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How would you overcome this objection?

by Gary_M
20 replies
Hi,

Just to give you a bit of background, I run a marketing agency that sells proven email marketing campaigns to offline businesses to generate them a bunch of extra sales from their customer database.

Obviously I sell it better than that haha just wanted to give you a quick overview.

The clients have read a sales letter and requested a call with us, they know all about the campaign and how much we charge.

So the objection boils down to basically this...

Why should I use your email campaign over the emails that I send already?

What we are finding is they don't understand the importance of copy, they think the way they write an email and the way our campaign is written would produce the exact same amount of sales!*

To overcome this we have tried explaining the results other businesses have got from the campaign but they believe they are good at writing emails and when we say that this campaign has been proven and tested for 7 years, across multiple industries, it doesn't seem to convince them either.

We have also tried doing a comparison of the typical results we see our campaign produce compared to an existing campaign they have ran. However when we ask them 'how many sales their emails produce?', their response is 'I don't know' or 'It's hard to measure'.**

This obviously indicates they don't know what they are doing and the campaign would definitely produce them more sales than they currently are getting but proving this to them is proving difficult.

Any one got any ideas?

Thanks

Gary
#objection #overcome
  • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
    You need to bring it up before they do. Part of your presentation should address that completely. Even ask the question they would ask. Then answer it. Explain that the offer is the key. make it a focal point in your presentation. Once they bring it up as an objection, you are arguing, and that is never good.
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    • Profile picture of the author kirbymarketingconcierge
      Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre View Post

      You need to bring it up before they do. Part of your presentation should address that completely. Even ask the question they would ask. Then answer it. Explain that the offer is the key. make it a focal point in your presentation. Once they bring it up as an objection, you are arguing, and that is never good.
      Pure GOLD.

      I hope other members really understand this.

      objection prevention, not objection responses.

      Thanks Claude

      P.S. - Why are we afraid of objections???

      we want it to be an easy sale
      we don't want to "loose" the sale

      Fascinating sales psychology
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve The Copywriter
    Looks like you're crashing into their ego's.

    (don't tell us how to write …we're doing very well thankyouverymuch)

    Now if this was true - why did they bother to contact you?

    So congratulate them on their efforts and then with a whisper mention you have a few "hidden persuasion secrets and trackable response boosting tactics" that'll make their work much more profitable.


    Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author animal44
    Agree with Claude.

    Further, you can help them set up tracking of their emails, then offer a test on a subset of their list. No gain, they get a refund or don't pay anything, depending on how you charge...

    edit: and Steve. We use "psychological tricks incorporated into our tested campaigns" :-)
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    What I do for a living

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    • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
      "We tested dozens and dozens of different e-mail messages. What we found was astounding. The messages that you would think would get the best result, got just a trickle of responses. So we invested in a great copywriter to write the e-mails, and then tested them against each other. What we ended up with, was the very best e-mail messages to generate the maximum response. It took us months of trial and error, but we finally figured out the most profitable messages to send. All this work has already been done and paid for.... So, you get the benefit of all this testing, at no additional charge. Fair enough?"

      The message has to be;

      There are lots of different e-mail messages you can send.
      What you think of as a great e-mail message, isn't.
      It takes lots of time and money, to come up with the best messages. (Makes it unattractive for them to do the same thing)
      We hired a professional to write the messages. (you would have to hire a professional copywriter)
      We already did all that for you....at no additional cost.
      Lots of profit for you.


      In other words, your idiot son-in-law, who's part time duty is to write e-mails....ain't making it.

      Of course, adjust the message to reflect the truth.



      By the way, this is in the presentation, not an answer to an objection. Don't wait for them to bring it up. If they bring it up as an objection, you aren't selling, you're arguing a position. Very bad.
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      • Profile picture of the author helisell
        Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre View Post

        "We tested dozens and dozens of different e-mail messages. What we found was astounding. The messages that you would think would get the best result, got just a trickle of responses. So we invested in a great copywriter to write the e-mails, and then tested them against each other. What we ended up with, was the very best e-mail messages to generate the maximum response. It took us months of trial and error, but we finally figured out the most profitable messages to send. All this work has already been done and paid for.... So, you get the benefit of all this testing, at no additional charge. Fair enough?"

        The message has to be;

        There are lots of different messages you can send.
        What you think of as a great e-mail message, isn't.
        It takes lots of time and money, to come up with the best messages. (Makes it unattractive for them to do the same thing)
        We hired a professional to write the messages. (you would have to hire a professional copywriter)
        We already did all that for you....at no additional cost.
        Lots of profit for you.


