5 Common Objections & How to Respond

Don’t be scared of objections - you should actually embrace them! If a buyer has no objections, I view it as a red flag, as every purchase comes with some uncertainty.

Before discussing the 5 typical objections, here is the Growth Genie framework for understanding objections (note I said understand and not overcome as most salespeople make the mistake of trying to overcome objections and arguing about them):

• Acknowledge
• Probe to understand
• Address with a customer story

Here are the 5 objections and how we use this framework for each:

1.We are using a "competitor" and are happy

(Growth Genie example - “we are already using a sales trainer and love her.”)

What you shouldn’t say in this situation - “we are so much better than that vendor and they suck at X, Y, Z”. If they are really happy, then why hate on them!? Instead:

• Acknowledge - “Great to hear you are using a sales trainer and happy”
• Probe to understand - “How are they currently helping your sales team to build playbooks and cadences to get in front of your ideal customers?”
• Address with a customer story - “Typically sales trainers can be very effective at coaching but don’t offer playbook design as a service. Our client Operatix has in-house sales trainers but use us to develop playbooks and cadences, which has helped them onboard new sales hires much quicker.”

2. It’s not the right time

(Growth Genie example - “It’s not the right time as we want to hire an SDR manager first and then have them decide on SDR consulting”)

• Acknowledge - “Understand you’re looking to hire an SDR manager and it’s important your SDRs have internal support on a daily basis”
• Probe to understand - “How long does it typically take you to hire, onboard and train a managerial position?”
• Address with a customer story - “We’ve heard it can take up to 9 months as the hiring market is competitive at the moment. Our client CARTO was also looking to hire an SDR manager but in the inter-rim used us to develop a playbook for their whole team and train their SDRs, which resulted in them increasing their average deal size and ramping up new hires quicker. ”

3. It’s too expensive

If they say this, then the ROI is not clear to them so you need to get them thinking about the metrics that can make the investment profitable.

• Acknowledge - “Understand it’s a big investment given the stage you are at as a startup”.
• Probe to understand - “If you don’t mind me asking, what is your average deal size?”
• Address with a customer story - “Earlier you mentioned your targets are to increase performance per rep from 4 qualified opps a month to 8 and that your close rate is 20%. Even if we can help increase this to 6 qualified opportunities per month, you’ll be looking at solid ROI. As an example, MirrorWeb’s team is booking 20 qualified opportunities a month per SDRv after working with us. That may be on the high side given you are selling to enterprise but I am confident we can enable you to get to at least 6 within 3 months ”

4. We can do this in house

You can only understand if they genuinely could do it in house by probing into how their internal team is currently trying to solve the problem.

• Acknowledge - “Understand you’d like to figure this out internally so you can own it going forward.”
• Probe to understand - “How are your managers currently building playbooks and cadences that can be used across your entire revenue team?”
• Address with a customer story - “Our client Operatix also mentioned to us that product marketing were building their playbooks but that no one in the product marketing had worked in sales before so the messaging was not relevant to their ideal customer’s pain points. After using our playbooks, their new sales hires are now onboarded 75% faster.”

5. I’m not the right person

• Acknowledge - “Understand this may not be your responsibility Jeff.”
• Probe to understand - “Tell me more about your role and how it relates to sales enablement..”
• Address with a customer story - “As you mentioned Jeff, although VPs sales typically own and delegate the enablement programs, it’s important that CEOs, especially in smaller businesses, are involved as they have a deep understanding of their ideal customers and their pains. We interviewed the CEO of MirrorWeb in detail before writing their playbook, and it helped define an extremely niche ideal customer profile, which empowered their SDRs to book 20 meetings a month.”

Want to hear some real-life calls using these tactics? Feel free to DM me on Linkedin.