Objections handling - Buy vs. Build

How would you handle the following inquiry from a prospect? Is there a reason I should buy your solution? We can build this with our existing teams and tools.

As a technical sales person, you may encounter this objection from prospects across a variety of industries. Having the right response is essential for your success.

This blog will cover the following topics:

1. When should you expect to face this challenge?
2. What makes this a challenge?
3. Would customers be able to build it on their own?
4. Responding to objections
5. When is the best time to discuss those topics?

When can we expect to hear that objection?

As a solution consultant, you will hear prospects ask, "Why should I buy this product from you?" In my opinion, We can build everything in-house using the tools we already have, I don't need to go to external vendors and purchase it to solve my challenge.

In some cases, prospects are right, and they can build some functions in-house. However, this has many challenges and impacts they do not consider.

What are the challenges for you?

Easy. If your prospect can build it themselves, they won't buy your solution.

The challenges here, however, are much greater than you might expect.

If a prospect mentions building this internally,

I suggest you ask yourself a few questions:

1. What prompted them to raise this question now?
2. What concerns do they have about my solution?
3. What are their reasons for believing that building it internally would solve their problems?
4. Did I provide them with all the information they needed to make an informed decision?

Organize your thoughts

• Why this time? Why are they now raising this concern after we already went a long way?
• Maybe they saw the pricing and are reconsidering building it themselves
• Have you managed to show them all the product value, yet they still think they can do it themselves?
• Do they have any concerns that prevent them from continuing the process?
• Are they aware of the differences between homegrown and external solutions?
• Is there a reason they believe they can build it themselves?

Is it possible for customers to build it themselves?

Could be. Due to the fact that every customer and product is unique, it is difficult to say yes or no without knowing all the details, so I will explain why it is difficult.

As an example, for a small company it might be a bigger challenge to develop what they need internally since it involves more resources, whereas a large company might be able to do it, although this sounds true it isn't always the case; it depends on the solution you are selling, the company you are selling to, and their situation.

The best way to deal with this objection

Choose one of the following ideas and modify it to meet the challenge you are facing when speaking to your prospect.

Don't challenge your prospect by acting negative. Don't say, "many tried, but failed, that's why they bought our solution, did you see our amazing logo slide with all the companies?"

Encourage them to think about and consider the following before they build it internally:

1. Engineering focus and effort - When you build your own solution, the engineers are focused on that and not on the company's core business that brings revenue.
2. How long do you think will it take your engineering team to build it? What will be the cost to build and host it?
3. What about ongoing maintenance YOY - did you think about who will patch issues, release new versions, etc., after you build the first version?
4. When you build something internally, it might not have the same innovation and features as when you buy it from an external vendor who meets many companies, sees the challenges and ideas from many, and brings something new and special to you. There is a possibility that your product will be out of date very quickly in terms of innovation
5. What about regulation and compliance? When you work with the government or a regulated industry, you will need to add additional costs such as certifications, external audits, etc. to get approval for the homegrown solution.
6. Are there enough people to support the homegrown solution? If they leave, what happens? Are there any KPIs or SLAs they can provide etc.?

Should you discuss that topic with your prospect?

Rather than waiting until the end of a deal to address it, I would address it early on. In the same way that you would address any other competitor or objections.

Homegrown build can be viewed as a competitor at any stage of the sales process.

Until pricing has been delivered, I would probably focus on qualitative items (time to value, resourcing, lack of functionality from disparate tools). Once pricing has been delivered, I would focus on quantitative items. If you know for sure build is on the table (you might want to include a slide in your sales presentation called Build vs Buy) maybe a bit more subtle if you don't think it's a big concern but want to leave some FUD/landmines just in case you need them.

As a summary,

When you are ready and know how to handle the Build vs Buy objection, you will be able to handle the objections effectively, acting as a trusted advisor to the prospect. You will be able to explain to them what the impact of building it themselves, internally will be, and why your solution could help them solve their challenges faster and more easily.

How do you handle this objection?

Till next time,

Menachem.