Sales Objection Handling:
Goliath Technologies Objection Handling Strategy:
Objections are always part of the sales process and they come in a number of forms throughout the process of selling a deal within your time frame. The most valuable tools we have in handling sales objections are listening, understanding and knowledge of our products capabilities relative to other solutions on the market.
Contrary to popular belief, usually held only by sales people, if one is convincing enough one can overcome any objection. In our business and company, the questions you ask, and not the conviction of your arguments, will offer you the best opportunity for success. This, when used with proper applications of the sandler sales methodology will allow you to determine if there is reason to move forward.
We are sales people and not interpreters so the key is to “ask the direct question” rather than draw conclusions from what someone says.
Below are some common questions to ask. Not all are appropriate for each objection but select the ones that are for your specific interaction.
Objection: Oh, so your product doesn’t…
Representative:
- It sounds like this an issue, can you tell me why? (often times a technical person will not have an issue but rather just ask out of curiosity and then say, in response to a question, “no just asking”.)
- How would the lack of this feature impact your business? You?
- Is this also an issue now with your current solution? If so, how are you managing this?
- It sounds like this is a show stopper. Should we just close the file and say we don’t have a workable solution for you?
- Is this issue one you can live with if everything else checks out?
- Is this something, that if we put in another release so you could have in the future? Would this be workable?
- Objection: I’m already using freeware for my monitoring needs…
- We have a saying around here that we solve problems and resolve pain. If you don’t have any pain, there’s probably no reason to speak. If you have two minutes, I can tell you about the products we have and the problems we solve. If at the end of the two minutes, you don’t have any interest; I’ll respect your decision, and continue my efforts elsewhere. Sound fair?
- IF NO:(many times they aren’t the person responsible for monitoring)
- Just so I understand, are you the person responsible for monitoring virtual servers, physical servers, and networks?
- Is there any particular reason you’re not interested in speaking?
What is it that you’re monitoring? Who are you using? Is there anything you’d like to change? Why?
- Is there anyone else you can put me in touch with that is responsible for monitoring part of the infrastructure?
- IF YES:
- Generally, our solution can help people address one of a few challenges:
Reducing time identifying root cause and remediating performance issues because we have one product monitors the entire environment from one console
Proactive Monitoring by configuring thresholds, alerts and fix actions a threshold is breached simultaneously an alert is triggered and afix action also kicks off.
Virtual Server, application and OS monitoring in one product
Virtual Desktop Monitoringof user session data - both current and historical – and also surrounding infrastructure such as SQL Database, windows infrastructure, storage and servers
- Of what I just mentioned, which might be the most interesting to you?
- Can you tell me why you picked that one?
- Can you tell me a little more about it?
- How long have you experienced challenges in this area?
- Have you done anything to address the situation?
- IF NONE:
- Just so I understand, are you the person responsible for monitoring virtual servers and desktops? (confirm that they are the person responsible for monitoring and what part of the infrastructure since virtual servers, desktops, physical servers can all be different people in large companies). There are few Freeware products for virtual servers and desktops.
- PILLAR to those aspects of infrastructure they aren’t responsible for monitoring
- Objection 2:We don’t use monitoring…
- If monitoring hasn’t been a priority for you then maybe there is nothing for us to talk about—Pause… See if they react. If you are the person responsible for monitoring the virtual and physical infrastructure and you don’t use monitoring, is there any reason to speak further?
- IF NO:
- Just so I understand,you are the person responsible for monitoring virtual servers and virtual desktop infrastructure? (Usually they are not. We don’t want to sell someone on the benefits of monitoring. Only someone who is monitoring and needs a product)
PILLAR—we provide value to many companies like yours—pick a vertical—is there someone I might be able to speak with that would find value in our solution?
- IF YES:
- Why? Pain Qualification Questions
- Generally, when I speak with people who aren’t monitoring their environments, we can help them out in one of a few ways:
Risk: Reduce risk of outages that result in lost data, productivity, or revenue – ensuring application availability
Provide visibility across entire infrastructure: Provide visibility into your physical and virtual environments, including applications, networks, workstations and storage
Identify and fix problems quickly: Improve the time to resolution should an issue arise
Service levels: Ensure you’re hitting your service levels – which results in happy end-users.
