"Everything looks good, but I have to check my budget / cash flow first..." REBUTTAL?

Not bad; at least you got the Thursday deadline.

Earlier on in the process, you could have said, "Have you thought about a budget for this project?" And if she answered, "No," you could have replied, "Well, for projects like yours, the budget typically ranges between $X and $Y." And watched her reaction.

"Oh that's too much" is knee-jerk reaction. Meaningless. Compared to what?

But if you can show her your site will make her 2x$Y or 5x$Y a month, why wouldn't she go for it?

Now you want to watch for people who have no money. Don't get involved with them.

Sounds like you didn't really sell her and she just used a very soft rejection. Anyways, you can add a verbal contract into your presentations.

Something along the lines of: "Now Mr. Prospect, before I tell you how we can fix these issues....I'd like to ask you a for a simple favor. When it comes time for you to evaluate if what I have to offer is for you or not, all I ask for is your honesty in the form of a simple answer of Yes or No. If something doesn't appeal to you, just let me know I promise I won't be upset or offended."

check out this thread on tie downs, it might help.

If you don't get them to commit, there really is no sense to ask for the money.

There are a also few threads in here on closing as well.

Although we all try to close on the 1st meeting, it's just part of the game, you just can't always close on first go. From my limited sales experience, I think you approached it well and giving the prospect time to think is better than being a high pressure salesman/woman.

If they know they want the product/service but still not deciding then you may need to throw in your money back gaurantee so there is less risk on them.

I say to clients, "you get your money back what I would have kept as profit if you're not happy with the service"

Another reason for them to sign up with you.

Man oh Man , If you are dealing with a typical small business and you ask them to make a commitment for a few hundred dollars and they come with the budget BS then you didnt excite them enough.

These guys have NO BUDGETS , they buy what they are motivated to buy.

They knew coming in that you were going to ask for money, you show them something worth multiples of your fee and you are willing to work with them on the payment and they still feed you that line of crap...something went wrong WAYYY before the rebuttal.

The prospect was likely not just objecting to the price but probably a whole lot of other hidden factors.

I would have first clarified if price was her only concern as she may have other issues in her mind that she is reluctant to tell you.

I would then resell her on the benefits and value of what she's getting and contrast it against the cost of not going ahead.

But the sales process needs to be follow properly in its' proper sequence for a sale to go ahead, you may have missed something way before you even got to the close, it's just not how it works.

Good work anyway, if you can learn from this you'll be making lots of sales

Maybe she just wants to talk to her spouse?
Even if she is the decision maker in her business,
it's still "their" money and that's just how a lot of couples work.

Dan

Perhaps this is her way of "asking" for a discount. I know some clients may not be brave enough to to straight out ask, so they stall in hopes that you chop the price.

Don't chop the price unless you take something out of the project, or get something in return. You can't go to Best Buy and look at a $1,000 plasma and say, "oh, I really only can spend $750..." and expect them to just drop the price.

Just my feedback

I donot love to see women do any business

If a businesses owner is not going to bite at your offer: You are either...
1. You are targeting the wrong type of business ( very frugal and doesn't like to spend money)
2. You did not convince them enough to take action and agree with you on a deal


Picking businesses that spend money and not being frugal is what I would go after

You already have won, half the battle there..now just make sure to fully convince them (provide gazillion benefits) and you should get more positive results...

I think she didn't have the guts to tell you she's not sold on either the projections or on your ability to deliver.

I wonder if you sold her on more than she can budget.

In the B2B world you don't get this as often but when selling cars or RVs you do.

You sell them so well on that perfect car that they can't bring themselves to admit they can't afford it. So to save face they buy the Focus down the road vs. the Sonic you have because you sold them too well on the Volt.

Sometimes when you get a price objection it really is a price objection. But the only one who can know that is you because you were in the room with her.

She committed to a yes or no date on Thurs. If you get the yes move forward. If you get the no and want to work with her ask her more about her budget (since that part of the interview of lacking it appears) and move forward with a package she can afford.

The problem is if you sold her too well on why she needs the silver package she may not be willing to give up anything. In which case all you have done is sold her for a lower priced competitor who will build a package like your silver package but will hit her price point.

This can be a danger of selling too well. That's why qualifying is so important. If you sell them the perfect solution but they can't afford it you have helped neither of you. You have wasted your time. Because if you had sold the less than perfect solution you could have gain a customer and over time built the client into the perfect solution via add ons paid for by the extra business you were bringing in the door.

Also on another note I don't like pushy closes and IMO you went too pushy. There is a chance she would have said yes thurs and now will say no due to that.

It sounds to me like you rushed the sale.

