Common Sales Objections on
Appointment setting Calls 

Get in Front of More Buyers by Overcoming
Objections to Sales Appointments

Overcome common sales objections on your sales appointment cold calls will get you in front of more buyers and give you the opportunity to close more sales and get more customers. 

The sales skills training on this page will give you techniques and ideas to deal with cold calling objections that have already been proven by the sales and telemarketing teams I have managed and trained. 

These common objections are a constant problem for anyone making sales appointment calls, you now have the solutions to overcome them.  

Let’s start with the first of our common sales objection and the techniques for overcoming or getting past it...

An Effective Mind-Set for Handling Common
Sales Appointment Objections

Common Sales Objections

Sales Appointment Objection:
They want to talk price on the call

You might not see this as a common sales objection, but it can stop your cold call and lead to you not getting an appointment.

The aim of your cold call is to arrange a sales appointment because you have decided that is the best way to sell your products or services to the prospect. Consciously decide how far into the sales process you want to go on your sales appointment calls, and at what point would your call move from being an appointment call to a telesales call.

If the prospect starts talking about price, you are moving into the sales process.

Talk about price at the meeting

Can you sell your products on the phone, if so that’s great, go for the sale, or will you get better results by meeting with the prospect.

One suggestion I would make is that if price is not a main benefit or a key selling point you will want to meet with the prospect so that you can use a structured sales process to present the value of what you sell.

If you are making sales appointments for someone else, then you probably don't want to get into the sale process or discuss prices on the phone. 

To prevent moving into the sales process have a list of reasons ready as to why you cannot give a price on the phone and why you have to meet with the buyer.

Here are some examples...

• You will need to complete a site survey of the building or grounds, see where the product will be situated.
• You want to demonstrate the product so the prospect can make sure it is the right one for them.
• Background information is needed so you can select the best product or service, or customise the options. 

Handle common sales objections on appointments so that you get around the price question and gain the appointment. You don't have to answer all of their price questions fully. If you can get around them, or put them on hold until the appointment, you have achieved your goal.

Common Sales Objections:
The buyer is too busy to meet with you

Where in your appointment call you get this common sales objection is important.

If you often get these objections very early in the call, before you have asked for an appointment, it may well be a smoke screen objection which means the prospect wants to get off the call. These unreal, smoke screen objections are very difficult to overcome or get past because they are not real objections. 

There is a link to sales training on preventing smoke screen objections near the end of this page...

If you get the objection later in the call, as you get close to asking for an appointment, it is probably a real objection and you can get past it.

Is the prospect really too busy?

When a prospect says they are too busy to meet with you they usually mean that, from their viewpoint, you haven’t made meeting with you sound important enough for them to give you their precious time. You haven't captured their attention or interest.

If you had grabbed their attention with potential benefits early in the call  they would be more likely to say they are too busy to meet this week, or this month, which leaves the door open for you to arrange an appointment after their busy period.

To prevent these common objections build more and better potential benefits into the early stages of your appointment call. You can see training on how to do that at Cold Call Script...

Overcoming this objection

use the training on the link above to prevent these smoke screen objections.

If you do get them on a call, I recommend a direct question to find out if they really are busy, or do they not see the potential benefits of the opportunity you could offer.

Ask the prospect if they see the potential benefit and if they were not as busy would they meet with you. If they say yes, then you can work on finding a way to find an agreeable time to meet, maybe out of normal hours, early morning, weekends, or take them for lunch.

If they admit they are not really interested then at least you know the real position and you can attempt to turn it around by giving another potential benefit that will tempt the prospect to meet with you.

Common Sales Objections:
We already have a supplier

Prospects fall into 2 categories, virgin buyers who do not have a product or service that does what your sales offer will do for them, you are trying to sell them something new to them. And existing users who already have something in place doing what your sales offer will do, you are looking to replace what they currently have. 

Most prospects will already have a supplier unless they are setting up a new business or new process. So unless you have a unique new product you will win most of your business from a competitor. 

Handling these common sales objections based on already having a supplier, provider or product is done by offering to show them what you can supply so they can compare your proposal to what they have now. Only then are they in a position to make a decision on future purchases.

Your focus is on getting the appointment and gaining the opportunity to demonstrate the benefits you can offer, not trying to sell the benefits on your cold call...

It’s really important to remember that you are not trying to sell to them, you are offering your time to give them knowledge and information so they can then make an informed decision. 

Gaining a sales appointment is the objective. Selling your product is done at the appointment.  Don't try and compete with the competition while on the sales appointment call. 

Suggested ways to overcome this objection

Respond by letting the prospect know that most of your current customers had a supplier or provider before they came to you.  

After seeing what you could offer, or trialling your products, they made a decision to buy from you.

I also like the approach of using a sales appointment with you as a way of comparing, and value or price checking, their current supplier or product against your offer. This costs them nothing to learn and again you’re providing free information that could be of benefit to them. 

You can use the fact that they already have a supplier as the reason you’re calling and the reason they should meet with you. You’re calling because many businesses, just like theirs, continue using the same old supplier and miss out on better deals offered by companies like yours. 

 

Get Past More Sales
Appointment Objections 

The techniques above can be used for more than just the common sales objections we have discussed.

They can be used on other objections, just use the same principles, the same mind-set, and reframe your approach. always keep in mind: 

• The objective is to gain a sales appointment.
• You should not go into a sales pitch, or discuss price, unless you decide that's the right action.
• Most of your new customers will already have a supplier or a product that you want to replace.

You are prepared to give your time to show the prospect what you can offer. Only then they can they make a decision, whereas now they don’t have enough information even to say no. 

You can overcome many objections similar to, ‘I’m too busy to meet with you,’ by using benefits to make potential gains more important. Use reasons why prospects should meet with you to get past the objections:

Reasons you can use:

• So the prospect can compare their current package to your proposal.
• They can do a price or value comparison.
• To gain free information and knowledge.

And the best approach of all: To see what you can offer them, so that they are then in a position to make a decision on whether to buy from you. 

 

Making Effective Sales
Appointment Cold Calls

Sometimes when you try to use training on making sales appointments it can feel confusing and too much to take in and put into practice.

The Sales Buzz - Newsletter Ezine

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