Welcome to module four, lesson two, handling replies and objections. In this lesson, you will learn how to seamlessly handle the replies that you receive as a result of your prospecting class so that you can address the common objections and brush offs confidently and in your own voice. The first thing I want to talk about is the mindset and the approach we're going to take when we receive objections. I like to use objections as an area of study. Do not take it personally. But try to detach yourself when you receive an objection and look at it, study the objections that you're getting and know that you can learn so much more that will help you improve from a no answer, or a I don't know answer than from a yes.

So a lot of people will find that they get into this negative spiral of frustrations when they're pause when they're getting objections. And this is something that we really Want to avoid? And this is actually the area that a lot of people fear with sales is because they're afraid of being told no. And in reality, it's just a part of it. So rather than see it as a no answer, always approach objections from an area of curiosity from a place of wanting to know and understand more, learn to listen and read between the lines of what they're really actually saying. And also use the objections that you're receiving as feedback for you to quickly iterate on what you're doing to make your emails more clear, your prospecting, more targeted, your templates more effective and overall make you better at this process.

Objections in a nutshell, are going to help you learn to do more of what actually works and less of what doesn't. So the first common objection that you're going to hear is I can't afford it or we don't Have the budget or this hasn't been budgeted for something along the lines of money, budget or affording it. So as with a lot of things, concerns about money, a lot of the time don't have anything to do with money at all. So this is something that you could dig a little bit deeper on. And again, coming at them with an air of curiosity, is this just sticker shock, maybe they've never spent the type of money that they perceive to be required for your product. Because also keep in mind at this point, unless you have prices posted on your website, which usually you don't want to do, except for in certain circumstances, they may just be assuming that it's going to be more expensive or that they don't have the budget.

So sometimes it's a brush off. Or maybe they don't actually see the value in what you're offering for the price. So for sticker shock, if it's if they've seen a quote from you at this point, or if for some reason they're aware of what the pricing is. lay out all the components The product that they'll be getting, sometimes you can explain how much it might cost if they were to piecemeal it all together, for example. So if someone says, I looked on your website, I saw your packaging, I think what you're offering is great, but it's not in our budget. Currently, we do this in house and we have someone take care of it.

And you know, you can kind of lay out how much they're probably actually paying in last time or in efficiencies or things like that. And it helps them to think about a little bit differently. You could even make make an estimate sometimes on what they may be currently paying, and how it might compare. If you really understand your industry, and if you've done your homework and your research, this is something that you could speak to probably pretty confidently, this would turn the potential objection of we can't afford it into a conversation towards savings versus cost. Now, I want to step back real quick and know that having this conversation, I can't afford it. could come up at any point in the process, this could come up as a reply to an email, we don't have the budget for that.

At that point, I view it kind of more as a brush off, it could come up as a question or an objection on a discovery call, it could come up during the time when you are working with a customer who's already pipelined isn't in the process. So understanding where the I cannot afford it. Objection comes from can be helpful to you at any point. The main thing is understanding that not being able to afford it is usually not the actual case. And it's a relatively easy objection to overcome. Another common objection that you're going to receive is something along the lines of we don't need this.

This is actually I believe one of the hardest objections to handle because it deals with their perception of your product, especially if you get this. We don't need this type of thing objection before you've actually had a chance to engage with them. So if it comes up during the email prospecting campaign, if you can find out why they think that they don't need it, this will tell you a lot. So oftentimes people might say, I don't need it. We don't need this because it's a brush off, and they feel they have it handled. But one thing and, in particular, if you're working with other businesses, sometimes the decision maker doesn't realize that this is not actually handled the way that they think it is.

One story real quick that I can share is, I was at an event with my business partner and we were talking about our business to a group of potential investors and there was a intern in the room just kind of observing and he was interning at a outdoor footwear brand and he came up to us afterwards and he said, Add, Here's my card. I, you know, I'm just an intern, but please, if you could contact my company, they have me stuck in a corner, photographing products all day long. And I don't know what I'm doing. I'm not doing a good job. It's taking me forever. This isn't actually what I'm supposed to be doing.

