280 - Handling Objections - Is This You?

0:00In the past couple of weeks I've talked about fear, procrastination, overcoming those things. and if you have not done it, I would highly recommend you get either the book or the audio version, which is incredibly inexpensive, of The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. The feedback I've gotten from people that have done that has been fantastic. But today I want to talk about the sales process and specifically handling objectives. So in terms of the sales process, the simplest thing that I could tell you is first you have to understand what is it that you want to buy. We're talking about business acquisition.

0:43So you ought to have your acquisition criteria clear. If you're a hunter, you know what you're going to hunt, when you're going to do it, the do's and don'ts of what you're allowed to take in terms of game, etc., etc. This is similar to that in that you ought to know what your criteria is so you don't waste time talking to prospects that are not within what you want. Okay, so hopefully you have done that. You know what it is you're hunting for. Two, the simplest way I can explain what a sale is, you have to identify a need in the prospect and then you have to be able to provide a solution to that need and you have to be able to convince that prospect that you're the best solution to that.

1:37So let's talk about that a little bit. A lot of people are terrified, like a deer in headlights that freezes when they get an objection. Most of the time, objections are a call for tell me more. Now, there's people who talk about hammer closes, and there's certainly hammer closes that work. In terms of the acquisition criteria, I 100 % agree with that. You ought to know what you're going for. If it doesn't fit the criteria, move on, certainly. And so that is a perfect example of that. If you have something that you know is going to sell today, hammer close works fine in that. The car is going to leave the lot today one way or another.

2:26Do you want it or not? There's some things that are a little different in this process the way I look at it. And that is you are going to be in business with this person. So you want to know something about this person. You want to know what it's going to be like to work. One of the things that I've said a lot, and it is absolutely true, is the hardest part of this process is running the business. And if you are partnered with the wrong person, that is going to make it infinitely harder. So you also want to get a feel for that. You want to generate some trust along the way as well. So that's going to require you to ask some questions, to look at some financials, to understand what it is you're potentially buying.

3:11can you work with this person do the financials of this stack up that you want to buy it you do not want to buy yourself a job so that you end up doing an acquisition but you end up spending all your time in it not working on it important you don't want to be running this business you want to manage those that do run it so we understand what our criteria is we understand what we're looking for, we're contacting those people, we're talking to them about as quickly as possible, are they looking to do something in terms of a transition, selling the business, etc. Most of the people you're going to hunt for are older and they're looking for a transition into retirement over the upcoming years.

4:02That's going to be your target market. Occasionally, will you find someone in the 20-something or 30-something that wants to grow more quickly? Yes. But most of the time, it's finding someone who wants to transition out of the business. So ask that question. Ask, you know, what have you thought about the transition? The more you can get them to talk and you listen, the better off you are. In a perfect world, what would that process look like? Let them talk about that, certainly. most of the time, if you are explaining, you are losing. And so remember that. You're trying to convince someone when you're explaining.

4:46So if you hear, well, I don't think that is going to work, one of the best questions you can ask in terms of all of those type of circumstances, if you're talking about seller finance, well, I don't think that works. Ask, how do you know that? Most of the time the answer will be they do not know that. So you can take that objection and put it aside. You will get asked questions about your team, how this process is going to work, what have you done previously. All those things are valid questions from someone who is looking to sell the business and wants to make sure that they're selling it to the right person.

5:29so there's nothing strange about that there's no nothing strange about you getting questions again you know one of the things that is super important is that you have go no-go gauges and by that that's a manufacturing term where you actually use gauges to measure apart a go means that it's okay no-go means it's not okay you should have the same things Chris Voss talked about an accusation audit when you're talking to people and you're getting objections write those objections down hopefully you'll be able to handle them on the call there's nothing wrong with getting back to somebody to answer a question but more importantly than that you'll begin to develop a list of objections that you have answers for through the process You're going to have some issues.

6:24You're going to have some problems. Some of these won't work out, but you will get better as you go through this process. So understand that. And then one of the things in terms of closing is that they may raise the issue of price, how long they're going to work, et cetera, et cetera, most of the time. So if you run into that situation and can ask the question, okay, so if we were to agree on price, is there any other reason why this wouldn't make sense for you? And if you get an answer of yes, there's also bing, bing, bing, then you have to go through that process. If you get an answer which is no, if we could agree on price, I like what I've heard, there's no other reason why I wouldn't want to do this.

7:11okay so then take that issue and solve that problem and if they're telling you the truth that doesn't always happen you've already identified no there's no other reason other than price where i wouldn't want to do this deal so then they have to lie to you and say well you know i've thought about it and there is another reason but it's a great technique to use on that So remember, just in summary here, objections are usually a cry for tell me more, that the people are in fact interested. You want your acquisition criteria to be clear. You want to know what you're hunting for. If it fits, continue.

7:51If it doesn't fit, remember that go, no go. Move on to the next one. Your job is not to convince somebody that you want them to do something they don't want to do. You're trying to find motivated sellers, and most of the time that's going to be older people that are transitioning out. And then go through that process. Remember when you're explaining you're losing. Let the other person talk more. And then for every call you make, have an exact desired outcome. What is it that you want to have occur? And did you schedule that such that you attained it? and most of the time that's going to be to have another call, especially after the initial one.

8:32So make it clear what it is you want when you hang up the phone or get off the Zoom call or whatever it is. What's the next step? Okay, there's a lot to selling. You're going to get an email tomorrow from me which deals with a lot more on that subject. But if you're looking for ways in which to start conversations, go over to BruceWhipple.com. Get the free conversation starters course if you want to go there directly, just brucewhipple.com forward slash free course. But a lot of people, when they get an objection, get scared, don't know how to answer it, fold their tent and go home, and remembering that it's usually a call for tell me more and you will get better at handling objections is important if you're going to be successful in this process.