Many sales reps get thrown off their pitch when a prospect objects to something early on during the close.
For example, if when talking about the price of a product or service, the prospects says something like, “Oh, that’s way too much,” many sales reps don’t know how to respond – and often do the wrong thing.
The wrong thing in this case is to stop and try to overcome the objection. Instead, a sales rep should retain control of the call, soften this objection and move on to build more value.
Here’s an example:
If a price or price range is given (say, anywhere from $5,000 to $25,000), and the prospect objects with, “That’s more than we want to spend,” then instead of stopping and trying to overcome the objection (which only gives control to the prospect and throws you off your momentum), you should respond with any of the following:
Response One:
“That’s only a range, and I’ll explain how that works in just a moment…”
Then continue on with your pitch.
Response Two:
“There are some other options, but first let me explain how this works and how it can impact you (or your company or other departments, etc.).”
Then continue on with your pitch.
Response Three:
“Based on what you know now, it may seem like a lot, but let me get through exactly what you get for this…”
Then continue on with your pitch
Response Four:
“_________, you obviously don’t have to go with this at all, and I’m not asking you to make a decision right now. Instead, let me finish explaining how this works, what you get, and how it might work for you (or your company, etc.).
After that, you’ll be in a position to decide what to do next, fair enough?”
Response Five:
“Let’s put the budget aside for a moment and first see if this is a solution that would even work for you. What I’ll do is explain everything to you, answer your questions, and then we can address whether or not it provides the value to justify the investment, O.K.?”
Response Six:
“The budget and the value this provides is quite worth it – as you’ll see. Let me finish explaining how this works and what my other clients are getting out of it, then you can decide what – if anything – you want to do. Now…”
Continue on with your pitch.
Response Seven:
“Let’s put budget aside for a moment and let me show you how this can positively affect what you’re spending now…”
Back to your pitch
Response Eight:
“I know at this point it might seem like a lot, but I guarantee once you understand the whole picture, you’ll easily see the value here…”
Back to your pitch
Response Nine:
“_________, those are only the price ranges and what you decide to ultimately spend will be entirely your decision and based only on whether you see enough benefit to move forward. Let me show you…”
Back to your pitch
Response Ten:
“_________ until we qualify your business, we won’t know what your payment options are, so let’s not get ahead of ourselves. What I recommend is we go through the approval process and then you can decide if this is worth it for you or not – fair enough?”
Remember, the point here is not to get thrown off early in your pitch just because a prospect objects to the price. Instead, you want to maintain control, build value and get buy in during the close.
And you can do this by using one of the rebuttals above to soften the objection.