But someone has to do it. And so his boss and his boss's boss probably has no idea that this intern who's in a corner photographing the product is very, very frustrated and doesn't have the skill set to do. So. He's just thinking it's being taken care of. So that's oftentimes somewhere that you can reach out and start a conversation. One way to do this is to arm yourself with two very powerful things to address it, content and very interesting and relevant data.

So for content, I recommend case studies, white papers, blog posts, and any offers or downloads. You might have That would help your prospects qualify themselves and determine if they have a fit or need. So for instance, someone may say, Oh, we don't need this, we have it covered. And, you know, you could reply, for instance, and say, that's great. I'm glad, you know, you guys have have thought about this. Just so you know, you know, we worked with this one client ABC, and they, you know, believe that they had this cover too.

But once we came in and actually did this, it was discovered that, you know, there was a lot of areas they were missing that were really hurting them. And here is a link to a blog post or a case study about the difference that we were able to make and the ROI we generated for this client. Check it out. At that point, they can look at it read it and say, you know, to themselves, wow, you know, oh, this is interesting. Maybe Maybe we haven't thought about this. We should give it a maybe we should give it a look.

In the era of data. This is an area where your file of data industry Numbers, links, articles and things like that can help you come in very handy. So you can say, Yeah, I understand you've been doing it act way. But you know, as you are probably aware of because you read industry news today, you know, best practices have evolved. And this is the way that things are being done now, and is this something that you guys are doing? Are you interested?

And that just gets them thinking about it in your from your point of view. So another very common objection is I don't have time or this is a bad time, early on, when you are prospecting and at the stage of just sending out email campaigns and things like that This is usually an objection about not having the time to talk to you. So a lot of times I'll like to reply and say so sorry, I caught you at a bad time. When would it be better for me and they'll reply, and they'll say, you know, next month is much better. We're trying to get through budget meetings or I'm traveling a lot this month. It's our trade show, season, you know, whatever that might be.

And then you can say, Thanks so much, I will go ahead and make a note and I'll get back to you at a better time, you know. So they're really not objecting, they're just saying, like, I can't deal with this right now, which is totally understandable. So, if they mean it's the wrong time for them, then it's the wrong time for them, throw them back into the pool, or what I would do is schedule a task for yourself either on your calendar or in your CRM to contact them at the time that they asked you to. So if there's a blocker in place, like they say, this is a bad time because we can't do something like this until we get the new we're hiring the person who would be in charge of this area and they're not in place yet, or we can't consider this new software, because we're rebuilding our website.

You can frame it in a way that says well, in a lot of times, if you invest in you know, this Before you get the new hire in place, or before you get the website built, there's a lot of benefits and advantages to having it implemented and installed first, you know, one being more smooth configuration to being it's not a blocker for your team in terms of integrating it to the new site. Or if it's in the case of a new hire, you could say, you know, the new hire will start and it would shorten the onboarding time and actually increase the success rate of this being successful with them, because they've never done anything else. It's always been in place for them. So those are ways to kind of overcome that objection. And if it's related to something that's kind of like a far off budget meeting, or Oh, our process doesn't stipulate that we can go about procuring this in this way or whatever it might be.

Just simply ask when the best time to reconnect is and who is the person who handles the process, ask for an introduction. So if someone says, you know, this has to go through procurement, that's Mary, you know, you could reply to her and say, Oh, that's, you know, thank you so much. I really appreciate that, would you be willing to make an introduction to Mary, I'd love to connect with her. And then you could send an email to Mary. And ideally would see see, you know, this person and say, you know, referral from so and so or introduction from so and so and now you're connected with the person who is essentially that the gatekeeper of the process or you know, the decision maker or whatever it might be. And so those are good ways to handle the the time objection.

The other objection isn't really objection at all. It's like a basic brush off just thanks. We're all set, or Nope, we're not interested. It's real vague, and they don't particularly tell you why. And this is a difficult way. This is difficult because you're not quite sure why.

