In today’s newsletter, I am going to show you how to make your sales calls frictionless.
If you follow this system you’ll be able to handle sales objections before they happen, so you’ll never have to be pushy. This makes selling easier & more fun.
Unfortunately, most small business owners follow a gimmicky script or have no system at all, which means most novice sales reps handle objections after the pitch.
Great salespeople handle objections before the pitch.
This is called reverse selling.
The benefits of reverse selling are:
- Your calls feel conversational & unscripted
- You build massive rapport with your prospect
- You ask all the hard questions early on in the call
Here’s how to do it.
Step 1: Understand objections
It’s important to understand that there are only 3 types of objections:
- Uncertainty (unsure of results/timing)
- Financial (can’t afford)
- Support (unsold partner/spouse)
With that information, you can reverse engineer a series of “hot topics” to cover before the pitch.
Step 2: Create a list of hot topics
Here’s the list of hot topics & questions I typically ask. These should work for most service-based businesses, but feel free to come up with your own.
1/ What is the problem?
Something made them book a call. Your job is to figure out what it was. A lot of times the answer they give you isn’t the real answer, so you really need to dig in.
2/ What are their goals?
Once you understand their problem, you need to uncover what they want. Also, get clarity on WHY they want it. They need a compelling reason to act now.
3/ What have they tried already?
Now that you know what they want, it’s time to find out what hasn’t worked for them. No point in pitching if they’ll think “stuff like this isn’t for me.” This is also where you find out if they’re shopping around.
4/ How badly do they want help?
Deduce if they want help now or later.If they don’t think the problem is severe, you’re going to get hit with one of these objections:
•I need to think about it
•Now is not the right time
5/ Can they afford it?
If they can’t afford your service, you’re not making the sale. Tackle budget before you get to the pitch. Especially if you offer multiple services. This will help overcome the “this is too expensive” objection.
6/ Are they the decision-maker?
The final objection to overcome is “I need to talk this over with my partner/spouse.” Always find out if there are others involved in the buying decision. I once had to close a sale with 6(!) partners on the call.
Step 3: Hit every hot topic, every call
After you set the agenda for a call, start going through your hot topics.
Keep this part of the call free-flowing while still maintaining control. This usually means bouncing from topic to topic.
To keep track of everything, I use a notecard. Every time I get an answer for a hot topic, I cross it off my list.
Do not pitch until you’ve hit on every topic.
Once that’s done, you have the information you need to handle objections.
This strategy also lets you custom-tailor the pitch to your prospect.
The result: a stress-free, frictionless sale.
That’s all for today.
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See you again next week,
John
