Sometimes people say "no." Great for the existence of free will, anti-smoking campaigns and getting television abominations like "Dads" cancelled, but not always good for your bottom line. It should go without saying that that little two-letter word can be bad for business, and yet here we are talking about it. Why?
Because in sales, the word "no" doesn't have to be final.
See, behind every "no" is a reason—an excuse even—and those are rarely ironclad. If you can beat the excuse, you can make the sale.
1. "Sorry, but it's just not in the budget."
Sometimes, "it's not in budget" is an honest admission of a company not having the money to pay for your services. Other times, it's a failure of creativity and budget-understanding on the client's part—two problems you can help them solve. As Bob Schwei, director of print and packaging for iPROMOTEu, Wayland, Mass., explained, the key to beating a tight budget is understanding it, especially how it was calculated and how funds are allocated throughout the year. He said that if an order can be looked at as a potential revenue stream, rather than just a marketing expense or similar cost, many times people's objections on a purchase will change.
Schwei also said that on the print side, many times a budget is dictated on the frequency it's bought instead of a one-time purchase. "Many times, when there are alternative choices to buy the same print work, just in a different frequency, this can be a work-around where the budget is concerned," he said. "For example, Print ABC was awarded a 500,000-piece run because they worked out a warehouse release program where the print was printed on-demand and billed on release, versus the traditional method of paying for the entire run upfront. Let creativity help dictate where the budget really falls."
2. "Sorry, but you're just too expensive."
"You're just too expensive" might sound a lot like "it's not in our budget," but there's a subtle difference: Here, the client is saying the problem is with you, not them. As a result, beating this excuse requires a different approach.
Bruce Felber, MAS, director of marketing and sales support for The Image Group, Holland, Ohio, suggested getting the client to consider its objective. "I would circle them back to 'What's the objective and what are you trying to do?'" he said. "Because expense is relative, and in marketing, it should never be an expense. It should be an investment," he explained. "It shouldn't cost you marketing dollars, it should make you money. It's an investment."
Felber explained that if a client is asked to consider its goals along with its budget, it may realize that budget is unrealistically small. Then, the client may allocate more money to the project or shrink its goals and go with a smaller order.
Patricia Gaffney, owner of RainMaker Sales Support, St. Louis, had another suggestion. "Sometimes you need to let your prospect try their cheaper choices," she said. "But check in on them. Usually you really do get what you pay for. Stay friendly, and when they have tried the others, and you are still chatting with them, they will realize your worth," she explained. "I'm always respectful, telling them that we know we aren't the cheapest, but our quality sets us apart, and that I understand their dilemma. Ask if it's OK to follow up in six months or so, and see how things are going. Become their consultant, even."
3. "Sorry, I'm just not interested in your services."
"I'm not interested," can be one of the more perplexing objections a prospect may give you, considering that if you're contacting a client, it's likely that you did your due diligence and researched the company, so you know it buys print and/or promotional products. So why, then, would they say they don't?
It could be them just giving you a quick brush-off, or it could be an easier way of saying they're happy with their current vendor. Felber pointed out another interesting and plausible option—that they've had a bad experience with buying print or promotional items in the past.
"Sometimes they say they're not interested because they've had a bad experience with promotional products," he said. "Somebody sold them something, and either A) didn't tell them how to use the product, or B) didn't tell them what to do with it. I run into clients or potential clients who go, 'Oh we don't buy promotional products, they're too expensive and end up just sitting on a shelf,' and I go, 'Well, why are they on your shelf?' They'll say, "Cause they're too expensive to hand out,' and I'll go 'Well, you've invested in them, they're not doing you any good sitting on a shelf!"
For prospects who have this attitude, Felber recommended talking to them about the expectations they had for the items they purchased, what their goals were, and how the two can be combined without creating a similar letdown.
4. "I'd love to, but my boss is against it."
The "it's my boss's fault" excuse can mean a number of sales-killing things, all of which are frustratingly concealed behind a veneer of "not my fault, nothing I can do" attitude. To get past this excuse, you have to find out why the boss is against it.
"Believe me, we hear a lot of that," said Felber. "But if they say, 'The boss is against it,' you've got to find out the reason. Sometimes there's nothing you can do," he said, noting that if the client has a vendor relationship with someone who's a friend or a relative, sometimes that's the end of the conversation.
Other times though, there's a little more wiggle room. "One of the things people say is, 'We have a preferred vendor.' My answer is, 'That's great, I'm glad you have a preferred vendor. I'm also a preferred vendor to several clients, and I think it's a great position and it's good for everybody, but that doesn't mean there isn't room to suggest something new or something different,'" he said. "You know, if the boss is against it, you may never get the shot at it. But you've got to find out why."
5. "Sorry, but I prefer your competition."
A client using the word "competition," might be a stretch, but you get the idea. They loving buying print and they love buying promos—just not from you. What do you do then?
"Always compliment the vendor they are using, calling them a valued competitor," said Gaffney. "Tell your client that you respect vendor loyalty, and hope to one day gain that same loyalty. Then ask if you can touch base again in six months, or a year, to see if anything has changed."
Felber offered another solution. "Ask, 'Why do they prefer them?' he said. "What are they doing better? Is it price, is it quality, is it service?"
"I have a client that I've had for not quite three years," he said. "It took months and months to get in. Finally he saw me. We had a good thing. We started out doing small orders. I knew I had competition in there, and come the beginning of the year when it was time to do his annual purchase review, he goes, 'I wanted to let you know I fired your competitor. You're now my No. 1 guy.' I said, 'That's great!" But I said, "Can I ask why you got rid of the other guy? They're a reputable company. You liked the guy.' He said 'They stopped being creative, and they stopped responding. They weren't responsive enough,'" explained Felber. "I'm glad I asked, because if I don't answer their calls enough, or their quotes, or I don't give them my creativity, I'm going to be out also."