If there is one thing I learned in sales its that you should ALWAYS do a full pitch, and take your time to thoroughly explain the benefits of EVERYTHING you are offering.

And throughout this you work on building a more personal type of rapport with the person. Don't be afraid to ask them some nonrelated questions. Questions that have NOTHING to do with what you are selling. I shows that you are inquisitive, and care more about people than "closing the deal".

Act like a personable human being. You should come off like you actually like the person you're talking to. Something like "I always do that too". Really work on building that rapport. That will always lower resistance I have found.

One more point I will add. My brother does sales training for a living. Now I'm not saying he is the best at what he does, but I think he is damn good. And I've learned a lot from him.

When he trains guys, he says one of the most common problems they suffer from is rushing a sale. They come in, run their pitch, can't think of anything else to say, so they try to close too early. Before they even warm the prospect up.

I've met a lot of good salesman in my industry, and all the good guys do the same thing. They stay with the prospect for as long as possible. To do this properly, you have to have a million and 1 positive things to say about what you're selling. And in the course of this, you can go off on tangents building rapport with the prospect. This makes them like/trust you more, which makes them actually believe all the benefits you're offering them.

Closing time comes when you have explained every benefit that there is to explain about what you're selling. If you haven't done that, then you should not try closing.

I'd be curious to know what your pitch is, and if its even complete. Like what was your pitch when you went to meet this woman? Do you have like a 3 page powerpoint you're going off of? Maybe thats the problem. Our powerpoints are about 25 pages long. And no, we don't sit there and go through every page. But if you run out of things to say, its a very useful tool to have by your side. And the power point itself is designed in specific stages. One stage that warms a person up/builds rapport, another that builds credibility, another that builds value/trust etc. Since we were recently on CBS, thats now in the power point too, and man does that build incredible value just having that 1 video. Think of ways you can build some similar credibility/value, and use them in your powerpoint.

Whether it was too much pressure, needs to be broken into three payments (something affordable for her), or benefits explained better... I think you need to do something to lighten up the atmosphere when you go back Thursday. It's now like you are waiting to hear from that girl you asked to go steady in sixth grade.

Something like, "Sorry if I put too much pressure on last time, it's that I want to get the returns I believe I can get for you..."

Dan

Eeeee me.

A few questions....

1. What is the cost / impact of her pain in the PAST that she doesnt want to repeat?

2. What is the cost / impact of her pain in the PRESENT that she doesnt want NOW?

3. What is the cost / impact of her pain in the FUTURE that she wants to AVOID?

4. How much have they spent in trying to solve the problem (using diff suppliers)?

5. How much is the OPPORTUNITY COST NOW?

If your SOLUTION is less than the COST of their problem - YOU CLOSE THE DEAL.

Ask the right questions, and the prospect will give you the DATA/NUMBERS you want

You simply then re-affirm the numbers they give you as they WONT ARGUE WITH THEIR OWN DATA !!!

BUT THEY WILL ARGUE WITH YOURS

Think about it.

Hope that helps.



Fraser

They'll agree... but at the end of the sale they'll buck that agreement easily.

That's not a tie down. Asking what she wants you to put on her website is an investigative question to determine needs and wants. The tie down itself would be AFTER she tells you what she wants. In other words you're tying her down to the statement she just made. For example, she says she wants a blue background on her website. So you'd then say, "So we're doing this with a blue background then, is that right?" She answers with a yes. Now you've tied her down, that is, committed her, to her description of what she said she wants.

It's nice to get agreement like that as you converse with the prospects but again, they can buck it at the end.

Let your passion and energy be demonstrative in selling the "why" of what you do. Don't sell the "what" of what you do.

Watch this:

People buy on emotion and want the benefits of a product/svc, but use the facts/features to rationalize their purchase.

My friend and I were talking about this yesterday in reference to "I dont have time right now". A good response to this is something like "what, you don't have time to save thousands of dollars?"

To this rebuttal, I think I would have said something like "the initial startup cost may seem like a burden now, but think about all the money/leads your missing out on every single month due to poor website design and low rankings in the search engines."

Something like this may trigger something. Not a salesman by any means, and I think you did really well. The best part is your here to learn more. Keep it up!

Thanks for all the input guys, I've definitely learned a lot here!

For one, I agree that I definitely rushed the sale and didn't take enough time to develop the desire, excitement, benefits and asking questions to address pain and give solution, etc.

I've been reading a lot of threads lately on WF about selling and it's helping me a lot. Also reading 2 books recently recommended by Claude which I think is really awesome:

1) How to master the art of sellling
2) Spin Selling

His eBook on Selling Local Advertising is awesome too.

