Objections on the phone can kill a conversation if you’re not prepared to handle them properly. But there’s a neat trick that you can use to improve your conversation rate with most prospects. 

The first step to handling ANY objection is agreeing with the prospect. This seems counterintuitive at first, doesn’t it? 

After all, the stereotypical salesperson is supposed to be pushy and aggressive, right? 

Not so much. The pushy sales approach doesn’t always produce results. In a business to business context, it’s hardly effective until you’ve built up some rapport with the prospect. Unless you’re aiming for busy executives to hang up on you. 

People are busy. And especially the executives that most cold callers in the B2B space are trying to connect with. 

Coming off too strong or aggressive is a great way to turn off a prospect – nobody likes being sold to, and when a rep gets too pushy on the phones we naturally clue in on what’s going on. We’re being pitched and we’ll be a “sucker” if we hear the rep out. 

That’s why it’s so important to flip that perception – by agreeing with your prospect once they’ve voiced an objection. 

Human psychology plays a part in explaining why it’s important to start by agreeing with the prospect; it’s a display of empathy. 

Nobody likes being cold called or pitched. The reflex is to try to get off the phones right away. When a prospect throws an objection at you, by disagreeing or trying to convince them that they’re wrong you’ll actually push them to double down on their opinion. Or if you’re too aggressive they’ll just hang up. 

Try something different – show that you understand the prospect’s objection by agreeing with them and expressing that their objection is a valid one. 

Chris Voss, best-selling author of Never Split the Difference, has a great term that applies here: Tactical Empathy. 

Here’s an example of how Tactical Empathy might sound on a cold call:

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Sales Rep: Hey, this is Sales Rep from MarTech Startup. I’m calling because I wanted to share how we can help you 3x your inbound leads with our automation tool. How important is inbound for you? 

Prospect: Sorry, we don’t really care about inbound right now. 

Sales Rep:  I completely understand. A lot of companies I’ve spoken with felt the same way before learning more about our solution. In their case, it was because they didn’t have the resources to implement other solutions. Can I ask – why isn’t inbound a priority for you? 

—

Three words with a very powerful impact:

“I completely understand.”

That one simple sentence is extremely powerful when used at the proper time. It disarms the prospect for a moment. It also positions you as being authentic. After all, you’re agreeing with what they’ve said. 

It turns off the “sleazy snake oil salesperson” alarm in the prospect’s mind, but keep in mind this is only temporary. That doubt will creep back in pretty fast, which is why it’s important to have something substantive to say afterwards. 

Try it out the next time you run into an objection on the phones!