How to Handle Customer Objections when Making Cold Calls

Making a cold call on a new customer is hard. We all fear rejection; even those of us who have made lots of cold calls feel a certain amount of apprehension when it comes to making a new contact.

Yes, practice does make it easier, so does having a good script but ultimately we are going to have to face the high probability (almost certain) fact that our new cold call customer is going to have some objections either to speaking with us or to our product or service.

This will happen more times than it doesn’t, unfortunately even knowing this going into the call only helps a small amount. Even with the best cold call scripts we can find ourselves scrambling to save the call. Having a good idea of what the potential objections will be going into the call helps, but how else can we prepare for overcoming sales objections?

That is what we want to discuss with you today. How to handle Customer Objections when Making Cold Calls.

We touched on the first way already, make sure we have a list of potential objections we might face and have answers to them already worked out in our cold call script.

Ideally we want to have practiced getting objections with a partner before we start making live cold calls. This is one of the most important things we can do when it comes to efficiently handling a customer objection during a cold call.

Let’s talk about some specific objections and how you might address them. I am going assume you are a service provider in my examples but you can easily reword to make it work for a product.

“Your service is too expensive.”

There are a couple of ways you can address this. First of all, I like to find out “how too expensive” the customer things it is. Sometimes, you are not a good fit for a particular customer. Assuming we are in the ball park I like to focus on ways my service is different from any the customer is comparing me to. Do I provide additional benefits or is my service record simply better than my competitors. Before you can determine if something is really more expensive you have to make sure you are talking about the same services and level of customer service.

“Right now we aren’t really looking to make any changes.”

This is a fairly frequent sales objection and is probably just the customer telling you they do not want to deal with you right now. If that is it, tell them you will call them back in a month or so.

However, if the customer will allow you to stay on the call with them a few more minutes you should try and let them know how your service or level of service stands out from what they are used to. Perhaps you can save them money or have additional services tied into your base service they are not aware of.

Don’t be too pushy but try to get part of your sales pitch in before you hang up.

“I don’t have time to speak with you today”

Don’t push on this one, just apologize and tell them you will give them a call back on Thursday (or whatever day you choose). It is important that you start out by telling them when you will call back instead of asking when you should call back. However, if they say the day you mentioned won’t work, then ask them when would be a good time to call back.

“Just send me an email and I will call you back”

If this is the first thing your prospect says it is probably a brush off. That’s OK, get their email address and send them information about your service, BUT tell them you will call them back next week instead of leaving it to them to call you back.

Worst case, you have their email address and can make follow up inquires by email to them so always take the email address. Remember however, emails rarely make sales, you need to make follow up calls.

“I will let you know soon”

Try to find out what ‘soon’ means, but don’t be rude. This might be also might be a brush off so try to set a follow up date for a call with your prospect. If this is an initial call and you don’t have the prospects email address this is a good time to ask for it. Emails might not typically make sales but they can keep you in front of your prospect between calls.

These are just a few examples; you will come across a lot more as you make cold calls. Sales objections are the norm, not the exception. Every time you hear a new cold call sales objection, add it to your list and devise a response to it so you are ready next time.

Every call and every sales objection improves your ability as a cold caller. Keep practicing and keep adding to your cold call education. Sooner than you think you will get good at them.

Of course, I still don’t like being rejected. That is human nature. Just keep working on it.