto. Maybe your master of vlookups or whatever. But, like, are you open to taking a look at this thing? Just so you know it's out there and you, you can see how they sort of play together. So, like, notice I'm like explaining the difference. I'm saying, like, yeah, all that stuff you're doing on spreadsheets, it usually sucks. And we do this at PAVE instead. And then one of two things will happen when you actually get them to understand what you do. So you go from confused to. They'll either be like, oh, yeah, that spreadsheet thing sort of sucks. And at which point you're like, okay, cool, like, I'll book the meeting because spreadsheets suck. And then from there you can go and like sell them on why you're better than spreadsheets. It's pretty straightforward. Other answer is they'll be like, no. Like, the spreadsheets are actually like, pretty good. They like their spreadsheets. Okay. And so now this actually brings us into a competitor objection. So when you go through like a confused objection, one of two things happen. You clarify the difference and they're like, oh, no, what you actually do is a priority for me. At which point you book the meeting, or they're like, oh, now I get it. But yeah, that's not really a problem. Like, we do this through this other competitor or this other solution. And now guess what, that's when you run Miyagi again. So let's like treat spreadsheets like a competitor here. Even though it's sort of like an in house solution, you handle them the same way. They're basically like doing something that you do a different way. So we'll go through these three steps again. You're going to agree with the objection as step one. Okay, so when you're agreeing with the objection, I'm going to say the same exact thing and be like, honestly, I. I said it before. My guess, your team is probably pretty good on spreadsheets. Like, I saw the comp analyst that you hired. Like, she's awesome. She worked at Expedia and like, probably had to do this at the scale of like millions of People and you've got like 500 people, so you're good to go. She's like, okay, the seller gets it, yada yada yada. Remove the pressure of the sale from there. I'm going to incentivize conversation. Okay. And notice I'm going to ask a different trap question. I need to ask a question that is, what is the thing that I do that I know spreadsheets don't do? What's the thing that we do that I know Gusto doesn't do? I know Gusto or your HR platform won't handle like performance based comp increases. So I was like, hey, you must not be doing performance based comp increases right now. I'm going to run that same play but with spreadsheets. And so I know spreadsheets are good for like pretty simple comp increases, but I know that spreadsheets make it really hard to do equity computer. And the reason for that is when people are getting stock option bonuses, a lot of times their bonuses are based on how much equity they have, but the value of their equity is determined based on like when they started at the company. If they started early stages, they might be like a millionaire on paper. And like their equity bonus is going to be like pretty minuscule relative to the equity that they already have versus if they just started last week. Their equity isn't worth very much. So you need to like take into account all of the equity they have when you're considering how much of a comp increase in to give them. But the problem is HR people don't even have access to all of that data. PAVE does because it integrates with the systems of the CFO too. And so I know that if they're planning equity and spreadsheets, they're probably like heckling their CFO or like they have this janky workaround process. So I'm just going to ask them, like just so no one for my team calls again, like, I know I'm really pushing it here, but like, you probably aren't doing like stock option based bonuses or anything like that. Are you just doing like cash based comp increases? 9 times out of 10, I knew I was calling venture backed companies that were doing that and they'd be like, no, we are. That's also in our spreadsheets or our CFO handles it and that's when I can sell the test drive. And I'm like, ah, so like, I totally get this. Honestly, again, you're probably not going to buy this thing. But like now I can educate them on the difference. I can be like, usually when managers can't see cash and equity all together in one place, like, they'll oftentimes, like, give people a big, bigger cash bonus because they don't realize, like, how much this person's, like, making out on their stock options. Pave helps you, like, plan all that stuff all together in one place without you having to, like, heckle your cfo. I know I push my limit here. There are a lot of companies, like y' all who have worked with us in the past, and, like, are you open to taking a look at this thing, just so you know it's out there? And then if it's not a fit, like, you're a little bit more informed for your next comp cycle? And nine times out of 10, at that point, if you handle the second objection, that's usually when you get the meeting, right? So you go from, like, confused to competitor, and if you handle two objections, you'll usually get through it. If you get a third objection at that point, like, you might get the meeting. But I usually find that, like, once you get on, like, three or four, like, the person's just like, they're coming up with anything, and at this point, they're either going to hang up or, like, they're actually just, like, not open a meeting with you. And at which point you can move on. To recap, we talked about the confused objection where you agree with the objection. You say, hey, totally get it. You're using Gusto. I should have assumed you had this unlocked. You incentivize conversation that pokes a hole that gets them to realize the confusion on their own terms. You're like, hey, you must not be using performance based compensation where you have to do this, this, and this. It really sucks. It's confusing. You probably don't have to do that in Gusto, right? They're like, no, we do. It's in spreadsheets, and it sort of sucks. You sell the test drive. You're like, oh, yeah, here's what we do versus Gusto. Are you open to taking a look? They say, yes, spreadsheets suck. Cool. Book the meeting. They say, no, I like my spreadsheets. This really isn't a problem. At which point you go, then handle the spreadsheet competitive objection with the same three steps. Agree. Incentivize test track. So, folks, if you like this one, I've got two things for you. Number one, we broke down 18 objection talk tracks and wrote out the scripts for every single one of them. I'll put a link to that toolkit here in the show notes or it'll pop up somewhere here. It's literally free. Go download all those talk tracks. The confused one is actually not in there. So this is new. And then step number two is our course is like the ultimate step by step guide on how to win on the cold call from opener through objection through like how you plan your day. The entire section two, which is like three or four videos, is nothing but objections. It goes through the full Mr. Miyagi approach. Like multiple examples by industry, the tone you should be using for every single objection. Plus it goes through like all of the talk tracks so you can really get the stuff down. So I definitely recommend checking that out. And folks, if you like this one, it would mean a ton to me. We're trying to grow this channel. If you liked, subscribed and then told me what you wanted to see next. Next, in terms of an objection down below, it's the number one way you can tell the algorithm that you like this type of content and that's what allows us to keep doing this stuff. Alrighty, folks, catch you soon.