        In other words, your idiot son-in-law, who's part time duty is to write e-mails....ain't making it.

        Of course, adjust the message to reflect the truth.



        By the way, this is in the presentation, not an answer to an objection. Don't wait for them to bring it up. Now, you are defensive.
        I was going to add in my own post that my 'answer' would actually have
        formed part of my qualification so that the objection simply would not appear in
        the first place.

        Then go on to do Claude's presentation....then ask the closing question.

        This method is unbelievably powerful and only a very few talented people
        do it like this every time without fail. They are the top performers in any industry.
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        • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
          Originally Posted by helisell View Post

          I was going to add in my own post that my 'answer' would actually have
          formed part of my qualification so that the objection simply would not appear in
          the first place.

          Then go on to do Claude's presentation....then ask the closing question.

          This method is unbelievably powerful and only a very few talented people
          do it like this every time without fail. They are the top performers in any industry.
          I posted my thing before I saw your post. Yes, yours is ideal as a series of qualifying questions. Mine is part of the actual presentation.

          The big mistake to avoid, is waiting for this to be an objection, before you address it. At that point, it becomes a contest of wills. A debate.

          Good stuff.
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          • Profile picture of the author ewenmack
            Gary, I suspect you created this objection from the initial
            sales letter.

            Where most go wrong on the first contact is they sell the whole thing
            which makes it easy for the prospect to say no.

            The prime objective of the first contact is
            to get the reader to take the next step to contact you
            to find out more.

            You do this by slashing fluff words and sentences
            and boil down your proposition in a extremely easy
            to understand message.

            Like...

            Tony, If I Could Get Your Emails To Grab 30% More
            Money From Your Customers Within 30 Days, Without Cutting Into Your Margins...
            Would You Give Me 5 Minutes Of Your Full Attention?

            How's Your Calendar Looking?

            I'll call to set up a time so we can both discover
            if this is right for you.

            Best,
            Gary Michaels
            Email Masters
            Ph. 1800 email you love

            --------------------------------------------------------------

            What you see is a desired outcome or result.

            Just enough to capture intrigue.

            Respectful of time and using a proven question
            for busy professionals..."How's your calendar looking?"

            An easy next step.

            It's aligning with pre-existing thinking...
            which is, "not sure if this is right for me".

            The reward outweighs the risk balance.

            Best,
            Doctor E. Vile
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            • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
              You notice how the OP asks a question, and abandons us, while we are still trying to help?

              I just think it's funny.
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              One Call Closing book https://www.amazon.com/One-Call-Clos...=1527788418&sr

              “Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise; seek what they sought.” - Matsuo Basho
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              • Profile picture of the author DWolfe
                Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre View Post

                You notice how the OP asks a question, and abandons us, while we are still trying to help?
                .
                At least he stayed logged on for awhile after he made the post. He may of read some of the responses. Better than the posters on the main forum, who ask a question than sign out to never be heard from again.

                This OP has been here since 2009 and only four posts, maybe a little shy
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                • Profile picture of the author mojo1
                  Originally Posted by DWolfe View Post

                  At least he stayed logged on for awhile after he made the post. He may of read some of the responses. Better than the posters on the main forum, who ask a question than sign out to never be heard from again.

                  This OP has been here since 2009 and only four posts, maybe a little shy
                  Also noticed OP is in the UK. So major time zone difference. I'm hopeful he'll pick up on this tomorrow
                  his time,lol.
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  • Profile picture of the author helisell
    You answer it like this: (or at least in this style)

    "Good question. It's great that you already do email marketing,
    many business just don't know how to do it."

    How big is the customer list that you're sending to at the moment?

    What open rate and click-through are you getting from those emails?

    How do you track opens-non opens and then follow up on them?

    What kind of landing pages are you sending the customers to?

    What email headlines and copy strategies are you using right now?

    After a few questions like this the customer thinks...."Maybe I don't know
    as much about this as I thought"

    End with something like...

    "So if I can show you a way to improve the total revenue you get
    from your email campaigns by getting more emails opened and
    by increasing the response rates, and at the same time make your
    customers actually look forward to getting your emails and not just
    drop them into the trash.......would you be willing to give us a try?"
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    Is there any room for improvement? Want to find out?

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  • Profile picture of the author Barry Unruh
    You could include a few examples of conversion increases, whether from your own email campaigns, or just industry examples.

