How do I counter these objections?

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I work for a telecoms company and the first thing we do is offer our prospects a free no obligation price review. They send us a copy of their bill and we analyse it to see if we can make any savings and then if we can we go for the close.

I have been doing the job for a month and I get the following objections. How would you legends counter these:

1. No point in doing a price review now as I'm still in contract for X months/years

2. Am happy with my current supplier and not looking to change.

And how do you get past the gate keeps who says the DM doesn't take cold calls and won't accept emails.

I think I need to be slightly more aggressive in my sales efforts - how do I go about fostering this mentality?

Thanks, much appreciated!
#offline marketing #counter #objections
  • I have "some" experience with objection #1. I sell Satellite Internet services and they all have contracts. I have a list of what average expense is of internet service from many sources
    . So if there is an objection if you don't know you ask what service they currently have. you can then say "You are paying roughly $ a month" they will agree. you then turn it into our service is $ a month.

    At this point, you have gotten the basics of your numbers out. I ALSO keep a list of the cancelation policies for each of the competitors. So I can say well you have 3 months left. If you were to leave them today it would cost you $ and by switching you would save X$.

    Hesitation at this point.. I probably have some more leeway than you. I can offer to pay some of that amount, if not ALL in some cases.

    Overall you can within in the idea of striking up conversation at the very least plant the seed. From there you can then do 3 things. Convert them as mentioned above. Ask if they would like some time to think about it, set a day and call them back. And the 3rd option is to write down their contract end date down and call them back 1 month before hand. ( I do a lot of #3 )

    I actually have a bunch of guys in the field that give me names numbers and contract start dates of people. I probably have a list of 500 names I can call in 2 years! ha!

    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Thanks savidge4! Do you have any other recommendations or anyone else have any?
  • First I would ask you if it is worth converting them. Your sales manager might not like this but at a certain point if you have loads of leads isn't it smarter to chase the low hanging fruit?

    If they qualify themselves out why not move to the next?

    I don't know your business to know the numbers but you should be able to run the numbers and see if it is even worth your time to overcome these objections.
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Aaron,

      Speaking from a point of Internet based communications, and knowing the other side of communications based business' the "List of Leads" is not all that great. For Satellite Internet specifically there are only 1.5 millionish residential consumers NATIONALLY. My pool of possible Leads is not all that large. Add to the fact that with Internet specifically there are basically only so many spots that can be filled.

      Now looking at the Telecomm market, reading any number of reports you will see that their numbers are dropping like flies in a Raid "Bomb" demonstration. Home phones are becoming less and less frequent.

      Understanding to a point how a telecomm call center works, you have to close a percentage of CALLS or the door is yours, and this is regardless of the qualifications of the call. So basically EVERY call counts. The number 1 hook in most cases with Telecomm is the "Bundle" option that includes the internet < this being my tie in and point of knowledge.

      My personal side note, Once I know of this, I can then go at the customer with the overall expense of the phone/ internet package, knowing full well they have a cel phone, and hardly ever use the land line - that is costing them like $70 a month or combined to about $100a month. So I can 80% of the time get a customer to understand the savings and benefit of dropping the package, keeping the cel phone and getting separate internet service.

      The OP does not have this luxury.. they are working with a bit of a dead horse of sorts ( sorry dreamer123 ) So my guess is that the OP is then trying to push the "Triple Play" Phone / Internet / TV, hence the contract... on the TV portion.

      So again I will tell you from PERSONAL experience in the field. Keeping a database of the names numbers and expire date of contracts is invaluable. I will also tell you that Telecomms DO NOT keep this information. THAT is low hanging fruit, and as an industry, it is not something that is tracked.

      • [2] replies
  • What if they are real?

    Best,
    Ewen
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
  • Hi Guys here is the detail you wanted.

    My current pitch goes something like this:

    Good morning/afternoon it's dreamer123 calling from XXX how are you today? Fantastic well we are a local telecoms company based not too far from you and we just wanted to see if we could be of benefit to you. Do you mainly use landlines or mobiles?

    How many people use those landlines/mobiles? Who are you with? Have you experienced any issues with the levels of service being provided? How do you feel about the prices that your current supplier is charging you?

    Okay, brilliant. What we are offering at the moment is a free no obligation price review so when you do come up for renewal you can make an informed decision. All we need from you is an up to date bill and once you send that over we will send a free price review over to you as soon as we can. How does tang sound to you?

    -- End of script --

    This was the script I was given to use as a guideline.

    There are only two sales guys. Me and one other person. I have 8 invoices (bills) so far and he has 2. I am based in the UK and my director wants me to target medium sized companies mainly companies who have about 30 people plus using the landlines.

    We are basically a reseller selling lines, mobiles, telephone systems, hosted IP, wifi and we are an alternative to the big players in our market BT, Talk Talk etc as we provide better customer service as the big players are renowned for being particularly poor in regards to the service they provide.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Dreamer,

      Thanks for jumping back in here and answering questions.

      So you have 8 bills received as a total for your month's worth of calling? Any sales?

      Are you stuck with that script or can you make adjustments?

