What does it sound like?
“I had a bad experience with something similar.”
Where does it typically show up?
Prospecting Call: making contact with a lead for the first time.
What do we do with it?
Turn around. Key Objective: to turn around the objection, engage the lead further, and continue to guide the lead through the sales process to ultimately close and fund!
How do we turn it around?
“Wow, I’m sorry to hear that. What happened?”
Why do we say it?
“Well, we’re not like that, we pride ourselves on…”
“I don’t know what you experienced before but I’ll be able to get you a better deal…”
“You haven’t worked with me before…”
“Well, here at X, we guarantee to get you the best…”
These are some of the knee-jerk rebuttals reps will typically launch into to defend themselves and attempt to build credibility quickly so as to not lose the prospect.
The one big issue here is, these rebuttals are jumping in too soon without actually addressing what the merchant was actually referencing. You have no idea what they are actually talking about until you ask!
Most humans who haven’t practiced active listening are thinking about what they’re going to say next while the other person is talking. And when the other person stops talking, they immediately jump in to speak their mind.
The key is to assume nothing – you don’t know what the merchant means until you simply ask.
Before selling yourself, your company, your product, how you do things, it is important to give the floor to the prospect and give him the open floor to unpack what happened.
It may have been that prospect was lied to.
Maybe they felt they got stuck with a product that wasn’t the right fit.
“The term was too short.”
“The payment was too high.”
“The rate was too high.”
“Didn’t get any customer service.”
“Didn’t get approved.”
“Oh wait, I thought this was about my car insurance.”
You just won’t know what you’re up against until you ask. The prospect will appreciate you getting curious about their previous experience, and will give you all the information you’ll need to know to continue meet the merchant’s needs on the call and keep the ball rolling forward.
Once the merchant shares what happened, and hears themselves talk about it again, the natural inclination for him/her is to feel like if you can do better than what they experienced before, they’ll be open to listening to what you have to say.
Funding Pros listen at least twice as much as they speak, and great questions convert prospects into customers.
-FundingStrategist
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