Sales objection: “You’re a nice guy, but I won’t buy”
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Oct 17, 2011 @ 10:02 AM
Rachael, one of our blog readers, wrote this past week with a dilemma: “if the customer says to sales person ‘you seem like a nice guy and I would like to buy from you personally but Ii don't think that your company is worth it,’ what should the sales person think?” Every great sales person has heard that at least once, and in fact, this came up in a discussion in one of my inside sales training classes last week. So here’s my opinion on the subject of this common sales objection.
As I’m fond of saying, people only buy for one of two reasons: either your solution will make them money, or stop them from losing money. Being a nice guy (or gal) helps, but it’s secondary. I’ll bet your prospect doesn’t recognize a meaningful ROI (return on investment) from the solution your company offers. Your prospect is either going to base the decision on that, or will have to carry it to someone who will. If you haven’t read my free whitepaper on Selling By ROI, please download it, as it gives a great example of how to do it.
But to back up a bit, ask your prospect to explain why he or she feels your company isn’t worth it. It could be for a whole number of reasons, and it could fall under the categories of valid objection (you can’t do it), a misinterpretation, or a misunderstanding. If it’s the latter two, work to clear it up. But if it’s a valid objection, you’ll have to determine if what your solution lacks is a “need to have” or “nice to have.” This is a great opportunity of asking “open” questions (“tell me about,” “would you explain…?”), which help you to obtain meaningful information, rather than leading questions (“Is it because…?”), which much of the time gets you little of value, because you’re guessing. If your solution lacks a “need to have,” if you can’t successfully move it to a “nice to have,” you probably don’t have a sale.
Since the prospect likes you, I’ll bet he or she will tell you enough that it will become crystal clear. So remember to keep ROI in mind when you sell, and ask open questions to flush out what the prospect is thinking, and why. Add them to your Best Practices Playbook, and this particular sales dilemma will go away.