Two questions for Claude Whitacre on sales objections and marketing

The "It's not in the budget" objection occurs because you positioned your offer as an expense (at least in the buyer's mind).

Budgets are there to control expenses, not facilitate growth.

You need to position your offer as a profit center. And it needs to be done up front.

I used to get that objection, and I would say "Of course it's not in your budget. It's not an expense. It's a profit generating tool". But it works far better if you don't have to say it, and you position yourself that way from the beginning.

You need to talk to business owners with "Dollars in-dollars out". I know it's about content, but you have to tie it in with additional profits made.

Here are a few examples o how to handle this;
"Some people bring up budgets. If you tested out your marketing, and found that for every dollar you paid out, it lost 50 cents, what would your budget be for that?" And after they say "Nothing", you ask.

"If you had a way to pay out $5 for every dollar invested, and it paid out this $5 within a few months...what would your budget be for that?"

You have to keep asking (in different ways) until they say "I'd put in as much as I could". That's the answer you want.



You want to shatter the idea of budgets. You need to break their train of thought...how they see your offer.

This may sound self serving, but my book Selling Local Advertising has a whole chapter on how to overcome the "Budget" objection.

What your selling isn't exactly advertising, but that's not a bad way to position it. Content that gets seen. Content that generates sales.

I may come back to this, but there are others here that know more about content creation.


You have to position it as not content, but a way to get them seen by high quality prospects.

Here's a question to ask "Have you ever had someone contact and buy from you because they saw something you wrote online?" (Yes). "Would you like more of them?"

The actual method you use to generate this interest from prospects is less important to the buyer than the fact that it brings in customers. And it brings in customers because they read what you right. And they read what you write because they find it online. And they find it because it gets ranked highly. And it gets ranked highly because you are an expert in writing content that shows authority and gets ranked by the search engines.

That's what you bring to the table. But it starts with them getting more customers.

That's why budget doesn't matter.

Thank you for this. I do own your book on Selling Local Advertising so I'll re-read it. Content that gets seen and read by high-quality prospects was the winner in this post, as well as content that brings them more business.

I'm working on how to communicate these benefits obliquely because as we said in another thread, it's a crowded market with many businesses repeating these same benefits, although it is the most logical and powerful reason for them to buy. Differentiating it with long-form content was one idea to stand out and be different, but I'm still working on how to nail the execution of this.

Love the discussion.


Wanted to say something from the point of view of someone who's been pitched content a times or two.


I say no for many reasons.


Sometimes the pitch itself is poorly written (as in typos, improper capitalization, etc.).


Sometimes the pitch itself is poorly written (as in, they do not understand what I want or need).


Sometimes, they pitch me and have no idea what kind of business they're dealing with. Well, often, not some times.



Some know, so they pitch along the lines: We've worked with (business type) company before and know that x, y and z is important...


But they miss the point. All they say is true, but it does not apply to me. And they could have known it had they bothered to read articles on my site(s).


I know some other business owners who complain about the same things I do.
One of them, wedding dresses, hates that the writing is not soft enough (I seen samples she likes. To me, and apparently all the writers that approached her but one (whom she hired), saw nothing but pointless fluff in thee.


You can differentiate yourself by subniching your writing:
if you approach wedding dress shops, you talk to them about the elegance and flufffulness of your content, if that's what they have on their site;


if you approach a mortgage broker who specializes in renovation loans, you talk about your renovation loan content...


if a mortgage broker who specializes in renovation loans and has conversational style content filled with specific details, you match that.


Most content writers would approach both brokers with the same stuff... Yes, it requires you have extra knowledge... Or the ability to acquire it or mimic it, but people pay for extra knowledge...



By the way, I know there are those who buy content just to be posting something on their site (and they want to pay little for it). And those, you'd approach differently.... Like I'm approached all the time.


You need, like Claude already said, to connect your writing to future income... and to the style of the buyer... or the style they want to show the world.

It all sounds like you are playing blind archery.

Firing off reasons why they should buy from you
without using the reasons they want to switch from existing provider..

The reasons are in the mind of your prospects.

You say your clients come to you
because they are dissatisfied with their existing provider.

This is going to sound too simple
but it has worked in my old lawncare biz
plumbing business in Auckland and USA
builders in Auckland and USA.

I discovered three reasons for
calling me.

They were and still are the reasons the plumbers and builders
got the phone calls when switched to using
these insights.

The Auckland plumber had a 1,100% increase in calls year over year.
(I have posted the before and after ad here)
The USA plumber added an extra $30k per month revenue.

The USA builder had to turn off his Google ad after
spending less than $50 so he could do the $150k worth
of build jobs.

Right from the get go the focus was
calling out the three problems, saying they will
never happen with you
and if they do you have a penalty
that is scary to you.

Jay Abraham in his book of case studies told about a pest control company
that specialized in food manufacturing plants.

The big cost to those types of business is
if a health inspector found any bird or rodent droppings in the plant it's shutdown.

So the pest control company said they would pay all costs of lost production
if it should ever happen.

In my lawncare biz I said if I don't turn up on time, don't clean up
after me, don't do what I say I would do, my penalty is $1,000.

Back then the average cut was about $30.

Backing oneself with these types of penalties thins the heard down to one!

So recognize patterns inside the complaints,
don't let them happen to you. and recognize they have been burnt
and you have to go to extraordinary lengths to have them trust you.

Best,
Ewen

If it's not in their budget, work with those who do have a budget. Don't waste your time with those who look for the cheap or free way in.

Dominos pizza also once had a performance guarantee - delivered in 30 minutes or the pizza is free. They are still recognized for fast delivery even though the guarantee has been canceled for years. Delivery drivers were getting into too many accidents.

Fed Ex gained a huge competitive edge over UPS by guaranteeing overnight delivery by 11am. That is no longer advertised (nor possible), but their image of efficiency still lingers.

Another one of my favorite examples is Sit N' Sleep mattress commercial, "We beat any advertised price or your mattress is FREE! They have never given away a free mattress yet, even though it sounds like a bold claim.

Offering a performance or product guarantee is applicable even for affiliate products. All products I sell always includes an unconditional "ironclad" money-back satisfaction guarantee.

Usually the vendor (ie Amazon, Clickbank etc) will already have this in place, but having a branded commitment guarantee to high performance and quality assurance upfront is a very formidable competitive position.

Bold guaranteed claims always grab attention, and is generally far more cost-effective than competing by racing to the bottom in price.