MASTER OF BUSINESS

ADMINISTRATION

SALES AND MARKETING

MANAGEMENT
Managing the Sales Process
Assignment No. I: Handling Objections

Prepared by:
Tawfik AbdelMajeed Aydieh

Supervised by:
Dr. Raafat Youssef Shehata
July, 2017
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.0 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 3

2.0 Company Description ................................................................................................. 4
3.0 Strategies for Handling Objections .............................................................................. 4
4.0 Common Customer Objections ................................................................................... 4
4.1 Objections Related to Selling Smart Services .......................................................... 4
4.2 Objections Related to Budget or Cost ..................................................................... 6
4.3 Objections Related to Selling Consulting Services................................................... 7
5.0 Conclusion.................................................................................................................. 8

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1.0 INTRODUCTION

What are objections?

“An objection is not a
rejection; it is simply a request
Objections are a signal that the customer is interested but not for more information” - Bo
ready to buy. Bennett

Objections usually arise because either you or the prospect doesn’t

“Make a customer, not a sale.”
have a full understanding of something important. People want to – Katherine Barchetti
feel good about their purchases whether business or personal.
They want to be sure they made the right decision. So sometimes
an objection is really the prospect saying, “Tell me why your “Treat objections as requests
product is so great so I can feel good about my purchase.”. for further information.” -
Brian Tracy
Definition: Handling Objections
It is one of the stages of salesperson during his personal selling
“Prospecting – find the man
where he has to handle certain objection and resistance of the with the problem.” – Ben
customers. There are certain times when the customer argues and Friedman
differs from the demonstration and explanation given by the sales
person to him. So in order to satisfy, negotiate and make the deal
finalize sales person has to persuade the customers by satisfying “Sales are contingent upon the
the customer by taking certain step. So these steps taken by the attitude of the salesman, not
the attitude of the prospect.” –
sales person in order to persuade the customer are called William Clement Stone
objection handling.

Responding to Objections
“The key to mastering any kind of
Responding to objections is a vital part of a sales engineer's sales is switching statements
about you – how great you are,
responsibility. Objections may be offered at any time during the and what you do – to statements
relationship between customer/buyer and sales engineer. They are about them.” – Jeffrey Gitomer
to be expected, even welcomed, and they must be handled with
skill and empathy.
“Most people think ‘selling’ is the
same as ‘talking’. But the most
Successful sales engineer carefully prepares effective responses to effective salespeople know that
customers' concerns. Sales engineer need to develop a positive listening is the most important
part of their job.” – Roy Bartell
attitude, commit to always telling the truth, refrain from
interrupting, anticipate and forestall known objections, and learn
how to evaluate objections. “To build a long-term, successful
enterprise, when you don’t close a
Customers object for many reasons. They may have no money, or sale, open a relationship.” -
Patricia Fripp
they may not need the product/service. They may need more
information or misunderstand some information already offered.
They may be accustomed to another product/service, may not think “Every sale has five obstacles: no
need, no money, no hurry, no
the value exceeds the cost, or may not like the product's features. desire, no trust.” – Zig Ziglar
They may want to get rid of the salesperson or may not trust the
sales engineer or his or her company. They may want time to think
or may object for many other reasons.

Effective methods of responding to objections are available, and their success has been proved. Methods
exist both for concerns that are not true and for objections that either are true or are only the customer's
opinion. Sensitivity in choosing the right method is vital. Sales Engineers need to develop skill in
responding to price objections and in dealing with tough customers. Nothing will substitute for
developing skill in these areas.

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2.0 Company Description
ABC Company designs and sells a range of products, provides services and delivers integrated
solutions to develop and connect networks around the world. The Company groups its products
and technologies into the various categories, such as Switching; Next-Generation Network Routing;
Collaboration; Data Center; Wireless; Service Provider Video; Security, and Other Products. In
addition to its product offerings, the Company provides a range of service offerings, including
technical support services and advanced services. The Company delivers its technology and services
to its customers as solutions for their priorities, including cloud, video, mobility, security,
collaboration and analytics. The Company helps its customers build networks and automate,
orchestrate, integrate and digitize information technology (IT)-based products and services. It
serves customers, including businesses of all sizes, public institutions, governments and service
providers.

