AAA STRATEGY
Combating Barriers to Sale
Combating Barriers to Sale
Understanding why a prospect WILL buy, while important, is typically obvious (ex: savings/enhancements/they tell you).
Anticipating factors that might elicit a NO helps formulate a more effective approach as it allows one to find the cause & alleviate the concern – before it’s too late. Below outlines a strategy I use on every case; leave no barrier left uncleared – EARN YES by removing the NO!
ANTICIPATE
Objective: pro-actively anticipate all potential issues & pain points your target associates w/changing their current solution or process & PREPARE a game plan to clear any cause for concern – before the final evaluation.
Action: Walk in Their Shoes
To effectively anticipate barriers, it’s essential to focus on the specific person you’re targeting. Pain assoc. w/change is relative one’s situation, often driven by a poor, past experience. Priority 1 to clear a concern - uncover the root cause (start by asking).
Listen: be a genuinely active listener, remaining diligent in acquiring the details necessary to understand the full story. Every situation is unique; evaluate the details you know & uncover the information you need.
ADDRESS
ALLEVIATE
OG NOTES (AUG-2018)
Value of Ownership
Key Sales Take-Aways
You’re the sales rep and I’m the buyer. I’m considering either going with your solution or staying with my current. There are two things going through the buyers mind…
The buyer will consider the value of them going to your solution – let’s say there is some moderate savings and a few enhancements.
They also consider the pain of giving up what they currently have, which includes learning new systems, having new contacts, and a new open enrollment
Knowing that, what are some things you should position or address with the client?
Ease of Change: changing to a new ‘anything’ can be a big pain. So it’s absolutely essential that you address it and over-emphasize how easy the process will be on them to make the change.
A key part is to acknowledge that pain and then alleviate it.
“We certainly understand how switching carriers sounds daunting, but our primary focus is making that process as seamless as possible and we’ll also be with you every step of the way”
You could probably even do a “harder” comment, like, there’s really not much additional work required, but you obviously want to set appropriate expectations.
**The second positioning point would be to not just focus on your advantages, but confirm areas where you’re matching their current solution…
Apples-to-Apples: Highlight/remind them what part of your plan is comparing apples-to-apples so they feel they aren’t losing anything, even if it seems basic.
You of course tout your advantages, but it’s important to take the extra step to confirm the similarities of your plan.
Remember their reference point is what they currently have – advantages and extra features may sound great to you but they are most likely in the mindset of, “if it aint broke, don’t fix it.”
The question, “what specifically do you like about your current plan” is essential. Later we’ll cover strategic questioning and why asking the question, “what don’t you like” is best to ask first, but this will be key so you can be sure to include the components they like in your offer.
“you said that you like X, X, and X, about your current plan so I wanted to confirm our solution has all of those, in addition to the extra advantages I covered. So you’re really not losing anything and you’re gaining these awesome features which you don’t have currently.”
Speaking of touting advantages…
Competitor Combat: Even if it seems small, point out as many competitive advantages that you have over the competitor as possible. Everything is in effort to get their mind away from the pain of change.
A personal example when I did this was when I was selling life insurance. Our plan had a feature that others didn’t, called portability. It allowed EE’s to keep their group coverage if they ever left the company.
It’s legitimately a valuable feature, I took mine with me when I left, but only about 1% of EE’s actually utilize it. Do you think I said that part? NO!
I touted this until I was blue in the face. It’s something that sounds good, because it is, but it’s also something my competition didn’t have.
If you’re trying to save case through a renewal, I always pointed out how they would LOSE portability if they went to the competition.
So, while listing advantages is important, having an understanding that the client will place more weight on making a change to their current process, will allow you to play into it and combat the “we’re staying put” objection before it even happens.
There are so many different little things that can play into a decision, you’re just doing what you can to help give your solution the best opportunity.
As I mentioned, I think the fact that humans don’t like change is why sales is so hard in the first place. So let’s dive in further to understand how we can break down the potential barriers to the sale.