Chapter 7

Objection and Competition Tactics

How to handle objections without being defensive, talk about competitors with honesty, and avoid being blindsided late in a deal.

We all know that a sales conversation is not just easy talk and easy questions and answers, and that it doesn’t always move smoothly through discovery and qualifying and on towards closing. Even if you never say “but,” your customer probably will. So our next tactics are for what to do about these points of friction and opposition.

Tactic 6: Don’t Handle Objections,

Marinate in Them

Pretty please, with sugar on top, stop “handling” customer objections!

I mean, who here wants to be “handled”? In fact, we think you should love objections! Objections are the best purchasing signals ever!

That does not mean they’re signals that someone will purchase. They are signals that someone is inter- ested in purchasing. And they are telling you some of the primary obstacles you will need to get through to make this a real opportunity and a real deal.

As Michael Rosen writes in We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, “We can’t go over it, we can’t go under it, we’ve got to go through it!”

And the only way to “go through” something is to marinate in it for a while.

Yes, it will be uncomfortable at first, and then you do it and it becomes easier. And then you do it again, and it becomes a bit easier still, and so on. And then you really start to love marinating in objections.

I believe these are the wins that feel better than getting the signature. The signature is a relief, but marinating in objections, those are the wins. For me, it’s where the hardest of the hard work is done and won.

There is probably a “Big Book of Objections” or “Battle Cards” somewhere in your organization. Sometimes it’s an actual asset on a shared drive, sometimes it’s just folklore passed from generation to generation. Sometimes it’s written by marketing, sometimes by sales, and the best ones are when sales and marketing work together on them.

The most common objections—errr, buying signals—typically include:

Now, we do need scripts for each of these scenarios; however, every one of these objections is really just a smoke screen. What is behind 99 percent of these objections is our inability to show the real value, the Economic Impact, of our solution to their problems.

Before getting into how to marinate in them, let’s first address a mindset we often experience, and then we can provide clear and specific examples. It all comes down to one word: “fear.” We call it one of the f-bombs of sales.

Fear is an unpleasant, often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger or threat with an anticipated outcome of loss. In sales, and life. And in sales, it is specifically a fear of rejection.

So what happens when we hear these objections? And more importantly, how does it make us feel when we hear them? So often there is a real fear. Fear of loss, of rejection, of having to tell our boss. And all of this is wrapped in a big blanket of disappointment. Disappointing our boss, maybe disappointing our partner. And often disappointing ourselves.

So, let’s marinate here for a moment. When we hear or even perceive the word “no,” some studies indicate the brain releases chemicals that immediately interrupt its normal functioning, impairing logic, reason, language processing, and communication. In short, perhaps inducing some level of panic. When we hear “no,” fight-or-flight chemicals are released in our brain. And when we are in that mindset, it’s hard for us to think rationally. Remember that analogy about breaking up with someone. When someone broke your heart, how easily were you able to get over it? Were you able to think clearly and rationally?

So when your prospect brings up the competition, it often feels like that “let’s just be friends” breakup. And we want to just get out of the conversation as quickly as we can, but sadly, we end up fumbling our way through it. We start marinating in the competition.

We ask you to marinate in these thoughts here because we want you to know it’s normal and nobody is immune. Not you, not me, not your sales leaders, mentors, or customers.

You can even go deeper if you like. Sometimes the emotion behind that fear is jealousy. Jealousy of losing the deal to the competitor. And sometimes that fear is really masking anger. Anger that your leadership team is asking you to do “one more thing” that is ridiculous.

By surfacing these emotions, we can work to acknowledge them as real, accept them as they are, and learn to work through them in a different way with a different outcome.

Now, with life comes experience and wisdom, and we can use this wisdom to create a little bit of room in our own headspace to acknowledge the emotion we are feeling, and then we are able to use our adaptive skills to move forward with a little less anxiety. I have no desire that you become an expert at all of this simply by reading a book. I only want you to be aware that it is OK to acknowledge the emotions you are feeling. And generally speaking, when we acknowledge them, we can move towards something we prefer.

Here is an example. Someone tells you they like a certain feature of your competitor. And so often our initial reaction is to bring out the Big Book of Objections we were taught and go through the bullet points. And sadly it often sounds to the customer like, “Yeah, but...” While unintentional, it sounds dismissive and combative to our prospects and customers. This is us “handling the objections.”

So what would marinating in it sound like? Instead of trying to refute the objection, jump in the pool and swim around with it. Maybe ask some additional questions:

And what the most successful reps who have taken our training do is, the moment they hear an objection, they go into question mode to ask more about the objection rather than spewing what was given to them on their competitor battle card.

All of this ties in with what we discussed above: ego states, Active Listening, empathy. This is where your map all starts to make more sense.

And yes, you can do everything exactly as I suggest in this book, and you will still lose deals. I do too. But I believe it’s better to lose with your head held high and giving it everything you’ve got, saying everything you can to focus on the win, than win by doing something silly or stupid (aggressive discounting) and then feeling dirty or guilty about it. That feeling often sounds like “Ugh, I hate that we had to discount” or “Pfftt .. . we are better than the competition, we should not have caved so much on pricing.”

So let’s marinate in the competition a little.

Tactic 7: The Competition

The truth shall set you free, but it may sting at first.

Let’s first define the competition in a sales world and specifically how your prospect or customer views it. All too often we hear the word “competition” and think of an external vendor like us. However, the competition comes in many flavors. Sometimes it is another vendor they are considering. Other times it’s the build vs. buy that a company thinks is less expensive: they think it is cheaper to build something themselves than to pay an outside vendor. In some cases they think they can build it at 80 percent of what you can do and still think that is a win. Then there is the “do nothing” decision, which is actually a competitor in its own right.

And of course there are competing priorities internally from other departments. There is only so much money to go around, so you may not lose to your direct competitor; you may lose to some other project or department in the organization you didn’t even know exists. Sometimes those priorities are out of the control of our primary contact. And this is exactly what happens when you think about Access to Authority and all the different committees your product or service has to go through.

For now, let’s focus on the traditional competitor: your business rival, the archenemy. You know the one—as soon as you hear it mentioned your heart sinks, or you pray your prospects and customers don’t know much about it just yet.

Whenever you are in a competitive situation, you must always be 100 percent truthful. The easiest way to tell when a salesperson is not being truthful when discussing the competition is how they answer competitive questions with a bunch of “umms” and “ahhs.” If you’ve practiced reducing these, which one can do, the other way to tell is when there is an overabundance of confidence. It comes off as dismissive to the prospect.

So, if you slow down your pace, lower your voice, and ask some questions that show you are actively listening, this is the first indication to your prospect that you are telling the truth. And then this is reinforced by what you explain specifically as your ability to “Yes we can” or “No we cannot,” not simply a workaround solution that sounds wishy-washy with umms and uhhs.

With this in mind, at what price are you, as a customer, ever willing to make a purchasing decision without seeking advice from anyone or anything? “Anyone” would be a friend, a significant other, a boss, or a committee in your organization. “Anything” would include the internet or the “other brand” you see on the shelf in the store.

The answer is always $0. As humans we are comparison shoppers, period. It does not matter what it is. The moment we see a price we have an emotional reaction, and then we compare that purchasing option against something else.

Picture someone buying a pack of gum at the checkout line. People are always comparing that to something—a different flavor, perhaps mints instead of gum, maybe that candy bar? And in some cases, they are comparing it to buying nothing. That is a comparison too: “no decision” is still a decision.

In addition, we are “envy” shoppers. At some point in our lives, we have made decisions like least expensive vs. most expensive. Sometimes the least expensive pasta is OK for you, but if you are entertaining others, perhaps you are going to splurge. And why do we splurge? Because we don’t want to look bad to our guests. We are comparing ourselves to their perceptions of us.

Now, think about a purchase of $500, $10,000, or $100,000. Do you really think your prospects are not going to shop around? And yet one of the most common and perhaps dumbest things ever taught in sales is “Don’t ever bring up the competition, because we don’t want them to go shop around.”

I bought into this stupidity as both a rep and a manager. If you have too, I’ve got some news for you: they’re already shopping around. In those moments when you believe they have not spoken to someone else, you have two choices:

  1. Be an ostrich and keep your head in the sand and pretend and pray they do not shop around.
  2. Ask them about the competition, feeling confident that they will still choose you.

If you choose #1, I suggest you do some shopping around of your own, namely for a drug called “hopei-um,” because you’ll really need it pretty soon.

If you truly see yourself as a value seller or trusted advisor, then you have to address the topic of the competition. It’s also easier to discuss when you bring it up first. And here is why: when your prospect asks you first about the competition, it will put you in an emotionally defensive (Child Ego) state. This is a position of weakness. But if you bring it up first, then who will be feeling defensive?

And on top of that, they’ll feel like they got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. And sometimes they will feel guilty. In this moment, as a trusted advisor, you become the Nurturing Parent, letting them know it’s OK and helping them make the best decision for them.

When you do this right, they will choose you because you are the trusted advisor. And when you do it and they still choose someone else, you will be better equipped to get real answers on why they chose someone else instead of you. And they will walk away with a very positive impression of you that will put great karma into the sales universe, which will come back tenfold for you in the future, either with them or someone else.

Or you can ignore what I am suggesting and keep smoking your hope-i-um.