3.0 Strategies for Handling Objections

By communicating the value of services upfront, it will be easier for the sales engineer to counter
objections. However, customer may still have concerns that sales engineer need to address given
market transitions, and the increased pressures to reduce costs and drive greater innovation.

4.0 Common Customer Objections

4.1 Objections Related to Selling Smart Services

As business functions become more reliant on devices and applications that run over their
networks, customers realize that maintaining network health and performance is critical. They
require uninterrupted business continuity and require a smart, proactive service experience.

Our smart services include capabilities that gather information from devices and networks,
combine it with our expertise and create actionable intelligence, providing superior information
which makes it possible for customers to manage their networks more proactively.

We have been building smart capabilities across the portfolio for a number of years, and many
customers are already leveraging smart capabilities included in offers with Smart Call Home, Smart
Care Service, Network Optimization Service and Remote Management Services. However, some
customers may not be aware of the benefits of our smart services to their organization.

Strategies for countering these kinds of objections include:

Explaining to our customers that smart services provide actionable information to enhance their
network health, increase uptime, reduce costs and improve network security.
Pointing out that smart services proactively prevent problems and extract more value from their
technology infrastructure, and this increased operational efficiency helps to give them a
competitive advantage as they adopt new technologies and drive innovation.
Informing our customers that the predictive insight into their networks achieved by the
capability of analysis and correlation of real-time network data with our intellectual capital, will
help to reduce time and costs, allowing their technical teams to focus on other core business
priorities.

The following are common objections that customers might have:

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Customer Objection: All I care about is the price, I am not sure how smart services
would benefit my organization?
Responding Method: Postpone Method
Sales Engineer Response: That’s an interesting point, the price is an important issue. I’ll
address the issue of price, but first, with your permission, I’d like to
mention that our smart services will help you to reduce costs,
mitigate risk, and speed innovation by delivering actionable insight
into your network through automated comparison of network data
against intellectual capital.
Smart services will help you to proactively prevent problems and
extract greater value from your existing infrastructure, enabling to
meet business pressures to increase operational efficiency and
enhance your customers’ satisfaction.
Briefly the smart services:
Improve operational efficiency and reduce costs.
Speed problem resolution.
Mitigate risk to get ahead of problems before they arise.
Free resources to focus on innovation and accelerate business
growth.
Help to get more value from your technology investments.

Customer Objection: It is probably expensive and I am not sure how smart services
address risk management?
Responding Method: Pass-up method
Sales Engineer Response: In fact, I think you will be surprised. Let’s check if the service is
suitable for your business and we’ll tackle price afterwards. Allow
me to explain that the Smart services will give you superior
information about your network, making it possible for you to
manage your network more proactively. With more detailed
knowledge about network hardware, software versions, contract
status and product lifecycle, you can have the information you
need to reduce risk:
Accurate information about hardware makes it easier to comply
with asset reporting requirements, and accurately gauge
insurance requirements.
Using software version information, you can increase network
consistency.
With contract details and lifecycle information (products
approaching end-of-life), you can make sure you have the right
levels of coverage on critical equipment, and have resilient plans
in place for equipment replacement.

Customer Objection: Your smart services support only your company products.
Responding Method: Indirect Denial Method
Sales Engineer Response: I agree with you. What you say is true, but this was in the past. We
understand that most of our customers have heterogeneous
environments and need the equipment and applications in their
environment to work optimally together.

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4.2 Objections Related to Budget or Cost
If the customer mentions that he doesn’t have the budget to fund services or is concerned about
high costs, the issue might be much more than a stalling or negotiating tactic. The concerns might
be very real. Making the right funding decisions might be a matter of survival for the customer. In
many cases, customer might be facing pressure from the business owner or management team to
reduce expenses any way they can.
Strategies for countering these kinds of objections include:
Acknowledging our customer’s concerns and the need to make a sound financial decision.
Determining whether the issue is that funding is available but allocated towards other projects,
or a fundamental cash flow issue.
Helping our customer build a case for allocating funds from other projects to fund services to
help make sure of network uptime.
Providing our customer with alternative funding options such as multiyear agreements and
financing that can help them address any cash flow issues.

