R and R (Rejections and Rebuttals)

Arron, great idea for a thread I'm sure it will help a lot of people.

In your experience, what was the most difficult objection for you to overcome and how have you learned to overcome it?

The top most common objections I get are, curiously, "I have more business than I can handle with out (whatever you are selling)" and "Business has been so slow I can't afford (whatever you are selling)."

I hear the 2 of those quite often. It is really strange with it being the same type business in the same city.

Objections is very normal, what you need to do is make a list of objections that you have been receiving and make up a rebuttal that is suited for the objections.
It is better to study the objections first before delivering the rebuttal.

Hope this helps!

Objections is very normal, what you need to do is make a list of objections that you have been receiving and make up a rebuttal that is suited for the objections.
It is better to study the objections first before delivering the rebuttal.

Hope this helps!

@ - op

Originally Posted by areevez:

I've been cold calling for what seems like an eternity(barely a year) and I think I have heard almost every stand off, excuse, rejection, etc and business owner could ever think of.

No one could possibly be cold calling for this length of time without having some measure of success, or being a complete masochist. So when seeing your thread, I'm sure I'm not alone in being anxious for your input.

I rarely get something that I haven't heard of a thousand times and by now it's like a broken record every time I hear a prospect leaning towards a rejection. I've gotten a pretty much automated brain when it comes to hearing rejections and throwing out immediate rebuttals that makes prospects re-think their doubts. I built this rejection proof dialogue over months and months of cold calling. I don't remember anyone ever talking much about what rejections to expect and how to overcome them.

Your experience only serves to prove what many of us have thought which is that repitition provides the opportunity to create effective course corrections. I'm anxious to see some examples of how you've done this. I'm sure it could be helpful to all of us interested in cold calling.

So this is why I made this thread, in hope to get as many common rejections us Offliners are prone to hearing out in the open so people just getting started will be prepared for when a prospect stumps them with a rejection.

Great idea, and truly the purpose of this forum, to share ideas and information with one another.

If we all contribute the most common rejections we've experienced from business owners and how we handled the rejection, I'm sure this thread will turn into a very useful resource to get people comfortable with rejections before they are faced with them.

A couple of us have already shared an example and you have shared one.

In addition if you have any rejections you are expecting to hear and you want to have your response ready to go, just let us know here and I or someone else(hopefully) will try to help you get a rebuttal ready.

I see the one that you've submitted is one that you've been unable to work through for all this time. Glad that a couple of us could give you some thoughts on that.

So I guess I'll contribute a few of my most commonly heard rejections in a few minutes.

Looks like the "students" are doing all the teaching here. Come on now, if you've been doing this for a year, you've got something to share, don't you?

Relevant: Seth's Blog: Why lie?

My favorite line in this whole thread thus far comes from David Miller
So why spend so much time struggling with morons when there are bright and ambitious business people that we may catch on the next call.

Honestly if I, you or who ever keep this in mind whenever we start getting stuck and turning blue while trying to convince some knuckle head why they can benefit from such and such then our collective stress levels will go down.

If there is one thing that I can suggest is to qualify hard and as quickly as possible that they not only want more/better business but that they are open to new ideas.
If they are not already sold on the idea that they need help in some way then its a much harder struggle to get them to buy your idea. HInt..Just because they agree to meet with you in itself is not necessarily confirmation of such.

The hard part for us is to get over our OWN EGO because we KNOW that we can help the majority of small biz owners and have this NEED to prove something.

This is one of the biggest mistakes good people make is trying to help people who neither value what you offer or just dont the passion anymore in what THEY do.

Think of rebuttals as a way to guide peoples OWN thought processes to get them to see your proposition from a different light/poiint of view and not as THE HAMMER that is going to force them to sign on the line that is dotted.

@ David Miller, bother you remind me of a few people I know one of them being my cousin who happens to be named David Miller as well. You are a machine my friend. I love reading your responses and input.


To this thread, I like the idea of where you are going with it. I would like to add a challenge. Instead of just good rebuttals, how about adding proactive statements or questions that both bring up the objections and handle them before the clients use it to create a gap.


If this is done right, two things happen. First it disarms the prospect. Second it can create instant rapport.


If we know what they are going to say before they say it why are we waiting to get slapped in the face with it. Why not handle it proactively before it comes up.


If you bring it up first you control the momentum of it. If they bring it up first you become the standard reactive salesperson.


This is an art but there are warriors on here I know are capable of it. This technique will be a bit harder for newbies than it will for veterans.