Cost: Reduce cost associated with outages, lost productivity, and remediation.
- Of what I just mentioned, which of the benefits is most interesting to you?
- Can you tell me why you picked that one?
- Can you tell me a little more about it?
- How long have you experienced challenges in this area?
- Have you done anything to address the situation?
- IF NONE:
- IF NOTHING:
It sounds like we’ve got nothing to offer you in terms of helping you out. Perhaps we should shake hands and part friends.
- PILLAR
- Objection:We’re already monitoring using various tools… We use X for networks, Y for servers, Z for workstations… We can’t find one solution that does everything we want so we’ve invested in different tools
- If you are happy with your current monitoring solutions and don’t want to consolidate, maybe there is nothing for us to discuss. If you give me a few minutes, I can share with you how we might be able to consolidate these tools and from there, we can determine whether or not it makes sense for you and I to discuss further. Is that a fair way to proceed?
- IF NO:
- Just so I understand, if you were to consolidate, would you be the person to speak with?
- Is there any particular reason you’re not interested in speaking?
IF NO PAIN, MOVE ON…
- IF YES:
- Our product is selected for consolidation for a number of reasons:
One Product and one console to monitor the entire physical and virtual infrastructure
Proactive Monitoring by configuring thresholds, alerts and fix actions a threshold is breached simultaneously an alert is triggered and a fix action also kicks off.
Easy to use so one can deploy our product to all elements within the environment so the replacement time and energy isn’t painful .
Cost as we are usually 50% less than most solutions
- Of what I just mentioned, which might be the most interesting to you?
- Can you tell me why you picked that one?
- Can you tell me a little more about it?
- How long have you experienced challenges in this area?
- Have you done anything to address the situation?
- IF NONE:
- Just so I understand, are you the person responsible for monitoring virtual servers and virtual desktops?
- IF NOT:
- PILLAR TO OTHER AREAS THEY DON’T MANAGE
- Objection: I’m already using HP/Compuware/Legacy Vendor X for my monitoring needs…
- If you are happy with your monitoring solution maybe there is nothing for us to speak about. If you give me a few minutes, I can share with you how we might be different, and from there we can determine whether or not it makes sense for you and I to discuss further. Is that a fair way to proceed?
- IF NO:
- Just so I understand, are you the person responsible for monitoring virtual servers, physical servers, and networks?
**NOTE: SOMETIMES, MULTIPLE POPLE MONITOR THESE AREAS – SET UP FOR PILLAR.
- Is there any particular reason you’re not interested in speaking?
What is it that you’re monitoring? Is there anything you’d like to change? Why?
- IF YES:
- Generally, in enterprises like yours we coexist with the current monitoring solution. They utilize our technology to monitor virtual server and desktop infrastructure and then report up to the enterprise frame work. They do this because:
We are easy to Use and Deploy
We have specific functionality to monitor virtual server and desktop monitoring
Our product is a much lower Cost
- Of what I just mentioned, which might be the most interesting to you?
- Can you tell me why you picked that one?
- Can you tell me a little more about it?
- How long have you experienced challenges in this area?
- Have you done anything to address the situation?
- IF NONE:
- Just so I understand, are you the person responsible for monitoring virtual servers and virtual desktops?
- IF NO:
- PILLAR TO AN AREA THEY MIGHT NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR MONITORING
- Objection: I’m using EdgeSight for monitoring XenApp/Desk
- If you are happy with your monitoring solution maybe there is nothing for us to speak about. If you give me a few minutes, I can share with you how we complement EdgeSight, and from there we can determine whether or not it makes sense for you and I to discuss further. Is that a fair way to proceed?
- IF NO:
- Just so I understand, are you the person responsible for monitoring virtual servers and desktops?
- Is there any particular reason you’re not interested in speaking?
