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The most successful marketers have developed a thick skin in handling sales objections, as in every selling exercise, they are bound to come thick and fast.
And you, too, can withstand any complaint thrown at you as long as you understand how to treat each case.
For the inexperienced, rejections are the ultimate straw that breaks the camel’s back. The general feeling is that they have exhausted their options to get the client to consider their offer. They, therefore, never engage them again.
But here’s the ultimate marketing catch: Never give up even when you receive thousands of rejections, as that response alone means you’re on the verge of closing the deal. Even the rudest of objections? Yes.
Why? Because most common sales objections follow a typical prospect's thought process. Thus, we can develop mitigation measures for each by elaborately evaluating the top sales objections.
We invite you to boost B2B cold email success with this comprehensive guide on tackling common sales objections effectively. We’ll highlight all the rebuttals you likely encounter and prescribe solutions to help you ride the wave.
Buckle up, and let us get started!
It is a statement that communicates either explicitly or subtly the prospects' inability or refusal to proceed with the purchase of the service/product you’ve been selling to them.
It can range from a simple ‘No’ to a more elaborate statement that tells the lead’s fear or reservation regarding the sale. Any Sales process in b2b marketing is likely to attract an objection that, if incorrectly handled, can halt the entire process.
Therefore, a marketer needs to be well-equipped to overcome all types of objections as they are primarily not always final. For instance, in a sales process for b2b, a prospect will raise reservations hoping for your to readjust your offer.
But fundamentally, you should appreciate all common sales objections as they set the pace for converting the lead if you continue pursuing the client. They mean that the prospect is interested enough to give their objective response.
So it is up to you to provide a counteroffer that quells their fears and proceed with the engagement to the next b2b sales cycle stages. But how do you understand the respondents' pain points, and in what ways should you respond? We’ll explore that in detail below.
Before we delve deep into the world of the different types of objections you’ll most likely face, we have news for you. All rejections fall under three main categories, and classifying them first under these subclasses is the fundamental step towards tactically tackling each.
So what are these categories, and what message do they convey in the different forms that the prospects express?
Most b2b selling processes involve asking the prospect to buy products and services, and therefore, the most common objection you’re likely to receive must be money centered. Nobody wants to pay for something at a cost higher than its value.
Also, it's common practice for almost all to bargain when a salesperson makes an offer. So it's all normal to get a price objection. Here, the respondent tries to squeeze in the best possible deal by playing the primary negotiation tricks- showing disinterest based on price.
Hence, as a salesperson, you must make concerted efforts to prove that the product will be worth every penny the customer spends. It's an opportunity to showcase to the client why your deal beats what's available in the market at a cheaper offering.
Assure them that their risk will be worth the reward they obtain from the sale.
When dealing with a cold email prospect, you’re still in the murky waters of intense competition, and thus, you must make your company shine high and above the competitors.
When a buyer mentions a competitor is offering a better offer, they are trying to question your core competency.
Rather, why should they buy from you at the expense of the others in the market with better deals? Now the ball is in your court to create an edge that sets you apart from the competition.
With such a reservation, you should tell the prospect of the unique benefits of your products. Also, if you offer add-on services such as warranties and delivery to customers, mention them at this juncture.
I don’t think I need your services now.
A response like this is all too familiar in the realm of cold email responses from prospects. In any sales process for b2b, making a buy is not straightforward as a company must rigorously deliberate an idea to see if it adds value to the present operations.
Also, such a reply means that you missed the point the first time you reached out, but since the prospect has responded, they are in for a discussion of what may suit them best. Therefore, take charge and ask the respondent to highlight their current needs.
They may not have all the time to tell you all their problems because they barely know you since you reached out via cold email. Therefore, as a follow-up measure to their reservation, you need to go a mile further.
This is the moment to reveal some of your services and elaborate on how they would help the client. By providing additional services, you’re putting the client in a situation whereby they will reconsider taking up another offer if they are genuinely interested.
The respondent doesn't think this is the right moment to address what you highlighted. This means you’ve probably got their priorities wrong, so you need to tactfully talk them into revealing their current preferences.
Ask them to submit some of the issues they are focusing more on at the very moment to see if you can help them handle them too. But you also need to be diligent in this step primarily; they could be just shrugging you off with no intention of further pursuing the deal with you.
