In sales, knowing the difference between an objection and a heckle is critical. Here’s how to tell when you are being heckled and how to handle it. And have some fun in the process…
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As sellers, we have to learn the difference between an objection and a heckle.
So what is an objection? Is it simply a question that comes at an appropriate time in the sales cycle that is legitimately related to what you’re talking about? It could be a concern about a feature or a benefit that maybe you haven’t shown.
It could be a concern about an integration that they need to make sure works or compatibility issue.
It could be a concern about pricing when you’re in the middle of a proposal.
Or it could be a concern about how you rank against competitors or what your relationship and reputation are.
But generally, objections are real objections when they come in an appropriate time in the conversation.
A heckle, on the other hand, a heckle is something that’s designed to throw you off guard, and usually in almost 99% of the cases, they’re done when a customer asks you what your price is too early in the sales cycle.
So we’ve got salespeople who face objections where they just point…
Sales reps show up on to a dealer’s yard and they point out a tractor or a truck or a car or a piece of heavy equipment.
They’re like, how much is that? It’s too early in the sales cycle.
You don’t even know what they need.
Or when you’re making an initial call to a customer and they say, well, what are your what’s your pricing? How much is this going to cost me? And you haven’t even understood if there’s a need.
Those are heckles and they’re designed to throw you off your game and you have to handle them very differently…
maybe even have a little bit more fun.
So I’ll give you some examples of what some of my clients have used very effectively to get the conversation back on track.
One in the case of heavy equipment, trucking, farm equipment, a few of my customers, when they’re faced with that, does that cost?” The sales reps, my customers, say, “Well, that depends on how much I like you by the time we get to my office.” And it causes people to relax and joke and usually the prospect is like, yeah, kind of a stupid question.
I have a customer in the industrial, liquid industrial energy oil and gas market, and when he’s asked how much does that cost, he says, “I’m glad you asked because if I’m I do my job right, this won’t cost you anything at all.” He truly believes that his product is going to help his customers save that much money.
One of my favorites on the B2B side, especially on the software side, when someone asks you too early, how much is this going to cost? world) is to just give them a huge range.
with customers who spend anywhere from $100 a month with us to $1 million a month for us.
I’m not sure right now…” and just let that sit.
You know what it causes customers to say? Well, I certainly didn’t want to spend but it helps to level set the conversation.
Or you can hit it dead on by just saying, It’s way too early in the conversation for us to be talking about price.” Or you could also say, as one of my clients does, “Hey, I’m excited that you’re ready to buy.
Shall we talk about what a contract might look like?” That gets a customer client quite fast if it’s too early in the sales cycle.
So recognize that a heckle is designed to throw you off your mark and come up with some pre-planned answers that defuze the situation, allow you how to have a bit of fun, and allow the customer to recognize that that wasn’t a smart question to ask at an appropriate time in the sales cycle.
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