- IF YES:
- Generally when I speak to people using EdgeSight, they find that using our solution as a complementary technology can benefit them in one of a few areas:
Improve Visibility: We can work with EdgeSight to reduce risk of outages by monitoring the entire virtual environment, including the physical elements that can have an impact into the performance of your Citrix infrastructure
Provide a Single Interface: Provide a centralized console to monitor and manage the entire infrastructure, physical and virtual,
Consolidate by replacing edgesight since we get user session data as well as all supporting infrastructure.
- Of what I just mentioned, which might be the most interesting to you?
- Can you tell me why you picked that one?
- Can you tell me a little more about it?
- How long have you experienced challenges in this area?
- Have you done anything to address the situation?
- IF NONE:
- Just so I understand, are you the person responsible for monitoring virtual servers and desktops?
- IF NO:
- PILLAR
- Objection: We’re using Veeam/Vizioncore/VM Turbo. How do you compare to them?
- If you are happy with your monitoring solution maybe there is nothing for us to speak about. If you give me a few minutes, I can share with you how we’re different than Veeam/VMTurbo/Vkernel, and from there we can determine whether or not it makes sense for you and I to discuss further. Is that a fair way to proceed?
- IF NO:
- Just so I understand, are you the person responsible for monitoring virtual servers, physical servers, and networks?
- Is there any particular reason you’re not interested in speaking?
What is it that you’re monitoring? Is there anything you’d like to change? Why?
- IF YES:
- VEAAM/VMTurbo/Vkernel
- Generally when customers select our product over Veeam, and they do it often, they site the following reasons:
The way they monitor the virtual servers causes gaps in visibility--They only monitor agentlessly using the hypervisor api which means you have to purchase another product to monitor the applications and operating systems on the vm’s to get the full visibility we offer in one product
You can’t be proactive because there is no ability to take fix actions based on because they are only agentless
They only monitor the virtual environment so if you select them you have made a binary decision to purchase multiple products. After all the virtual servers rest on physical hardware and the applications are delivered over physical elements to end users.
We cost half as much
- Of what I just mentioned, which might be the most interesting to you?
- Can you tell me why you picked that one?
- Can you tell me a little more about it?
- How long have you experienced challenges in this area?
- Have you done anything to address the situation?
- IF NONE:
- Just so I understand, are you the person responsible for monitoring virtual servers and desktops?
- IF NO:
- PILLAR TO AN AREA THEY AREN’T MANAGING (XENSERVER?)
- Objection: We’re using EG Innovations…
- If you are happy with your monitoring solution maybe there is nothing for us to speak about. If you give me a few minutes, I can share with you how we’re different from EG, and from there we can determine whether or not it makes sense for you and I to discuss further. Is that a fair way to proceed?
- IF NO:
- Just so I understand, are you the person responsible for monitoring the virtual desktop environment? (get to the right person)
- Pillar to others for other products to
- IF YES:
- Customers select us over EGKennovations because:
Easier to Configure and Deploy: They find they’re spending a lot of time configuring and deploying their monitoring solution when managing new parts of the infrastructure
They can’t automate remediation actions
We are 30% of the Cost of theirs
- Of what I just mentioned, which might be the most interesting to you?
- Can you tell me why you picked that one?
- Can you tell me a little more about it?
- How long have you experienced challenges in this area?
- Have you done anything to address the situation?
- IF NONE:
- Just so I understand, are you the person responsible for monitoring virtual servers, physical servers, and virtual desktops?
- PILLAR
- Objection: Extend Evaluation
- A customer continues to find little aspects of the product they want to tweak. The close date is past or fast approaching and we need to close them without extending the evaluation.
- Step 1: Isolate the key issue
- Step 2: Mitigate the size of this issue by putting it in perspective relative to other features: “Other than this specific issue how do you like the other parts of the product?”
- Step 3: Establish that if this one issue is addressed they are good to move forward
- Step 4: Sell confidence that beyond this issue we are going to continue to support the product line because it is the focus of our company and that this will not be the last issue as requirements change. The key is what is our interest in this market segment and that is what guarantees our responsiveness.
- Step 5: Close to add them as a customer