We Already Have A Vendor for that Objection

So you're making a cold call, and your prospect says, I'm using a competitor. Well, guess what? This is when most sellers absolutely throw the cold call in the trash. Because the worst thing that you can do right now is tell your prospect all of the reasons why that competitor is not good and all the reasons why your product is good. The reality is your prospect bought that product in the first place for a reason. In other words, they made an intentional decision to use a product that was not yours. And so when you try to handle the competition by pitching your product over them, you actually make your prospect more defensive, because you're essentially saying the decision that you made was wrong. Make this better decision. And if you've ever had someone try to convince you of something, nine times out of ten, you tend to get pretty defensive unless they first understand why you made that decision in the first place. And that's exactly how we're going to handle any competitive objection when it comes to the cold calling world. We're going to go through three steps to handle any competitor objection you could possibly get on a cold call. And we'll go through three different product examples so you know that this works in different environments. And we'll do all of this using what I call the Mr. Miyagi method. To handle any objection in the world of which there are three steps, you need to agree with the objection before you handle the objection as step one, you then need to incentivize conversation. In other words, you need to get them talking more about the objection to give you more information about the objection and also to get them comfortable. And then lastly, number three, you need to sell the test drive, not the car. In other words, you need to answer the question, what are they going to get out of a meeting with you even if they never bought the car in the first place? Alrighty, so let's go through these three examples one by one, and we'll walk through the framework and the talk track step by step. So this first example is using software that I actually used to sell when I was the VP of sales at a company called Pave. So I led them from 100k to $12 million plus in. And one thing that we never struggled with is our team was always really, really, really, really good at generating pipelines, specifically on the phones. And so we were selling into a space where a lot of times people would have an existing compensation planning solution. So if we were making a cold call, we would go through our opener, we would go through our pitch, and nine times out of 10, they would say something like, hey, we're using CompX, which was just like one of our competitors in the space. Step number one of the Mr. Miyagi method is the most horrible thing I could possibly do with that objection is I start to fight or try to like handle compacts as the competitor. Instead, what I want to do is I actually want to like agree with the objection in this case. I'm going to say something that completely disarms the prospect of any sort of sales pitch whatsoever. So I might say, John, I totally get it. Honestly, I should have assumed that you had a tool in place. And nine times out of 10, it doesn't make sense to switch off of a tool, let alone one like compex. The moment I say that, the prospect is like, what the hell? Like what this person not going to pitch me? I'm like, I thought I was going to kick them away as a salesperson, but I guess they're just like laying down. Is that the end of it? And immediately what you do is you release some of that sales pressure that oftentimes happens on a cold call. Step number two is you want to incentivize conversation with what we call a trap question. In other words, I want to do two things with a little bit of finesse. Number one, I want to ask them a question that gets them talking. But then two, I want to ask them a question that exposes a hole in their existing solution, but it sort of like lets them come to the answer on their own terms. If I just said, hey, you can't do this, they're going to push back. But if I'm like, hey, how do you do this thing that I know you can't do? You might almost like stumble upon the answer yourself and then I can take you the rest of the way. So for example, we were a compensation planning software that would allow people to run promotion cycles. And there are usually two types of compensation increases you can get. You can get cash based comp increases which are like, here's a 10% salary raise, or you can get equity based compensation increases. Here's like a 100 new stock options or something like that. And what we knew about the space is the key to handling any competitor is you got to remember the one thing that you do that this bucket of competitors doesn't do. So Compx was one of these legacy competitors that was really good at like cash planning and reporting and like advanced permissions and all this stuff, but they actually couldn't handle stock option planning or equity planning. At all. And so you had to do that in a different software. And so I'm just going to ask a trap question about that. So after I agreed with the objection, I might say something like, hey, just so no one from my team calls you again, you must not be doing any sort of, like, stock option bonuses in your merit cycles, right? And notice there are two parts of that. Number one is I said, just so my team doesn't call you again, I'm giving them a reason to give me an answer. No one wants more cold calls. And then I, like, pushed away. And I'm like, hey, you're probably not doing any, like, stock option planning, right? And if I was smart at Pave, I was calling in the companies that I knew were doing stock option planning. So if I was calling a startup, like, they were probably doing equity grants. And so usually you'd get an answer at this point that would sound something like, we are. Why do you ask? And now they're taking a step forward. I piqued the curiosity. And now they're open to listening a little bit. Because we've turned like the initial confrontation of a cold call into a little bit more of like, a conversation