The following are common objections:

Customer Objection: There is no budget for service
Responding Method: Compensation Method
Sales Engineer Response: I can understand you wanting to avoid unnecessary expenses. All
I’m asking is for you to evaluate what I have to offer. I really believe
that once you have done that, the benefits, not to mention the cost
reduction within your systems, will show you that we are not really
talking about a cost but rather a short term investment. Services
can help to reduce total cost of ownership and build in investment
protection. We guarantee it.

Customer Objection: I don’t need service. Keeping an inventory of spares is more cost
effective
Responding Method: Postpone Method
Sales Engineer Response: You will, of course, be the sole judge of whether or not we have
something that will benefit you. However, I would suggest that
before you make a final decision on whether we have a potential
benefit for you let’s take 15 minutes so you can evaluate this first
hand. I guarantee you I won’t waste your time.
Sparing rarely saves your money. To spare effectively requires a
large investment in a system, security, and in-house experts. Often,
these costs exceed the cost of our service contract.
A service contract eliminates this expense and reduces the costs
of network downtime.
You need to consider the cost of a service contract compared to
the cost of network downtime, time and materials fees, or fines
for noncompliance with intellectual property policies.
With our Technical Services contract, you can receive replacement
parts 24 hours a day, seven days a week, within as little as two
hours in certain regions. We have more than 900 fulfillment depots
in over 50 countries.

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4.3 Objections Related to Selling Consulting Services
Providing consulting services for a fee can help our customers make better business decisions about
their technology investments. However, our customers might have objections about the additional
cost and the value that these additional services provide.
Strategies for countering these kinds of objections include:
Showing that strategic thinking and planning are not luxuries, but essential steps in smart
business decision making and preparing for the future.
Emphasizing that lack of planning leads to poor performance and unexpected costs.
Promoting the value of balancing short-term needs with long-term plans.
The following are common objections:
Customer Objection: I am reluctant to work with a new consultant/service provider
Responding Method: Feel, Felt, Found Method
Sales Engineer Response: I understand how you feel. You are hesitant to work with another
consultant and that is natural. Most of our customers were working
with another consultant before they started working with us, they
felt just like you. The solution that we came up with worked for
them and I believe it will work well for you, too. We have started
working parallel to the current consultant, they started splitting
their orders in the beginning and discovered that by working with
us it was a lot more efficient. The service that they receive from us
is much better. Our services assist in evaluating the reliability of the
solution as well as targeting the continued evolution of your
business processes.
Customer Objection: I do not see the benefit of prepaying for the multiyear service
agreement
Responding Method: Boomerang Method
Sales Engineer Response: You make a very important point and for that very reason, you
should be preparing for a multiyear agreement that can help you
lock in prices, avoiding service price increases, Right. In addition,
you will receive an additional multiyear prepay discount.
Customer Objection: I do not need a long-term plan. I just want to address a specific
business issue
Responding Method: Boomerang Method
Sales Engineer Response: You make a very important point and for that very reason, we can
provide a solution recommendation that gives you the flexibility
and scalability to do both. A solution can be designed to address
your immediate business challenges, yet be scalable and cost-
effective and support your long-term goals.
Customer Objection: I do not have the time or resources to develop and maintain a
strategic technology plan
Responding Method: Direct Denial Method
Sales Engineer Response: Lack of planning often slows the process of implementing new
technology and results in greater frustration and higher costs in the
future. We act as advisors, working closely with you to identify the
state of your business and network and provide a solution that
closely aligns with a business’s unique needs.

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 Customer Objection:
Responding Method:
Sales Engineer Response:
Your solutions require me to replace my entire existing network
Compensation Method
I agree with you, but the pace of migration is flexible, because the
network recommendations are designed to provide a scalable
network foundation that will change and grow as a business
evolves. Standards-based our solutions are interoperable with a
wide range of voice and data networking products and
applications. You will gain the benefits of a converged IP network
without removing existing systems.

5.0 Conclusion

Many Sales Engineers see objections as a sign of rejection or a call to arms. With this attitude, it is
no wonder objections are so often poorly handled. However, if Sales Engineer follow the five-step
objection handling process, he can overcome the lion’s share of objections and move the sale
forward.

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