Again, the lack of urgency problem is prevalent when scheduling a meeting or a call with a prospect. If they disagree with your time proposition, ask them to suggest a date they are comfortable with so you can be on the same page.
Remember, the rule of thumb here is to be careful in your wording. If the prospect senses you’re pushing way too far to corner them, they will be reserved in their response or may not show up at your scheduled time.
The customer on the other end could have genuine qualms about your company, perhaps because they have never heard of it. Also, if they come across a negative review, this is a turn off, and they will become cagey at doing business with your company.
The customer needs social proof that you are trustworthy, listening, and honest in your dealings. So you must talk of your reputation and mention some of your successes that have received wide acclaim.
Blow your trumpet but don’t lie about accomplishments. If they unmask you as deceitful, all their hitherto fears will come true, and they’ll opt out of the deal.
Professionalism is also critical to building trust. So avoid conduct that sells you out as a shady company, such as calling late at night or using overly sales expressions in your conversations.
Now, we’re on the elephant in the room. What are some of the objections you’re likely to receive from your cold emails? There’s no ultimate response as they vary from person to person.
Some prospects will even be offended that you reached out to them and they didn’t even want your deal in the first place. They’ll flatly say ‘NO’ and never respond to your email again, no matter how many follow-ups you do.
Others will never respond to your cold email and could even block you or report you to the email service provider, and before you know it, you cannot send other cold emails. As we said in the beginning, it is a tough thing to do, and you must be ready to face all sorts of challenges.
So how do you deal with these problems? First, we’ll list typical objections, explain the logic behind them, and how to deal with each of them.
This is a classic sales objection example, and it communicates the will of the company or target individual to opt for your product or service if you can shed more clarity. Demystify the grey areas for the product you’re trying to sell to the prospect, and they will consider buying it.
Here’s a million-dollar hack to overcoming this challenge: Give the prospect a short demo (a video) showcasing how to use the product you’re marketing. Also, any tutorial explaining your offer in simple terms will do the trick.
Alternatively, you can gift them a free trial to use the product for some period. This allows them to interact with it and decide if it is worth the deal. It also shows you’re not all about making a deal off the customer, but your offer is all about helping them solve a problem.
By clarifying everything, you help the prospect decide to take or refrain from the offer.
It translates to, ‘I would be willing to spend money on your product if you can guarantee that its valuable and worth the sacrifice.’ Or they simply don't see enough value in what you’re marketing, so it is not worth their money.
You will often find this hitch, and the way to go around it is to expound further on the advantages of what you’re offering. They could complete the sale if they feel the offer is worth their money.
Also, offering such customers discounts or trial offers can beat the hurdle. A discount offer indicates that you’re flexible and friendly enough to go below the actual value of the commodity.
Nonetheless, this should be the last resort, as serious buyers will pay the price if they're convinced the product guarantees the solutions. So focus on getting the prospect to understand the perks of the package.
Also, beware of those who are just saying this for the sake of putting you off. After a few engagements with prospects, sieve out the dead leads and focus on convincing the real ones.
A genuine prospect will be keen on the engagements and will try to explain their standpoint to allow consensus.
It is similar to the aforementioned response, but this is more specific and thus can have three different types of connotations to it.
First, they may be truly genuine, and they have not planned to buy it.
But if you follow their objection with a response that shows what’s in for them, they might consider finding a place for it in their budget. So the core of your response should be focused on highlighting the problem you’re trying to solve for the prospect.
Secondly, if this is a company you have erstwhile done business with, such a response could be a way of threshing out a better deal. They are simply bargaining to see if you can bulge your position.
Consider offering them an improved offer that may include adding more products to your packages or slightly reducing the price.
If neither of these is possible, apply the remedy we’ve highlighted for the first case- Offer a value proposition highlighting what is in for them if they take the offer.
Thirdly, it is possible that the prospect is simply uninterested in your offer and is politely asking you to keep off. Read between the fine print by looking at other aspects, such as whether the customer is giving a counteroffer or simply sticking to their claim.
Give them a final offer ( A discount will do here); if they don’t take it, it’s time to stop the chase.
Or “I need to consult with my significant other first.”
This simply communicates that your immediate respondent lacks the power to decide to take the product independently and needs external authority. But the undertone is that the respondent has an interest but still requires approval before making a decision.
Consider this approach. Ask them what could the other person’s reservations be about the product. Or brace yourself for some of the possible objections that the boss could have based on the past refusals you’ve had.