For those wondering if this works. I use this technique all the time in face to face cold calling. I am a sales trainer and have taught it successfully to hunderds of sales people.

rejections in sales are very normal. just be confident and always emphasize the FAB (features and benefits) of your products/ services you are offering. try to make a rebuttal atleast 3x. if customer is still undecisive, give him/ her time, make call back arrangements. make them feel that you fully understand them in making a decision of buying something and and don't make them feel that you're just another telemarketer who just want to hit his/ her quota for the day. don't sound like you're just really after their money.

Whether you’ve been selling for a day, a week, or a number of years, you know that whenever you make sales calls, there are objections. But objections are really your opportunity to sell. They give you a chance to focus on the major issues that concern your prospect, and turn them to your advantage in order to make the appointment and later the sale. An objection has to be treated as a hurdle. You must know how you plan to turn around each objection you face.
In a lot of seminars and trainings that I’ve joined for telemarketing, I’ve encountered common objections that come up again and again. We’ll be discussing them here; if you’ve been selling for a while many may be quite familiar. Look closely at these and at the ways you can jump each of these hurdles.
You know I'm glad to discuss this with you sometime, I am busy right now.
Mr. Jones, it’s not my intent to inconvenience you. I’m not going to waste your time; I don’t have a lot of time anyway. I’ll be as brief as possible. If you don’t like what you hear, please stop me and I’ll get out of your way, ok?
I am not sure. I am not interested at this time.
You know something, maybe this is not for you but let me just ask you one more question and I’ll get out of your way. If I can show you a service that you and I will benefit each other, would you give it any consideration?
I am not interested and I am satisfied with our marketing right now.
I can appreciate that. You know something some of our clients told me exactly the same thing until we had a chance to discuss them all the ways we could save time and money by allowing you the advantage of being in front of the customers in your market area. Mr. Jones, if you allow me let us set an appointment at the place of your business to discuss this in a little more detail. Tomorrow afternoon at 2 o’clock, is that a good time for you?
Send me an email or literature.
We don't send out materials Mr. Jones, instead I’m glad to explain it to you now on how we can (benefits) while saving time and money, I’ll be as brief as possible and if you don’t like what you hear I’ll be the first person to advice you to pass on this. Fair enough?
The client gives you resistance on the money.
1. I can appreciate that. I know it's not about the money. Let me ask you this, have you ever bought something and you knew you can't afford it? If you want it badly enough you get it, is that right? If you believe and see how you benefit by (benefits), you're going to invest for it, you get it.
2. I can appreciate that. Is the money the only thing standing in the way? If you have the money would you get started? Well if you believe and see how you benefit by (benefits), you will somehow find a way to do this, like maybe you can borrow the money or let’s put it your credit card. If you really what to do this, you will do those things. It’s not really about the money, right?

Objection: I have to much business already.

Overcome With: Now I understand that you may have all the customers you can work with right now, but what if I could show you how to actually handle more business, so you could make more money, whether you use my marketing services, or not?

Objection: I'm running so lean now, I'm barely making it, and don't think I can afford you.

Overcome with: You'd be surprised. First, we have very flexible payment options, so we can help you increase your business to the point where you can not only afford us, you'll be begging us to keep working with you.

Once you discover how much this helps your business, and how little it costs in comparison, you'll never let us leave. Many of our clients say they don't know how they got along without us, and many of them were struggling when we first started working with them, too.

Post #9 by David Miller is gold. So is #24 by TheCG.

Some great stuff here.

As soon as an objection comes my way (which is pretty much 90% of the time!), I say that's not a problem. This puts the prospect at ease, and then you come out with your benefits again (USP.)

A good way to start a call (after you've introduced yourself) is to say that you know that such and such is a problem in their particular industry (you can get problems in all industries by going to the trade websites and doing a bit of research. You just pick companies in the same industry to call that day (manufacturers for example.) Just mention that the trade website states this is a problem and if they are finding the same thing. Then show how your product or service solves these problems and how they can increase they're revenue.

After this you'll get the objections (how many sales calls go perfectly!) As with the "I'm already too busy", I say that's not a problem, I only work with small/medium businesses that can handle extra growth and from what your saying it's that you're not in a position to handle an increase in revenue at the moment. Is that correct?

If they still say yes - That's great - however, if you do find that in the coming months your revenue is decreasing, you have my number, save it in your phone, I then give my name, company, my USP again and tell them to have a great day - maybe see you in the future for a chat. Sometimes there's just no helping some people...

In order to give out good rebuttals you have to learn their rejections.. Research for answers and consolidate it and use it for the future.

It's 90% timing? Buying is an emotional decision? Who can sell something unneeded without a base level of fear or greed? How many of those clients you fight for with rebuttal after rebuttal, end up being easy-to-manage clients?