First, acknowledge the objection and don’t take it personally – it has nothing to do with you.  Remember that selling happens when people are in rapport.  If you ignore a valid objection, you are not in rapport with that person.  Many salespeople see this as an opportunity for debate about the validity of the objection.  (“If you think we’re too expensive, then you haven’t done your homework.”)  It is not.  It is also not a reason to validate the objection, thus letting them off the hook.  (“You’re right.  We are too expensive.”)  Instead, it is an opportunity to acknowledge the objection.  (“I hear what you’re saying, and it’s not unusual for someone to have that response when they first hear about this.”)  Then, redirect them away from their objection and back to their need – their biggest need, the one that is tied to their mission and vision.  (“Let’s look at your long-term outcome again, and see if we can get some clarity about the value of hitting your goals.”)

If you don’t know the long-term outcome, there’s only one reason.  You didn’t ask.  If you didn’t ask, then you are not enrolled in your prospect’s ultimate goals, and you have no right pretending to be a partner.

If you do spend time listening and asking questions about their ultimate mission or “ends need,” then you will be able to align with your prospects as a partner.  You will acknowledge their objections and redirect the conversation back to solving their ends need.

The danger is that most people use demos, presentations and collateral as a substitute for having a well thought-out and well executed sales strategy.

PowerPoint can be one of the single most effective communication tools, but it is misused by 80-90% of people using it.  I won’t get into how to use PowerPoint, but rather how not to use it.  Demos, PowerPoint and collateral all have the same problem: salespeople try to sell using them.  The purpose of demos, PowerPoint and collateral is not to garner a “yes.”  The purpose of demos, PowerPoint and collateral should be to avoid a “no.”

There are very few businesses in the B-2-B space that are going to be able to sell based on the effectiveness of their presentation demo or collateral.

Not only is it a waste of time to try to do so, it’s a waste of money.  There is a high cost associated with using these tools as a substitute for sales skills – especially collateral.  Salespeople who freely pass around collateral are not being good stewards of the company’s assets.  Some of the collateral is a couple of bucks to 10 bucks a pop.  Every time you hand it out in lieu of having a legitimate conversation, you are acting in fear of having that conversation, and wasting time, opportunity and money.  My principle is: collateral goes out after the conversation, never before.  Even to the point where somebody says to me, “Can you send me something?”  My answer is, typically, “No, I don’t know what to send you, but I also want to find out what you need from us.”

With all the technology available today, it is becoming too easy to substitute demos, PowerPoint and collateral for sound selling skills.  There’s a right time and a right place for these tools.  But the key is to use them to avoid the “no,” and not to get the “yes.”

Traditionally, the gatekeeper has been a secretary, receptionist or some other live person.  Although these roles still exists, the majority of the gatekeepers today are not people.  Modern gatekeepers are voice mail and caller i.d.

Something else you need to know is that there is no clear-cut technique for getting past the gatekeeper.  I’ll share with you two stories of two clients who have very strict rules around returning calls.

First, we have the owner of a large telecom company.  His rule is that he will not return a call from a vendor until they’ve left three messages.  Why?  He wants to see tenacity, follow-through and he wants to see somebody who’s hungry.

The second client – a division leader for a consulting company – had a different rule.  He says, “If I see your caller i.d. come up, and you do not leave a message, you will never get a call back.  Furthermore, if you do leave a message, and then I see your caller i.d. show up before I’ve had a chance to return the call, you will never get a call back.  I will return my calls on my terms, not yours.”

The old technique was to call before 9AM and call after 5PM and never leave a message.  Well, that wouldn’t work for either of these two prospects. 

You see, there is no clear-cut, one-size-fits-all technique.  But you do have some basic principles available to you:

1) Know your outcome.  The outcome of getting past the gatekeeper is nothing more than getting past the gatekeeper.  It’s not to sell your product.  It’s not to do anything but get past the gatekeeper, by whatever means necessary.
2) The gatekeeper is your friend.  This gets to mindset.  You have to have a belief system around getting past the gatekeeper.  Some of the best people around this look at it as a game or a challenge as opposed to a necessary evil or some other disempowering belief.
3) Less is more.  The most effective voice message to get a call back is very short and very powerful.  I say, “Hey, this is Jason.  Got a couple questions for you.  Call me at _____.”  You’re not mentioning company name.  You’re not mentioning intention.  But because your objective is to get past the gatekeeper, this approach is going to get you past the gatekeeper more than any.  Is that going to irritate some people?  Yes!  But there is no one-size-fits-all.