Also, encourage them to involve the other party in the conversations so that you can quell their qualms. Again, from the engagement, you can tell if they’re indeed awaiting the authority figure’s approval or if it is just a void excuse to rebuff your offer.
It is one of the most common objections in sales, and unfortunately, not many sales agents get it right because they rush into prompting the client to respond. At best, you should simply do as the prospect suggests, allow them some time, and they’ll like you for your patience.
First, respond by telling them you acknowledge their request for more time to consider the offer. Next, follow this up by asking them about their underlying concerns so that you can assist them in making a decision.
Let them know you are ready to elaborate on any of the issues they have with your proposal. If they are not open, try to guide them into conceding why they need time to think further.
Is it about the price?
We have a new offer with more perks than what we suggested in our previous one. Are you open to listening to it in about five minutes?
Make it all about them.
Next, allow them time to respond to your query, and if they are not showing signs of a quick reply, you can create a sense of urgency in your proposal. Something like this will help them open up.
Hey, Jack. Our offer of a 10% discount on our 5G internet plan is still valid. Claim it by the end of this month.
If they don’t still respond, they were simply not convinced of your offer, and the objective response was just a polite way of seeing you out of their inbox.
This is similar to the response we have had above but is specific to marketing to b2bs with a procedural operation structure. As earlier said, this could be a genuine response that speaks of the helplessness of the respondent to decide on their own.
The best option here is to organize an open, one-on-one communication channel where the authority figure is present or represented.
A phone call would be the best way to handle this, although it could be hard to escalate an issue to such a level if you didn’t pique enough interest with the initial respondent. So ideally, ensure that the first contact clearly understands your product features.
If they’re incredibly impressed, selling to the boss will be a breeze because they’ll push for the idea. So once more, the cardinal focus should be elaborately telling the prospect what they are getting from the deal at the first time of contact.
There’s no guarantee that the prospect you’re approaching is waiting for you to reach out. In fact, most of the time, they don’t expect you to talk to them. Hence, converting a sale can be as challenging as poaching them from your fierce rivals, and you need to be braced for that war.
So what should you do if you encounter this common objection? It's simple, check out what the competitor doesn’t offer and improve on it. For instance, if the competitor doesn’t provide after-sales services, this is a loophole you should exploit.
There are two approaches to this.
First, you can ask the prospect what they don’t like about their current deal with the present business partner. Beware, though, of this approach, as some leads may make oblivious demands impossible to fulfill.
The alternative, which is the best approach, is to do a study into what you can improve on by yourself. Study the competitor’s offer and compare it to your offered deal to identify your company's core competencies over them.
Next, present these offerings as solutions you’d be ready to solve if the prospect jumped ship. Provide truthful solutions regarding your offering because if you trick customers into buying your services, they’ll opt out.
Well, this sounds like a hard one to navigate but hold on; they can still enter your fold with a bit of persuasion. Like in the above case, the overruling concept here is that no deal is ever perfect.
So if you take the prospect through a journey of what they’ve been missing out on for sticking with the competitor, they’ll be all yours. Focus on an us-vs-them approach.
Again understand that most people (including you) are unwilling to exit their comfort zone. Hence, they could be interested but worried that your deal could bring hitches they don’t have with the current business partner.
Therefore, the buck stops with you to illustrate how the product could be their ultimate game-changer. Tell of a deal that makes the competitor seem like a joke.
Also, you could offer them a deal to use the product at a discount or free for some time- to disengage them from the competitor. Or any trick you’ve got up your sleeve to get them thinking you’re the ultimate panacea to what their competitor has never been.
Nonetheless, this is among the top sales objections for disinterested prospects in your services. So, as we have cautioned on every part, exercise caution not to overstretch a lot trying to convince a prospect who’s subtly telling you that you’re nagging them.
Yes, they are cheap, but the price is not the only parameter you can capitalize on when convincing a prospect that you can serve them better. So point out this differentiating aspect in your offer, which downplays their low pricing.
Sometimes, this could just be a part of a sales process in b2b whereby the prospect wants you to sell cheaper than your stated price.
Therefore, you must investigate if their claims are valid, as it will help you formulate a counteroffer that best repulses their objection.