Remember: when engaging competition questions, we should always be 100 percent honest. One. Hundred. Percent. We will address the “Don’t talk bad about your competitors” approach in a moment. For now, just know you should always be truthful.

Example 1: Bringing Up the Competition First

Generally speaking, I suggest bringing up the competition in the very first call.

If they have already shopped around or even spoken to a competitor, it is imperative that we know what they like and dislike about your rival. Otherwise we could completely miss something they see as extremely relevant to making the decision.

Here is the Indirect Approach:

These questions allow you to go fishing for information. And if you get a nibble or a bite, you can then go deeper to understand where to spend your time with them—making sure you share the items that are most important to them regarding your solution, and not spending time on the things you think they want to hear about.

Now, if you do not get a nibble, then it’s time to go direct. And in some cases you can simply go direct from the get-go. It’s more of a personality preference of the sales rep on which way to go.

Here’s the Direct Approach:

And we recommend supplementing the Direct Approach with the same follow-up questions from the Indirect Approach:

Example 2: Competitive Feature

So you’re in a conversation and your prospect brings up the competitor. Specifically, they bring up a feature that you may not yet have. Before you can say anything, you feel those fight-or-flight chemicals being released like water from behind a dam. They start to flood your brain, creating a fog and a sense of panic.

And then you remember the “battle card” and what we are supposed to say to “handle this objection.” It often sounds like this: “Here’s our workaround.”

Well, you may need to say that; however, I believe you need to marinate in this topic just a bit more. Not much, just a few sentences. It could sound something like this:

Hey _________ ,

Yes, we’ve heard great things about that feature. I am curious: How important is that feature to you in making the decision? What specific pains does it solve for you? When you compare this feature to the things we can do that they cannot, which will be the most important to you?

Now, you may not ask all of these questions. If I could only ask one of them, it would be “How important is that feature to you in making the decision?”

The reason why is simple. We often think the competitor feature that someone brings up is a must-have; after all, why else would they bring it up? This is just something we assume.

You would be surprised how often it’s actually not that important. The reason they are asking is because they are in comparison mode—they need to compare you to the competitor, and it’s all they can think of in that particular moment.

Now, on the flip side, let’s say it is really important to the decision. While you may not want to hear that, I’d much rather know the reason I lost a deal, which means I need to ask. I would much rather know the real answer instead of relying on guesswork and wondering why they went dark on me.

And let’s take that one step further. How much time would you spend mourning the lost deal if you knew the real answer was a specific competitive feature vs. not knowing the answer at all? For me, when I know the reason why someone went in a different direction, I can let go of it and stop thinking about it a lot sooner. When I don’t know the answer, I can spend hours, days, even months being sad, angry, and yeah, even depressed about it. Simply because all I am left with is the dreaded “It’s not you, it’s me” breakup.

Example 3: General Competitive Comparison

This approach is recommended for when you are going head-to-head with a competitor. Sometimes it is during a net new sales conversation, and other times it’s when you are working to displace the incumbent.

You are in a conversation and your prospect asks, “So, how do you compare yourself to competitor ___?” Do you start bad-mouthing them in some stupid tirade? Of course not. Do you start launching into nasty rumors? Of course not.

Now consider this.

  1. Have you ever won a deal against your competition?
  2. Have you ever had someone come back to you after they went with your competitor and had a bad experience?
  3. Have you ever gone after your competitor’s clients and won?

Well, what I am about to suggest is not speaking poorly about your competitor at all. Because it’s based in fact, not opinion.

It goes something like this:

Hey _________ ,

I understand you are considering competitor _________ and I am wondering: would you be open to hearing what our most successful clients have told us about why they chose us over them?

Or:

moved from them to us?

Well, our most successful clients have told us they chose us because of _________ . How important is this to you?

So, what is the most interesting part of this? Some think it’s that you are using a customer story to share the truth, and therefore you are not disparaging the client, you are simply sharing information. That’s a piece of it, but there is actually something better.

The most important part is using this phrase: “our most successful clients.”

What does everyone want to be? They want to be the “most successful.” Nobody in business wants to be mediocre.

If you do your job properly, you will help your prospects realize they don’t have headaches; they have migraines. Nobody wants to suffer from a migraine, and you, as the trusted advisor, are required to help them relieve it.

And the other cool part of this technique is specifically using the word “and” in these conversations.

So often when we get in competitive situations, we use the word “but.” “I understand you like them, but...” or “But don’t you want to hear about. . .”

As you may recall, “but” is dismissive of the other person’s emotional belief systems. Using “and” acknowledges their emotions and belief systems as real, and because you earned the right to share this information with them, they are willing to hear a noncombative alternative. And (see, did it again) they actually opened the door for you to walk right in.