    You can find hundreds of examples to illustrate how simple changes in headlines and copy have turned losing campaigns into big winners.
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  • Profile picture of the author AlexTee
    My 2cents,

    In addition to the advice you have been given above...

    I would add another layer beyond the sales letter to qualify them and determine if they are worthy of a visit.

    What they are saying is, "I have not seen enough from you to reach into my wallet and give you my money"...that is if...they even have a significant spend on email marketing.


    You need to find out if this is a real pain for them.

    Here are two things you may want to consider:

    a) Split test your current sales letter against one that has a qualifier in it such as...

    If you are currently spending "x" per month...we may be able to help you...blah, blah,blah...that would be your results in advance addressing "specific" pain points.

    and/or

    b) When you are calling to set up the appointment, pre-qualify them with a series of questions that are designed to remove the roadblocks you are currently facing.

    By asking additional questions, prospects will appreciate the fact that you don't want to waste their time or yours.
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    • Profile picture of the author jimbo13
      That is not the objection.

      They were wondering that when they read your letter and asked you to call them.

      From the moment you dial them and started speaking you should be presenting to eliminate this.

      I bet at the beginning you don't really ask them why they asked you to call them. You probably just barrel in to your presentation.

      I would probably kick off with

      'Hundreds of businesses have asked us to help them over the last x years and they all had very different reasons why they wanted to speak to us.

      What's yours?'

      Really nothing more than that.

      I would not move on to any presentation until they answer this even if it means me hanging up or walking out.

      Trust me you wont be hanging up or walking out in 95% of cases.

      And now you know what to say in your presentation. You address what they just told you with helpings of proof.

      Dan
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  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    Originally Posted by Gary_M View Post

    Why should I use your email campaign over the emails that I send already?

    What we are finding is they don’t understand the importance of copy, they think the way they write an email and the way our campaign is written would produce the exact same amount of sales!*
    I think you are missing the point here... this is NOT an objection to what you are selling... they have become defensive to your non intentional personal attacks.

    Originally Posted by Gary_M View Post

    To overcome this we have tried explaining the results other businesses have got from the campaign but they believe they are good at writing emails and when we say that this campaign has been proven and tested for 7 years, across multiple industries, it doesn’t seem to convince them either.
    Enter the self imposed objection.. I would bet the conversation becomes more difficult on your part at this point. You are overlooking the need for industry specific difference. You are basically saying.. "Hey all of these industries are the same and this e-mail works" and they are saying "How the hell can car sales be the same as getting clients in my beauty salon? this guy is blowing smoke."

    Originally Posted by Gary_M View Post

    We have also tried doing a comparison of the typical results we see our campaign produce compared to an existing campaign they have ran. However when we ask them ‘how many sales their emails produce?’, their response is ‘I don’t know’ or ‘It’s hard to measure’.**

    This obviously indicates they don’t know what they are doing and the campaign would definitely produce them more sales than they currently are getting but proving this to them is proving difficult.
    So look at this from the inside out.. what should you really be selling? The system to track is far more important than the e-mail itself. You are so busy pushing "we can get you more business" and bypassing "I can make your campaigns more efficient"

    Think of it this way.. the person you are talking to probably writes the emails. "Hi, my name is bill and I sell this killer e-mail... here are 7 examples of industries we have worked with over the last 7 years. Sure, none of these pertain to your unique business, but I can still produce better results than your slap shot pit poor writing skills ever will. when can we get stared?"

    "Hi, my name is bill and I have developed a simple method to track the effectiveness of e-mail campaigns. Over the last 7 years we have increased return for business' in these 7 vastly different industries. We understand that your business is unique and would like to help you set up this system to get a better idea of how effective your marketing efforts are. Once there has been a benchmark set we can then work at creating a more effective result from your efforts."

    One is beating the business owner over the head, and the other is playing into them an their ego.

    Setup up a system for tracking and then upsell the letter to deliver greater return. A simple tracked phone number and a campaign specific e-mail address and you are in business here.... its not hard to measure
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    • Profile picture of the author Gary_M
      Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre View Post

      You need to bring it up before they do. Part of your presentation should address that completely. Even ask the question they would ask. Then answer it. Explain that the offer is the key. make it a focal point in your presentation. Once they bring it up as an objection, you are arguing, and that is never good.
      Yeh good point. It does feel the call takes a turn after they ask that so I'll definitely bring it up first from now on.

      Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre View Post

      "We tested dozens and dozens of different e-mail messages. What we found was astounding. The messages that you would think would get the best result, got just a trickle of responses. So we invested in a great copywriter to write the e-mails, and then tested them against each other. What we ended up with, was the very best e-mail messages to generate the maximum response. It took us months of trial and error, but we finally figured out the most profitable messages to send. All this work has already been done and paid for.... So, you get the benefit of all this testing, at no additional charge. Fair enough?"

      The message has to be;

      There are lots of different e-mail messages you can send.
      What you think of as a great e-mail message, isn't.
      It takes lots of time and money, to come up with the best messages. (Makes it unattractive for them to do the same thing)
      We hired a professional to write the messages. (you would have to hire a professional copywriter)
      We already did all that for you....at no additional cost.
      Lots of profit for you.

      In other words, your idiot son-in-law, who's part time duty is to write e-mails....ain't making it.

      Of course, adjust the message to reflect the truth.

      By the way, this is in the presentation, not an answer to an objection. Don't wait for them to bring it up. If they bring it up as an objection, you aren't selling, you're arguing a position. Very bad.
      Thanks for this. I've actually sent what you said to a client who doesn't really get why a campaign we have would work better than what he would send. Let's see what his response is. Even if he doesn't turn into a client, just his feedback will help going forward.

      Originally Posted by Steve The Copywriter View Post

      Looks like you're crashing into their ego's.

      (don't tell us how to write ...we're doing very well thankyouverymuch)

      Now if this was true - why did they bother to contact you?

      So congratulate them on their efforts and then with a whisper mention you have a few "hidden persuasion secrets and trackable response boosting tactics" that'll make their work much more profitable.

      Steve
      Yeh definitely feels like an ego thing. Yeh my confusion is that I don't get why they request a call to speak to me about running the campaign, know our fee structure and fill out a questionnaire, with one of the questions they have to answer is 'How soon do you want to run the campaign' and they all select 'Immediately'. And then when we get on the phone they start asking why they should run our campaign!

      My thinking now is that even though the sales letter, sells them on warranting to use it by the time they get on the phone they have gone cold again so I have to do all the selling again!!

      Originally Posted by helisell View Post

      You answer it like this: (or at least in this style)

      "Good question. It's great that you already do email marketing,
      many business just don't know how to do it."

      How big is the customer list that you're sending to at the moment?

      What open rate and click-through are you getting from those emails?

      How do you track opens-non opens and then follow up on them?

      What kind of landing pages are you sending the customers to?

      What email headlines and copy strategies are you using right now?

      After a few questions like this the customer thinks...."Maybe I don't know
      as much about this as I thought"

      End with something like...

      "So if I can show you a way to improve the total revenue you get
      from your email campaigns by getting more emails opened and
      by increasing the response rates, and at the same time make your
      customers actually look forward to getting your emails and not just
      drop them into the trash.......would you be willing to give us a try?"
      Yeh I do think I need to ask more questions just to try and highlight a problem they want solving and then associate our campaign with helping solve that problem.

      Originally Posted by AlexTee View Post

      My 2cents,

      In addition to the advice you have been given above...

      I would add another layer beyond the sales letter to qualify them and determine if they are worthy of a visit.

      What they are saying is, "I have not seen enough from you to reach into my wallet and give you my money"...that is if...they even have a significant spend on email marketing.

      You need to find out if this is a real pain for them.

      Here are two things you may want to consider:

      a) Split test your current sales letter against one that has a qualifier in it such as...

      If you are currently spending "x" per month...we may be able to help you...blah, blah,blah...that would be your results in advance addressing "specific" pain points.

      and/or

      b) When you are calling to set up the appointment, pre-qualify them with a series of questions that are designed to remove the roadblocks you are currently facing.

      By asking additional questions, prospects will appreciate the fact that you don't want to waste their time or yours.
      yep, agree. I added another layer with a questionnaire and for them to manually schedule the appointment and this has helped qualify them. It felt a lot more of a hostile call without this.

      Originally Posted by jimbo13 View Post

      That is not the objection.

      They were wondering that when they read your letter and asked you to call them.

      From the moment you dial them and started speaking you should be presenting to eliminate this.

      I bet at the beginning you don't really ask them why they asked you to call them. You probably just barrel in to your presentation.

      I would probably kick off with

      'Hundreds of businesses have asked us to help them over the last x years and they all had very different reasons why they wanted to speak to us.