If they are cheaper, craft a compelling explanation that convinces the prospect that your ‘pricey’ offer is more valuable and worthwhile. If they are not, the potential is probably playing hardball, and it’s time to call off the sales process for b2b.
Or “I don’t trust you,” or “I don’t know you.”
Your company doesn’t have enough social proof, at least in the eyes of the prospect, but this is a small problem you can handle. The lead is interested and wants you to talk about what your firm has accomplished.
Here, you need to enter the customer's mind to understand how best to respond to this sales objection example. They are probably wondering:
How accomplished is this company in its craft? What have they achieved so far? Are they scammers imposing as someone they are not?
Tell your tale by thinking of more ideas the customer could have that are holding them back from entering the deal.
Elaborate on the deals you have closed with prominent people. Also, highlighting your longevity in the business inspires confidence in the prospect about your capabilities.
It is what it is. A cold no, so you can consider it a hard rejection and move on. But it is still worth one more push of trial. Ask them what you could improve in the offer to suit their problems.
Don’t invest too much of your time on such prospects as they are basically uninterested, and more persistence could actually be counterproductive.
They’ll most likely report you or flag your email as spam, and you don’t want to be blocked from reaching out to other prospects.
Now that it is apparent that you’ll get all sorts of objections from your prospects, what are some ways of staying well put into handling them when they come your way? We’ve elaborated on the commonest refusals and prescribed some of the most effective sales rebuttals.
But what’s the generic way to prepare for common sales objections? We have picked the solutions below, so check them out, as they’ll be handy in attacking all forms of complaints.
Prevention is better than cure, and there fewer places where this phrase fits better than in solving sales objections. Prospects will have reservations no matter how set or refined you’re in your email marketing campaign. But you can counter their propositions by taking care of the responses before they reach out.
For instance, you can compile a list of some of the top sales objections and write solutions that you post to customers as newsletters. Also, if your company has a website, this is one of the best places to talk to prospects about their worries.
Set out a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section and list all the common objections while elaborately providing combative measures to tackle them. In fact, you may also frame your cold email body in the format of a FAQ, as this is also an effective means of handling customer concerns.
In all business dealings, the customer is the boss. So you must take your time to listen to their case even when they sound delusional or simply senseless.
Many marketers fall for the temptation of responding without primarily considering whether they have understood the prospect’s concern.
If the respondent feels that you can barely connect with their issues, they don’t find it worthwhile to give them solutions to the problems. And this spells doom for your business proposition, as they’ll most likely call your engagements off sooner than you thought.
So actively listen and get to the root of the problem by fundamentally seeking to categorize the concerns into the five main categories we highlighted earlier. Next, bulge if you must to accommodate the prospect.
A tweak here and there to your offer could be all that is needed to get things clicking.
Is there more to what the client says, or are they just fluffing around to get you bored and off their email inbox? For instance, when the client says that they need to think about an offer, are they for real, or is it just a cold ploy to disperse you?
You must find a way to get into the root cause of the prospect's issue. In almost all cases, nobody will outright speak out about why they’re not ready to take up the deal. Many will beat around the bush primarily because it's the norm.
You are also probably guilty of turning down an offer more than once when you didn’t get the conviction that it was worth your effort and resources. So make a habit of driving the prospect down the rabbit hole of truth.
The real impediment to their refusal to take up the deal lies at the back of all their plain excuses.
Unearth it.
Once you think you’ve hit the jackpot by getting the prospect to talk about their issue, validate it lest you are left working on assumptions and fail to assist the potential accordingly.
Say, for instance, that after pressing a customer for more, you’ve realized that they are used to discounts, and they’d want you to offer one too. Before jumping in with an offer, subtly ask them if this is the case.
Then, when you get a response, don’t try to cunningly beat around it, as you’d be sure to be ghosted by the lead if they realize you are not a problem solver. Act as per the response and query if their issue has been resolved at the end of the deal.
We never said that dealing with common objections in b2b sales cycle stages is easy, but neither are we ruling it as a mission impossible. Everything is within your means as a salesperson to click the right chord, and the prospect will play to your beat if all is well handled.
Remember that you’re dealing with a human as you who requires convincing to purchase a product they have probably never heard of. Ride the wave by applying the tricks we’ve highlighted in this guide, and trust me, at the end of it, you’ll have dozens of buyers taking up your products.
Thanks for your time, and all the best as you reach out to the prospects who are objectively not ready for the outright purchase.