I was walking the sales floor, looking for someone to help when I overhead one of the account managers say something like, "Okay, then I'll talk to you in March." Since this was November, I was curious why the account manager was agreeing to wait until March to have another conversation about purchasing our products. So, I asked.
The answer: "The customer told me they didn't have it in the budget to make a purchase from us, so I asked him when he would have a new budget and he told me March."
The account manager was kind of pleased with herself. When presented with an objection ("not in the budget" isn't really an objection so much as it is a stall), she tried to overcome the objection by asking an additional question. The question she asked was the most logical question that came to mind.
Have you ever played the game where one person says a word and the other says the first word that comes to mind? I say "black" and you say "white". I say "cloud" and you say "sky".
Buyers and sellers play this game all the time.
Seller at a women's clothing store upon eyeing a shopper, "May I help you?"
Customer, "No, I'm just looking."
Buyer, "We don't have it in the budget."
Seller, "When do you get a new budget?"
Buyer, "March."
Seller, "Great, I'll talk to you then."
If you want to get somewhere in sales, you need to stop playing this game right away. Here are some thoughts on how to do that:
Sellers must realize that people say things according to a script. If you want a different answer than the one you normally get, try saying something dramatically different than that which is expected.
Example: Every single parent of school age children that I know asks their children about their day at school like this:
"How was your day at school?"
Every single kid who has ever been asked this question replies thusly,
"Fine."
Boring and predictable questions from parents get the same boring and predictable answers from their kids. One parent that I know says this to his children,
"Tell me, what was your favorite part of school today?"
This question can not be answered with "fine". This clever parent has broken through the usual roles that he and his children play and is more likely to get a unique and personalized response to his question.
Getting back to my account manager - I said that the next time a prospect told her that "it wasn't in the budget" she should say,
"I am so glad you said that!"
Talk about knocking the prospect off balance. The script has just been thrown out the window. The prospect is completely dumbfounded and must say,
"Really, why?"
"Because everyone says that and if you didn't say that I wouldn't have the slightest idea what to say next."
Since this is completely outside of the usual script, a prospect is very likely to abandon their role as "buyer" and become a real person who interacts with you in a normal and non-scripted way.
When I suggested this, my account manager told me that she couldn't pull it off. Okay, I understand that everyone isn't quite so willing to be silly when dealing with the incredibly serious matter of selling stuff to other people. But, she still needs to come up with answers to scripted objections that do not follow the script and so do you. This will allow her and you to speak to the person behind the role.
Here are some suggestions on how to handle the "I don't have the budget" script:
1) Seller, "That is very interesting."
Buyer, "What's so interesting about it?"
Seller, "Oh, I've just been keeping track of the number of times someone tells me that and you are the 100th person who has said that in the last month. That's a lot of people who don't have a budget for my product. I'm beginning to wonder if the problem is my product."
Buyer, "Well, maybe it's because most companies are already buying a similar product from another vendor and they don't want to add an additional vendor."
Seller, "Is that the situation with your company?"
2) Seller, "That is great news, I think."
Buyer, "Why is it great?"
Seller, "Because that means I have successfully overcome all of the other objections you might have tossed out there and am only awaiting the time when the new budget is approved to get an order."
Buyer, "Well, that's not really what I meant."
Seller, "Yeah, I didn't really think you meant that. I was being a little bit flip. Let me ask you, if you did have the budget right now, would we be doing business today or is there some other stuff we should be discussing about how my products can help you achieve your goals?"
3) Seller, "May I ask you a ridiculous question?"
Buyer, "Okay."
Seller, "Do you have an ice cream budget in your house?"
Buyer, "What? No, of course not."
Seller, "Me, neither. When we want to buy ice cream we just do it and then maybe spend a little bit less on some other grocery item if the ice cream puts us over budget. That just makes sense with ice cream. But, it makes sense with other purchases, too. Let me ask you this, if my product really helped you achieve your goals and you were convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was true, wouldn't you be able to find the money and then just cut back on some other business expense to avoid going over budget?"
Remember, when a prospect tosses out a scripted stall or objection, refuse to play along. You'll end up getting a unique and personalized response that allows you to have a conversation with an actual person and not someone just playing a role.
For a real life example of how this worked for me, please check back again tomorrow for my post entitled "Not interested in what?"
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