      What's yours?'

      Really nothing more than that.

      I would not move on to any presentation until they answer this even if it means me hanging up or walking out.

      Trust me you wont be hanging up or walking out in 95% of cases.

      And now you know what to say in your presentation. You address what they just told you with helpings of proof.

      Dan
      I do address it in the sales letter but just think they forget by the time I get them on the phone. I do like your question. I will definitely give a go at asking that to see if I can hit their pain point and then associate our campaign with solving that!


      Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

      I think you are missing the point here... this is NOT an objection to what you are selling... they have become defensive to your non intentional personal attacks.

      Enter the self imposed objection.. I would bet the conversation becomes more difficult on your part at this point. You are overlooking the need for industry specific difference. You are basically saying.. "Hey all of these industries are the same and this e-mail works" and they are saying "How the hell can car sales be the same as getting clients in my beauty salon? this guy is blowing smoke."

      So look at this from the inside out.. what should you really be selling? The system to track is far more important than the e-mail itself. You are so busy pushing "we can get you more business" and bypassing "I can make your campaigns more efficient"

      Think of it this way.. the person you are talking to probably writes the emails. "Hi, my name is bill and I sell this killer e-mail... here are 7 examples of industries we have worked with over the last 7 years. Sure, none of these pertain to your unique business, but I can still produce better results than your slap shot pit poor writing skills ever will. when can we get stared?"

      "Hi, my name is bill and I have developed a simple method to track the effectiveness of e-mail campaigns. Over the last 7 years we have increased return for business' in these 7 vastly different industries. We understand that your business is unique and would like to help you set up this system to get a better idea of how effective your marketing efforts are. Once there has been a benchmark set we can then work at creating a more effective result from your efforts."

      One is beating the business owner over the head, and the other is playing into them an their ego.

      Setup up a system for tracking and then upsell the letter to deliver greater return. A simple tracked phone number and a campaign specific e-mail address and you are in business here.... its not hard to measure
      Yeh the call does feel like it takes a turn after asking a few questions to find out what they have done, what they want to accomplish etc and after having a relatively decent relaxed conversation with them when I then say 'From what you have told me I'm confident the campaign is a good fit for you, is the campaign something you'd like to use?' the call takes a turn.

      I'm going to do what Claude suggested and bring up the question before they do rather than just asking if they want to run it. So basically try and sell the campaign again to them as I think they have forgot.

      The sales letter is specific for the vertical. I have a case study of someone in their industry who has used it and got a great result from it. I did go down the route of 'this is working really well for businesses' and yes it didn't convert as well.
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  • Profile picture of the author Gary_M
    Hey Guys,

    Thanks so much for all your feedback. It's very much appreciated.

    Sorry for the late reply.

    I wasn't expecting this much help so I'll go through and answer individual comments, rather than speaking as a whole.

    G
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Originally Posted by Gary_M View Post

    Hi,

    Just to give you a bit of background, I run a marketing agency that sells proven email marketing campaigns to offline businesses to generate them a bunch of extra sales from their customer database.

    Obviously I sell it better than that haha just wanted to give you a quick overview.

    The clients have read a sales letter and requested a call with us, they know all about the campaign and how much we charge.

    So the objection boils down to basically this...

    Why should I use your email campaign over the emails that I send already?

    What we are finding is they don't understand the importance of copy, they think the way they write an email and the way our campaign is written would produce the exact same amount of sales!*

    To overcome this we have tried explaining the results other businesses have got from the campaign but they believe they are good at writing emails and when we say that this campaign has been proven and tested for 7 years, across multiple industries, it doesn't seem to convince them either.

    We have also tried doing a comparison of the typical results we see our campaign produce compared to an existing campaign they have ran. However when we ask them 'how many sales their emails produce?', their response is 'I don't know' or 'It's hard to measure'.**

    This obviously indicates they don't know what they are doing and the campaign would definitely produce them more sales than they currently are getting but proving this to them is proving difficult.

    Any one got any ideas?

    Thanks

    Gary


    Looks like you're confused.

    If you haven't already created campaigns for the potential client then you don't have proven sales copy. Saying you have better sales copy doesn't mean it's true, you haven't split test the potential client so your sales pitch is a load of BS. The client is smart enough to figure out you're trying to make a quick buck.

    Offer a free copy demo, do an A/B split test, look at the sales data. Now you can make a comparison with real data instead of a canned sales pitch.
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