But most likely, they're just busy. And and it's one of the above things and rather than say, we're not interested in our budget, It elaborate, they just say thanks. We're all set. So first, what I recommend doing is checking Yes, where or whatever, whatever software tool you're using to see if they clicked on your website link, or looked at any of the links that you may have included in your email to get any more information about you, your company who you are what you do, this will give you some context, are they just brushing you off? Or did they maybe take a look and say, not for me? And then you could send a reply, such as this example here.

You know, hey, first name. I understand you're incredibly busy. I probably caught you at a bad time. Just acknowledge that they're busy. Sometimes that just helps people. They they say, yeah, you know, this person is empathetic, they get me.

You know, the reason I'm connecting with you, is just to run some ideas by you about, you know, what you offer, I was told you're the right person to connect with at this company. Is there a more convenient time for us to connect for 10 minutes, so I like to use this objection because you want to run some ideas. what that says is, you have ideas, you have something of value, or some insights to bring that may be useful to them. You were told that they were the right person to connect with at the company that says you did your research. And if they are the right person they connect with that. You know, you did your due diligence there.

And what is there a more convenient time for us to connect for 10 minutes. That's something that shows you're being courteous you're understanding you want to connect with them, when it's convenient for them. And if they're really not interested, either they won't reply or they'll just say, No, thanks, not interested. And that's fine. One of the things that's really good to have with you as you embark on this process is the powerful stories. A lot of times, especially when we're starting out, we aren't quite ready to create full on case studies and these great white papers yet powerful stories that you can tell either in person or on the phone or even over email are just as effective.

So, arm yourself with some powerful stories that you can briefly tell about some successful clients who might have faced certain problems or objections and how you partnered with them to overcome or address them and how they went on to great success with your product. It's worth it to sit down and think about this. Maybe even ask some of your team members or, or people that you work with about success stories that you had and write them down. Because sometimes when you're sort of problem spot, you're in a hurry. It's, it's sometimes hard to conjure up that story. But if you just have it and you know it, and you're able to tell it in a way that's really compelling and gets the point across, it's very effective.

So for instance, you might want to say, you know, hey, first name, I understand why you would want to get your new marketing manager hired and on boarded before considering this When we first connected with XYZ company, they were in the same position you're in, but we decided to implement it before the new hires first day. So they're able to hit the ground running, and it really helped increase success for them. I think this could potentially be the case for you to something like that. And so people could say, Oh, that's an interesting story, or, and that's even my example story is kind of a lame story, you could probably come up with something better yourself. The point is to try to create a story for each of your common objections. That way, if you're able to address it effectively through a story, you're adding a little bit more, more power to overcoming those objections, because you're bringing relevancy understanding and expertise to the table.

So, you know, I just want to end with this. overcoming objections as well. Really important. It's a critical part of any process with any sales. It doesn't matter if you are coffee barista, or if you are selling enterprise software or if you're selling major equipment. Sometimes clients, they just aren't a fit for you.

And that's going to be a lot. That's going to be the case a lot of time. Sometimes it's not the right time. It's not the right person. It's not the right product. That's fine.

The whole point of prospecting is for you to find qualified leads, who meet the three criteria, they have a need, they want it solved, and they are comfortable with moving to the next steps. You are doing the very important job of weeding out those who don't meet those criteria. overcoming objections is part of it. But that doesn't mean if you can't overcome every objection, successfully, that you aren't doing it right. Some people just aren't interested. And that's fine.

So that's it for module four. overcoming objections is something that you will probably get good at over your lifetime. It's a skill, it's takes an understanding, it takes an intuition. And it's something that you may not just be great at right off the bat. But that is okay. It's also something that will serve you throughout the sales process.

The end. Of course, overcoming objections is not necessarily unique to this process that I teach here. It's something that is a very popular topic in sales and marketing across the board. So I'm sure you could find a ton more resources and things like that. Some of which are really sound advice and some of which are probably not so sound advice, but all based around all focused around this. So you know if you have any thoughts, any ideas or any even insights are helpful tips that you find along your journey and overcoming objections, I encourage you to share them with the community because that is something that everybody can learn from and makes us all stronger.

We will see you in the next lesson.