      Are you creating your call list or is the company providing it?

      How many calls per day are you making?

      You mentioned phone systems. Are you also selling those too or are those sales handled by another group?

      Are you compensated for phone system sales, that you provide a lead for?

      Do you sell voice or "channelized" T-1's?

      Keep this in mind:
      There's a whole lot businesses that hate doing business with the incumbent carrier (BT)
      Probably 80 - 85% of them. Initially though, they don't know you or your company well
      enough to just jump on-board. You can overcome that. Just takes a little knowledge and
      some applied skill.
  • Hey!

    No sales as of yet but I have 2 people who look like they want to come with us .

    I'm not stuck with the script I can make adjustments but I don't know what adjustments it needs!

    The company is providing the call list however we can add new companies to the list which is what I am doing. I am mainly adding call centres as they make a lot of outbound calls. That's where we make our money.

    I am making about 170-250 calls per day.

    Yes I am selling phone systems NEC ones at the moment. I am being made the telephone systems expert and am currently being trained on how to sell and write proposals for these. And yes I do get commission for each system I sell..
  • So what do you suggest?
    • [1] reply
    • Make more calls. 170-250 per day, isn't enough if you want to see results now.
      There are businesses that hate doing business with BT. There are businesses looking for you - now. They are the low hanging fruit.

      Put your focus on reaching those particular businesses, by getting through the calls fast.

      Pick up your pace. It isn't hard because you are not having a conversation with the DM, on most calls.

      If the gatekeeper is blocking calls for the DM, make a note of that. You can call those back at odd times - early morning before the gatekeeper gets in or after hours, when the gatekeeper has left for the day.

      When someone tells you " We are happy with the current supplier and not looking to change" say, "thankyouverymuch" and dial the next call. Yes, you can argue with them. And that is exactly what they will think you are doing, and so they'll resist.

      You'll burn up your time and energy trying to get someone who is resisting you, to send you their bill. You'll feel beat up at the end of the day, you'll hate the work and your results will suck.

      Move on. Dial the next number quickly. You should be generating 1-2 bills, sent to you, per day. If that's not happening, you aren't' making enough calls.

      If someone tells you, "No point in doing a price review now as I'm still in contract for X months/years." Make a note of that and move on to the next call. Keep a record of those. They are interested and will let you review the bill at a later date.

      Here's a secret. If you browbeat and argue with people, they'll remember it and hold it against you the next time you call. You'll "poison the well". If you treat them decently and don't argue, you can call them next month and the next and the next and see if anything has changed.

      Things always change. Hit 'em at the right time and you'll get their business.

      Good luck!


      • [ 3 ] Thanks
  • Thanks so much!
  • Your welcome.

    Learn everything you can about phone systems. Go out with the techs when they do an install.
    See what's going on, how they do the cable runs and how they interact with the customer.
    Take a look at the network interface (DMARC) where the cable is pulled to. Get familiar with
    the physical side of it. Ask questions, take notes.

    If things don't work out with this company, you'll be able to take your knowledge and make an
    excellent living anywhere, selling phone systems. You'll hear that the sales cycle is 6 months
    to a year, and maybe longer. Let me tell you there are phone system deals waiting to happen all
    around you. Go out and hit industrial parks and office buildings on your lunch hour, door to door.
    Introduce yourself and ask the receptionist how their phone system is working.
    You'll get all kinds of useful info if you casually ask questions...and let them talk.

    Be sure to take notes on the back of their biz card, including the name of the contact person
    who's responsible for the phone system.

    You'll also see the phone system they are currently using. Is it still under warranty?
    Who is their current system vendor? (they may not have one.)
    Find out how old it is and what kinds of problems they are experiencing.
    Is their current vendor responsive to maintenance calls?

    Do that for a week and you'll have leads that nobody else has.

    Most salespeople are lazy. They don't follow up on leads/referrals.
    They don't stay in touch with people and business slips right through their fingers.

    Don't be one of those salespeople.

    There are businesses out there that are ready to buy, waiting for you to contact them.
    • [ 4 ] Thanks
  • Thanks for all your help and your advice has really helped me increase my sales however my boss has been listening into my calls and has said he wants me to overcome the "we are in a contract for X months/ years"

    Any ideas?
  • What's you're boss's response to a prospect who says, "we are in a contract for X
    months/ years"?

    What does he/she tell you to say?
  • He says that I should say something along the lines of "it's always good to review your services just to see if you are getting the best price and service" I've tried that and it doesn't seem to work. The usual response is "we can't do anything until our contract is up so contact us back then"
    • [1] reply
    • Right. And so, what does your boss want you to say when the customer responds with
      "we can't do anything until our contract is up so contact us back then"
  • Jot the date down and call them back when they are up for renewal.
    • [1] reply
    • Okay, so is that what you are doing?
      • [1] reply
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    How do I counter these objections?

    I work for a telecoms company and the first thing we do is offer our prospects a free no obligation price review. They send us a copy of their bill and we analyse it to see if we can make any savings and then if we can we go for the close. I have been doing the job for a month and I get the following objections. How would you legends counter these: