Sales objections do not block your roads. It’s an invitation for you to listen better, dig deeper and show your prospect a future that they have never seen. Most tele sales callers engage with argument but the best one always understands.
People who work on telemarketing face sales objections regularly thrown by prospects everyday. Sales objections are an inevitable part of a telemarketer’s job. Once you master the art of handling sales objections, sales will come automatically as success.
What Are the 6 Most Common Types of Telemarketing Objections?
Telemarketing objection is the response or statement from a potential customer during a sales call indicating RESISTANT, HESITATION, or REFUSAL to engage with the product, service, or offer being presented.
More simply, the reason why respect does not say yes immediately to a telemarketers sales pitch is referred to telemarketing objections.
Objections are a natural part of the B2B telemarketing or sales process and often fall into categories such as:
1. Price Objections: The prospect feels the product or service is too expensive.
- Example Response: It is too costly for my budget.
2. Need Objections: The prospect believes they don’t need the product.
- Example Response: I don’t think I need this service right now.
3. Timing Objections: The prospect feels it is not the right time to buy or decide.
- Example Response: Maybe later. I am busy right now.
4. Authority Objections: The prospect cannot make the decision themselves.
- Example Response: I need to check with my manager/spouse first.
5. Trust or Credibility Objections: The prospect doubts the company, product, or telemarketer.
- Example Response: I don’t know your company. How can I be sure this works?
6. Product/Feature Objections: Concerns about specific features or benefits of the product.
- Example Response: I don’t think this will solve my problem.
Those are the most common types of objections raised on a telemarketing call. As a telesales agent your most important job is to handle them properly and make sales.
3 Core Principles for Handling Telemarketing Objections
Telemarketing is stil effective if you follow core principles for handling telemarketing objections include listening without interruption, acknowledge and validate and keep response and focused. Those are the 3 core principles that can help you directly handle telemarketing objections of a potential customer. Let’s discuss thoroughly how those principles impact your objection handling ability.
1. Listen Without Interrupting
When your prospect is speaking don’t interrupt them, because it may disrupt their flow of objections which impact identifying problems. What is the first rule of identifying the objection of a prospect?
It is listening to them carefully, note them down and then apply your skill set of experience to identify their pain point. Once you identify core problems, you are already halfway to the solution. When you identify the wrong issue it will cause a prospect loss and bad success rate.
2. Acknowledge and Validate
Once you have heard carefully to the objection of the prospect, you need to acknowledge that. You as an agent should say “I understand your concern” or “That makes sense” with sentences like this.
They truly understand how they feel showing empathetic voices and simple validation lowers the resistance and keeps the conversation open. Once your prospers will feel valued, heard and respected then they will be more likely to show interest in continuing the conversation.
3. Keep Responses Short and Focused
If you keep saying things your prospect may get annoyed because a prospect showing objection is normally in a good mood. So keep your response short and relatively focused on a solution based on the objection.
A clear concise answer shows confidence, resorts to the prospect’s time and prevents the creation of new objections.
6 Most Common Telemarketing Objections on Cold Calls with Handling Techniques
Outbound telemarketing objections can be different for each prospect but on a cold call you as an agent mostly will hear the below 6 objections. Let’s discuss them below.
1. I Am Not Interested
This is the most heard objection for a cold caller in the telemarketing industry. When a prospect says “I am not interested” then you need to handle this call more carefully. Let’s go through a real time sample.
Agent: Hi , John. This is Alex. Did I catch you at the wrong time?
Prospect: yes, i am not interested.
Agent: I understand John, most people say that before listening to me.
Prospect: not a joke, i am really busy now.
Agent: totally fair. just to be respectful, can i have just 20 seconds to explain why i called you specially?
Prospect: Okay make it quick.
Agent: Thank you. We help businesses like yours….
2. I Don’t Have Time
“I don’t have time” is also one of the most heard objections in a cold call. Let’s find out how you can handle this objection.
Agent: Hi , Sarah. This is Alex, calling from CallingAgency. Did I catch you at the wrong time?
Prospect: yes, i don’t have time.
Agent: Fair enough, I will keep it very brief, about 20 seconds.
Prospect: All right, go ahead.
Agent: Thank you. The reason I am calling is we…..
If the prospect is really busy and shows an objection like “Not Now” or “I Dont Have Time”, respect their time and end the call with a professional closing line.
3. Just Send Me an Email
“Just send me an email” is a potential objection if you handle it properly.
Agent: Hi Linda, this is Alex. I am calling from CallingAgency.
Prospect: Okay, just send me an email.
Agent: Okay I will send an email but just to make everything stay relevant, could you please tell me what is the biggest problem you are facing with business right now?
Prospect: Well, we are struggling to generate high quality leads recently.
Agent: I am sensing this is not the perfect time to talk. Can I ask you when is the best time to reach you for a quick 15 minute call to discuss how we can fix your problems that have already been done with businesses like yours?
Prospect: Maybe Thursday morning works for me.
4. How Did You Get My Number?
Once your cold call is picked, as an agent you stay excited to continue the conversation and try to book an appointment or collect email for further sales approach. In this situation when you hear the objection “How did you get my number?” you probably get embarrassed but if you have the right answer for this objection then you can handle it effectively.
Agent: Hi Mike, this is Alex. I am calling from CallingAgency. How are you today?
Prospect: Good. How did you get my number?
Agent: That’s a great question. We work with publicly available business directories and trusted data sources to connect with professionals in your industry who might benefit from our solution. I wanted to make sure you were aware of an option that’s been helping companies like yours
Prospect: Okay go ahead.
Agent: Thank you. If it’s alright, I can quickly share how we have …..
5. We Already Have a Provider
“We already have a provider” is one of the top 6 objections on this list because it’s often heard by cold callers.
Prospect: We already have a vendor
Agent: Totally understandable, most of our clients did too but this is not about replacing vendors. What are the areas your vendors fall short or could do better?
Prospect: Okay, their response and reporting is a bit slow.
Agent: We have solved a similar solution for XYZ company. If you want we can show you a demo that will not hamper your current operation.
6. Is This a Sales Call?
Lets see our last objection “Is this a sales call?”. The question can create confusion to a new cold caller but for a seasoned one, its regular for
Agent: Hi Samuel, this is Alex from CallingAgency. How are you today?
Prospect: Is this a sales call?
Agent: I understand why you would ask. I am not here to push anything on you. I am reaching out to share a quick overview of solutions that have helped businesses like yours. If it’s relevant we can explore the next step, if not no problem at all.
Prospect: Okay
Agent: Great just to make sure……
Once you start following a better cold callings script and apply them on live call regularly, the result will automatically respire itself. Collect feedback from every failure and hone yourself regularly.
Objections You Should Not Push Back on
There are some sensitive objections where you should not push back. If you do so, the result will be worse. Objections like “Do not call request” and aggressive or hostile responses like severe anger, or absolute, firm refusal, abusive language etc.
Do Not Call Requests
If your prospect asks you to remove their number from your directory and say to never call again then it’s better for you to remove the number. Cases like this can go worse to legal action or fines as well. It’s very important to remove that particular prospect’s number from the CRM or or prospect list and make sure nobody calls them back.
Aggressive or Hostile Responses
When a prospect expresses anger, uses abusive language, or gives an absolute refusal, do not argue or try to convince them. Respond politely, acknowledge their response, and end the call professionally. Engaging with hostility rarely converts the prospect and can harm your company’s reputation.
Conclusion
Handling an objection on a cold call takes time to learn. As an agent you should practice and keep notes on feedback from seniors. At the beginning, you can follow a high-converting cold calling script, once you get the psychology to handle those objections, then your success will come automatically for your personal career and company’s growth as well.