because there's some back and forth. And now this is where salespeople, like, they'll oftentimes like, throw it in the trash. They're like, all right, it's time to pitch. And it's like, no, it's not time to pitch yet. You're going to pitch on the meeting after you ask them a bunch of questions and you get them talking even more. The goal is to get them to, like, sit in the car. You're not trying to sell the car. You're not trying to get them to, like, get rid of their car right now. You're just trying to get them to sit in the test drive. So they've taken that step forward. And the final sinker line that I'm going to use is, again, I'm going to push away a little bit. This, this might actually make sense. My guess is you're probably, probably going to stay with Compex. But we've had a couple of customers switch from Compex to us specifically because stock option planning can be really, really challenging twice a year. And if your managers can't see the stock option bonuses next to the cash bonuses, they'll oftentimes ask for like, a bigger cash increase because they're looking at like, comp in a silo. My guess is you're probably, probably not going to change. But would you be open to taking a look at this thing? Not for now, but just so you know it's out there. And so notice like there are a couple things going on there. Number one, like I exposed and I expanded the hole in their current solution and I said like, hey, here's what other customers have seen, not here's what I think is better, here's what other customers, like you noticed when they had this problem too. And then from there you can be like, do you want to like take a look at this thing knowing that you're probably not going to buy it anyway? Like, you want to remove all the pressure of the sale because no one's going to buy something from you on a cold call unless you're like, I don't know, selling a nonstick pan for $100. You have to do like a one call close or something like that. The goal is for them to take like one step forward. And the way you get them to take one step forward is you remove all the pressure of the sale and you make them comfortable.

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Most people have like some form of gym membership, even if that means you like go to a park and do pull ups. Like people have some existing solution in place. Let's say that I sell for Equinox. Okay? So I'm going to sell like a premium solution. I know someone is at Planet Fitness, $13 a month or something like that with purple stuff and dumbbells that only go to £50, whatever it is. So step number one is I'm going to agree with the objection. Honestly John, I probably should have assumed that you had another membership. You seem like you're in pretty good shape and you take your fitness seriously. So my guess is if you've gotten into a routine, you're probably not going to Switch. Agree. Now all the sales pressure is removed. Now all I need to think is, like, what's one thing that Planet Fitness members don't have that Equinox does have? Well, there's a lot and it's obviously more expensive. Well, I can think of two things. Well, number one, Planet Fitness dumbbells only go up to, like, 60 PO or something like that. So if you're, like, actually in shape, like you look, chances are you got to do like a million reps at 60 pounds of your bench, your goblet squat or something like that to get any sort of pumps. Like, that's one direction. The other direction, number two, is that, like, they don't have any, like, sauna or anything like that. So if you like to do that, you have to, like, go to, like, a separate sauna from your gym, which is, like, honestly a pain in the butt. And if I'm, like, talking to someone who has money to pay, like, I can expose that hole. And so the way I'm going to do that is I'm going to do that same incentivized conversation. I'm going to, like, push away. And it'll be like, just so I make sure, like, no one from my team calls you again, you must not be a huge sauna guy or, like, you must not be doing any, like, super heavy compound barbell or dumbbell lifts over, like, £60, give or take. Now, in the gym world, this person might be like, dude, are you kidding me? Like, I don't even lift. At which point I've poked the bear a little bit and I'm like, probably a little bit happy that I got the person pissed that I basically said, you don't even lift. But chances are if I drop, like, one or two of those little trap nuggets in, they're going to be like, I like the sauna, or, you know, I want the heavier weights, but it's just like, it's just a little bit too expensive, right? And so, like, what I'm hearing at that point is I would rather have your product. It's just too expensive. And so now it's just a matter of, like, sizing up that value. Okay? And the best time to have that negotiation is when they're, like, riding the thrill of the roller coaster of, like, being in an equinox and, like, doing stupid eucalyptus towels on the face. And they're like, oh, my God, I feel so good. And so all I got to do is I just got to get them in the gym. The way I'm Going to sell the test drive is I'm going to say, like, honestly, John, that totally makes sense. I figured you'd be doing like heavier compound movements. You probably just have to do more reps at Planet Fitness. But the reality is like, Equinox is going to be like, way more expensive. But we can work stuff out with you. That said, I don't even know if that's going to be worth it for you. And I was looking at my records and I don't think you've ever actually tried the gym. We can work something out, but like, why don't you just come and like, try a workout in the first place? Get in the sauna, try the heavier weights and like, see what it does for your workout. If nothing else, you'll know what's out there and you'll be like, okay, like, I know that's not worth it. And then if you find that it's worth it, like, maybe we could talk about something. So you want to swing by for a free workout next week? I'll be like, cool, take the free workout. And then once he gets in the gym, then I can catch him with the eucalyptus towel on the face and give him a smoothie and all that stuff and then be like, okay, pay my $300 per month. All right, so that's gym memberships. And again, the key premise here is like, I gotta know one thing that I'm gonna poke in that competitor and then I'm gonna use that to get them in the gym, get them in the car, get them in the demo, whatever it is. That's when I put on the sale. So this last bucket is a company that I do some sales coaching for and it's an AI resume screener. In other words, if you have like 3,000 resumes in a stack, it's like the most mind numbing exercise in the world to try to find the five candidates who are actually qualified for the job. And so you end up having to have like the source or go and like look through a million different resumes and it's a huge pain in the butt. Problem is, a lot of times people have what's called an ATS or an Applicant Tracking System. It's like a CRM for candidates in the recruiting world. And some ATS platforms have built in candidate screening bots, but they like kind of suck. They're basically like glorified filters you can apply, which is like X years of experience, this location. It's not actually like using AI to like read a resume like a human could so it can't point out certain nuances, like, oh, I want someone who got like three promotions in two years, so they have like a quick trajectory. And that's something that this company Covey does. Okay. And so that's going to be my trap quite. And so I have to do a little bit more research for a prospect like this because I need to know enough about their company to be able to say something nuanced that they would be looking for otherwise. Like, my trap question is going to be too generic. Okay, so let's assume that I'm reaching out to the VP of marketing over at Gong, and they're a sales tech company, and I want to be able to point out the purple squirrel for them, that funky candidate who has like, both marketing experience and either worked in sales or worked in sales tech. So they might say something like, hey, look, Armand, I really appreciate the call, but we have an all in one platform where our ATS actually has like a recruiting bot attached to it. And it's. It's fine. And so I think we're good. So I'm going to say, like, totally get it. Honestly, most ATS platforms, like, have a bot the other day, so I should have assumed that you were already, like, using one of those. And nine times out of 10, like, it usually gets the job done. He's like, where'd the pitch go? Now I incentivize conversation and I'm going to use that trap question. Hey, just so no one calls you from my team again, I was looking at some of the open rules you have, and you're hiring a lot of marketers who have, like, sales experience or worked in sales tech. I have to assume that those bots are able to, like, catch that nuance of like, a marketer who worked in sales or worked in sales tech, like, is able to get to, like, that level of human level nuance. And they'll be like, we get it to like, 300 out of the 3,000 applications. And then our recruiters are usually the ones who look through that. I'm like, oh, got it. We've talked to a bunch of other companies that are similar to you where, like, they're looking for certain industry experience or maybe they're looking for types of people who have, like, quick trajectory. So they want to see like four promotions in two years. And that stuff is like, really, really, really hard to find. If you don't have a tool that is, like, solely focused on reading resumes and pulling out human level nuance, my guess is you're probably not going to switch because it would be another tool in your stack. But could I actually just like show you what this looks like for one of your open marketing roles? Not for now, but like just so you know what's out there. And then I can get on the call and be like, hey, Here are these 3,000 resumes. Here are the 10 that have sales experience. Blow your mind. Awesome. Let's talk about how much time that would save your sourcers. Let's talk about how much value that would bring to your team, how much it would cost, how much of a discount you'd get off your ATS if you didn't have that tool anymore. And then I can sell them on the rip and replace, but that only happens if I can get them in the car. Alrighty folks, so to recap, we had three examples. The compensation software, the gym memberships, and the AI resume screener. And we went through the three steps, agree with the objection, incentivize conversation, and then selling the test drive, not the car. If you like this folks, there are a bunch of other videos that I've covered on different objections. That's one. And we've also put together a free toolkit that has scripts for 18 of the most common objections in sales. From not interested to send me some information to call me in six months to competitive objections. And so you can access all of those scripts here or down in the show notes as well. And then if you like this folks, I have two requests. Number one, if you could like and subscribe this page, it would mean a ton. It is the number one way that this channel continues to grow and that is what ultimately allows us to do more content. And the number two, if you really like this, the only ultimate step to booking one in three cold calls is to take our cold calling course. And that breaks down the entire cold call step by step with talk tracks and examples just like this in far more detail that I went through today. Everything from the opener to the pitch, to the objections, to how you manage your day, to how to like, maximize the number of conversations you get in an hour, even when you're not on the phones. It is the ultimate step by step guide to booking meetings on the phone. And the best feel in the world, folks, is, is literally being able to walk into a cold call blitz and know that you are going to leave after one hour with one meeting on the books every single time. So a link to that is here. There's also a discount code. Because you're on this video, you can go access all that stuff down in the show notes. And let us know down in the notes what objection you'd want us to handle next. All right, folks. Peace out, Sam.