If you follow these basic principles, you will have more of your phone messages returned, and you will get past more gatekeepers.

The amount of knowledge that you can generate by being interested will put you in position to ultimately sell these folks. 

How does it work?  Well, what’s the first thing that anybody says to you at a networking event?  They say, “What do you do?”  The way I respond is to say, “I run a company that helps grow other companies’ sales faster than they could do it on their own.  But tell me about XYZ company that you’re with.”

So if they open up by asking you what you do, give them the value statement and quickly turn it back to them.  After all, they don’t really care what you do anyway.  All they want to do is talk about themselves, so let them talk.

What you find out is their non-verbal communication style, their needs, their desires, and everything that you can use to position yourself to go forward.  All you need to do is give them enough intrigue that they think that you could be valuable to them down the road, without telling them exactly what you do.

It’s the same concept as collateral material.  You do not want to give them enough information to say “no.”  You want to whet their appetite with just enough information so that they will say, “I’m interested in hearing more.”

The first rule is: know what your outcome is.  Your outcome is simply to get them to agree to sit down to a meeting.  Create intrigue and establish yourself as a good listener, and, chances are, you’ll be setting appointments at every networking event.

The key with dealing with hard-ballers is the give-get. There has got to be “give” for them to say yes, since that’s what they’re demanding, but there has to be “get” on your end, if you are to have any chance at being an enroller. If they know they can just steam-roll you, they are going to steamroll you every single time. Instead, set up the parameters. Tell the hard-baller, “OK, I will give you this concession, but what I need back is …” – and name your demand.

Let me give you an example. Company A is a law firm. The managing partner comes back to me, after getting my proposal, and says, “All right. There are three provisions that we need to talk about. The first provision is the late fees, assessed at 2% if we’re late. We’re much more comfortable with them being assessed at 1.5%. Second, we are not paying the retainer at the beginning of the month. We’re paying it at the end of the month, the way law firms do, and we’re not going to pay it over two months. We’re going to pay it over 3 months. And third, your 60-day termination policy is not something we’re comfortable with. If we’re going to fire you, we’ll fire you, and we’ll negotiate what the appropriate pay for past services will be.”

The strategy to use is, deal with the one you can agree with, first. For us, the late fee was easy. We could care less about the half a percentage point. So, OK, buddy, you got that one. This is important in setting up the first perameter. Then I went after the second point, which was going to be the most contentious, but probably not the most important to us, which was the terms. He was adamant about this issue, whereas I saw it as just a billing issue. I had a spirited discussion with him about why we get paid up front, but he said, “We’re just not going to do it.” I said, “OK, fine, but I’m not comfortable in doing it over three months. We’ll be paid over two months.” He said, “I’m not comfortable with that.” I said, “Look, I will give you the end of the month, instead of up-front, but I need to get it in two installments, not three.” He reluctantly said, “Fine.”

Then we got to the most important one to me, the termination clause. So we had already set the precedent of some give, and also some get. I think he probably knew what I was doing. So he stood on the table and went on this long soliloquy about how fairly he will treat us if he fires us. I said, “That’s great. We’re just not going to drop the termination clause. But I will give you 30 days instead of 60 days, but that is the absolute shortest time frame.” He said, “Fine.”

So, deal with the easy one first. Deal with the most contentious, second. And the one that’s most important to you, third, after there has already been a precedent set for give-get.

I was guest lecturing at Loyola’s MBA program, and someone asked a question about B-to-G (business-to-government) sales.  I said we don’t spend a ton of time develop sales plans and sales structures in that space because it’s a different sale.  It’s all based on relationships.  In government sales, government contractors are very relationship-driven. much more than B-to-B or B-to-C sales.

“That’s ludicrous.  That’s absurd,” said a woman in the audience, who told us she worked in procurement.  “There’s no relationships in government contracting.  It’s all in the RFP.”

I said, “How long have you been there?”

“A couple of months.”

I said, “I’m not trying to tell you that the world’s not exactly the idealistic world that you think it is, but I am going to tell you that government sales is the most relationship-driven, and if you have not known about or secured the deal before the RFP goes out, you ain’t got a shot.”