PLUS the vast amount of threads here really helps. Does anyone know if there's a thread where it COMPILED all the KEY and IMPORTANT selling threads from old and new?

Anyway, today is Thursday and just got off the call with her, she sounds interested but again she said she is strapped for Cash Flow for this month and tell me to call back in first week of March.

I tried to give various options, ask her if she spends $1 and get $3 back would that make sense, bring her back to how this can grow her business. But she adamantly said, "look you're giving me all these scenarios, but it's really about the cash flow. I am STRAPPED this month and people are breathing down my neck."

With that I stopped and just didn't probe further and just asked when would be the best time to call her back. I reassured that she still wanted to get the website done, she said YES. I asked if she still wanted to get ranked on Google, and she said YES. So I'll call her back in 3 weeks. But honestly, I really don't like these waiting games because so many things could happen in the meantime, and who knows what their budget will be in March. But will see.

What I've learned:

- I went in so focused on the "presentation" I forgot to develop rapport and ask her more quesitons.
- Didn't ask much pain questions, didn't assess what she wants.
- 70-80% of the meeting was me talking and giving my pitch/presentation which was REALLY bad.
(Note: my presentation was on a computer establishing results I got in the past, testimonials, 3 main services I offer and why it's important, and then a conservative growth projection according to her estimate), then I tried to close... I know really bad eh...I'm learning a lot...lol

But anyway, just want to give you guys this update.

Will come back in a few weeks to see if I can give a better update!

Her ability to pay could've been determined before you showed her a single thing. Maybe she is strapped right now. The thing is, there really isn't a rebuttal for "need to check budget." There's only what we think are rebuttals because if it's merely a smokescreen for a stall then you're rebutting against ethereal phantoms. If it's a genuine stall where she absolutely desires to sign this very moment otherwise but truly doesn't have any cash on hand, then a "rebuttal" may have been, "are you saying this is beyond your ability to pay or are you saying you'd like an affordable payment plan?" and see if she bites on the payment plan idea, which she might if she were really interested.

Not that I would do that in this particular case because you've already hammered her some. And it already looks like you don't have anything else going on for you from her point of view, if all you do is keep asking her for business despite her telling you she can't pay. This is one I think you need to get back to around down the road.

Usually though, "check my budget" is a stall which means they're not sold. And if they're not sold, there isn't any magic line to say. Instead you need to go back in the sale and see if the problem was not matching what they want to what you offered, the budget, or if the problem was you.

Love the fan conversations.

Fake objections are annoying. And I think nearly all of us in sales at times have followed the fake objection like you did with those fans for fun. It is fun to see how far someone will go to continue to pretend the fake objection is real.

I truly believe if you are selling properly you won't get many fake objections. And those you do get will be from people you have already mentally checked off your list. Which is to say earlier in the process you already knew they were not buying and you know why they are not buying (as well as anyone can know why someone else does something).

Losing a sale in my opinion should never be a "surprise" just as closing a sale shouldn't be. No one closes the sale during the "close" though some people out in the sales world mistakenly believe they do. You "close" sales well in advance of the close. When you get to the close it should feel natural because it is natural.

For example the other day I got to sell an RV (something I don't get to do often anymore) and even though they told me multiple times they were not buying "today" I knew about half way through the "sale" that they were buying. In fact when I went to get numbers they told me again they were not buying "today". Yet when I got back he was on the phone with his bank checking on his financing again.

Once we sat down in my office all that was left were the formalities, like what the price would be. So when it came time to close there were no objections because we had discussed any possible objections (minus price) during the sale process. And when you built trust with your clients/customers they don't object to price because they know you are going to give them a fair price like you have already told them you would.

I honestly believe the only two true price objections are the following.

1. Can't afford it. And this objection is about a failure in the interview process. If you present numbers and find this objection you failed to find out what they could and wanted to spend. As per my example I may want a new GTR but I can not afford to purchase one. So a sales person who got me in the office on a new GTR would have failed badly since he should have put me in a new 370Z or a used sports car on the lot which is in my budget.

2. The "like to haggle" objection. These guys will object to any price you throw at them because they want to feel they won. You should know this objection is coming and should have priced yourself with some room to let him work you. This is a problem for people who work in "no haggle" dealerships as often they don't have room to move.

Too many people in sales rush to the close because they believe that is the point a sale happens (largely due to bad training and bad managers who want them to "desk" everyone who comes in). But the truly successful sales professionals know that if you get to the close before the sale has "happened" you have little chance of closing. It is hard to explain what I mean by the "sale happened" to people who have not sold for a long time but old pros will understand what I mean.

Bump. Always good to re-read these older threads and refresh the memory banks.