This episode kicks off Season 2 of Inbound Sales Journey.
This season, we will be digging into specific objections that surface when selling inbound services.
Season 2 Begins!
Objection: “How Do I Know That Inbound is Worth the Investment for Our Company?”
Inbound is quickly gaining steam. Still, however, a common objection your prospects will have revolves around value.
You have to understand where this objection stems from to knock it off its feet. And once you do that, you have to be able to convey the value of inbound properly.
What the Prospect Is Actually Saying
The value objection is often heard early on in the sales process. In most cases, there’s no malice involved. The prospect genuinely wants to understand the value of inbound marketing for their company.
Most people do a fair bit of research before engaging with an agency. They form opinions and come into the conversation with preconceived ideas about inbound marketing.
What they are actually saying at this moment is that they have done some research. They acknowledge inbound marketing as a legitimate strategy for “some” companies. They just aren’t sure it will be worth the monetary investment for them.
Look at it from their perspective. There are no guarantees, it’s a new approach, and if it is unsuccessful, their job is on the line.
How to Approach This Objection
Most agency owners and salespeople want to jump right into the magic of inbound marketing. They want to share all of their past successes and case studies and why inbound marketing is the best.
Stop. Don’t go down that road right away.
Here is why. This is not the real objection. This is one of the most common and broad objections you will ever face. The way to approach it is to dig deeper.
Disarm the prospect by saying something they are not expecting. Something like, “Well, Bob, I am not sure it is the right investment for you either. There is more information I need to know before making a suggestion either way.”
Now the prospect knows two things:
- You are listening
- You care about their specific situation.
Now you have positioned yourself to get to the heart of the real concerns.
The Questions You Should Be Asking
Now it’s time to dig in and “twist the knife” to find the real pain the prospect is feeling.
Questions Around Goals:
This is an excellent time to ask questions about the company's goals. Not just short-term one or two-month goals. Dive into long-term six to twelve months goals and beyond.
If prospects can’t see beyond the next month or two, they are not a good fit.
Questions Around Process:
The second place to begin asking questions around is their sales process. How are their buyers going through the process of buying their product or service? What type of marketing are they doing now to help them through that journey?
Questions Around Company Culture and Buy-In:
At this point, let’s assume that they are long-term goal focused. Let’s also assume we feel confident that Inbound would be a good fit for their company and growth goals.
The discussion around culture and buy-in must be discussed early in your agency’s sales process. Ask questions about how their team works. What is prompting the search for a new solution? Is the marketing team just looking to mix it up, or has the c-suite asked them to make changes?
Be Upfront Early
We as agency owner’s and sales people need to be sure upfront that the time we spend selling is time well spent. If the prospect on the other end of the phone is the only one in the entire company interested in inbound, that’s a problem. If other members of that organization are not willing to hop on a call with us, that’s a problem.
Let the prospect know, if there isn’t a high level of commitment from within their company, inbound will not be worth the investment. Honestly, it’s as simple as that.
Be Solution Minded
Now you can begin to transition into the conversation about how you help them. Break down your process into a level they understand. Take the knowledge you’ve gained about what their real pain is and explain how your process helps ease that pain.
Awesome Tool:
We developed an Inbound Revenue Calculator which helps prospects understand the impact of inbound.
We have had requests from other agencies asking if we could also build this tool for them to use.
We recently announced that we have launched this tool as a new product through ZenPilot.
How to Connect with Ryan and Gray
Twitter:
