Sales objections happen all the time but with the health crisis today, it’s a standing question of how the pandemic may impact your customer’s sales objections or how it has already impacted them. Join Donald Kelly and Chris Mele as they talk about the pandemic, customers, and sales objections. Being in a software company means that the people you’re working with are former executives from other software companies as well. It’s a very complex environment and so people are critical of the academic principles and the things they adopt because there are real things that work for a software company and there are those that don’t. For Chris Mele’s experience, how they price, package, and license their technology has a direct connection to the sales force. The impact of the pandemic on sales objections One of the biggest changes is the aversion to risks and this comes in many different forms. Buyers today are more risk-averse, especially when it comes to new relationships. Salespeople and companies start seeing the transaction size compress. People are no longer very keen on allocating cash. With the pandemic, people are more stressed and thus more uncertain. It’s a tough selling environment. Unless you’re in the industry where you’re selling tools such as Zoom and other related tools. Why are there objections? Price isn’t the only reason people aren’t buying. There are many companies today that offer premium prices that are doing well. There are a few companies that raised their prices and while they have fewer customers coming in, they’ve been able to isolate who they’re serving and they’re able to substantiate that premium value. Salespeople can destabilize the deal when you use word nuggets around the pricing, implying flexibility, at the early stages of the sales dialogue. Handling objections In the B2B perspective, there are many things that you can do outside of the price that you are charging. If people aren’t buying because of the price then you need to start evaluating your offer. Ask yourself what it is you’re offering and if you need to offer all of that. If you can offer just half of it then do so. Never look at your cost, instead, look at the value that you’re offering. Figure out what it is that you’re offering and the people to whom you’re offering. Make sure that you can name them. You may have a mix of customers you’re selling to pre-COVID and this group may include big and small enterprises. With the pandemic, you are losing some of these customers so it’s critical that you become very specific to the people you’re offering your products to. Even if the company falls down, you as the salesperson can still adopt. You may see the need to change the pricing a little bit or create your own little rules. The challenge here is to make sure that each salesperson isn’t changing the landscape entirely. Even when a customer meets two sales reps from the same company, their core offer and pricing should be the same. Pricing is an important part of the dialogue because it represents money that’s being invested. Sales reps have to be transparent and be upfront about the pricing early on the sales dialogue. “Objections: How the Pandemic May Impact Your Customer’s Sales Objections” episode resources Follow Chris Mele on LinkedIn. You can also check more of his books and activities on his website. Speak with Donald directly for more sales talks. Reach him via these channels: LinkedIn, Instagram,

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