Handling objections related to decision-makers and trust is crucial for closing sales. The Black Swan Group’s approach focuses on understanding how to handle people who aren't decision-makers and how building trust can put you in front of the person who calls the shots.
Decision-Maker Objections
With the whole decision-maker thing, many people get tied up in who's the decision-maker, but it is more important to identify the deal killer. That middle party might be the one standing in the way. Do not try to go over their head or disregard their opinion. A lot of people will be trying to reach John, the decision maker, and instead get his Executive Assistant. They will push to get in contact with John and make the Executive Assistant feel like chopped liver. Instead, focus on demonstrating understanding of the Executive Assistant.
When you start to listen to them, demonstrate understanding, gain their trust, and build rapport, they are more likely to pass you on to the decision-maker positively. If you try to go over their head, they'll be the first to kill the deal.
Trust-Related Objections
For "Your service seems too complex for us," address it with labels and calibrated questions: "It sounds like you're concerned that our solution is going to cause you and your team a ton of work to implement and you’re not even sure if it’s the right solution.
For "Send me some information," if it’s early in the conversation, throw out, "It sounds like you're still shopping around." If it comes up later, "It sounds like you're not convinced that this is going to be an appropriate solution." If you just send them the information, they’re just going to take your information and try to get a competitor to price-match it or copy it verbatim. This objection in particular is tantamount to getting ghosted.
Building Trust to Prevent Objections
The ones who get the most objections are the ones who start with explaining, who do all the talking and who don't focus on listening at a deeper level. Make the conversation about the other side, focus on what's important to them, and seek to understand their perspective. If you do all that on the front end, objections usually don't come up.
If they do come up after you've built trust and value with the prospective client, your intuition should be telling you that the objections are fabricated. You can use comparisons to smoke this out. For example, if someone tells you how great your service is and how badly they need it, but then tells you it's too expensive later, you could say "I'm sorry...earlier you mentioned how you knew our service was top of the line and how much value it would bring your team, now you're saying it's too expensive. Am I missing something?" You are deferentially holding them accountable for their words and actions.
Conclusion
Building trust and understanding the perspective of decision-makers and middle parties can prevent many objections. Implement these techniques to build stronger relationships and navigate objections more effectively.