Objection Handling

 

One of the hardest things to master, when becoming a recruitment consultant, is how to overcome objections. Whether these come from candidates or clients, it’s still hard to not take them personally.

If you’re wondering what the picture of the little hurdle is all about, it’s called a caveletti. If you’ve ever ridden horses, you’ll be aware of it as it’s used to train them when they’re learning to jump fences.

For me it’s a visual that helps when handling objections. Rather than seeing it as an insurmountable object, the caveletti should be seen a ‘trip hazard’, just like an objection. If the horse doesn’t pay attention and pick their feet up, they’ll knock their hooves pretty hard… in other words, ignore it at your peril.

If you ignore the objection given by your customer, it’s going to trip you up and make you fall flat on your face.

Objections can of course be genuine, but sometimes they’re not…

Typical objections include: –

• We’re using another agency
• You’re too expensive
• We have a PSL (preferred suppliers list) already
• We’re not recruiting
• We do the recruiting ourselves
• We advertise our positions online
• HR are responsible for that i.e. it’s not my job
• We’ve got a headcount freeze
• I’m too busy to talk right now
• We’re too small to use an agency
• Our business is too technical to use an agency etc.
• I can’t put you through i.e. the gatekeeper

They can usually be allocated to one of 4 categories: –

1. Capability – in other words, the client hasn’t got to the point where they trust you and therefore are questioning whether you can do the job at all
2. Price – probably the easiest one to spot
3. Vague – there’s a real objection there, but they probably don’t know what it is either!
4. Irrelevant – it’s a smokescreen, such as “I’m too busy to talk right now”. This isn’t an objection to you working with them, but more likely just a way to get you off of the phone

Sometimes objections can be a tester to see whether you can cope with a small amount of pressure – to see whether you balk at the first hurdle. I’ve actually had a client admit to me, that on a Friday afternoon they would try and get as many objections as possible into a call from a sales person.

With that in mind, it’s important that you qualify the objection before carrying on the conversation. The only problem with that is that our bodies will react without our permission… the ‘flight or fight’ response (a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived attack) takes over. With the additional adrenalin now rushing around your bloodstream, it’s not surprising that the majority of consultants now feel very uncomfortable (hot, sweaty, pace of speech increased as well as the pitch etc.) and therefore the panic can set in and you are happy to get off the phone as quickly as possible – ‘flight’.

If you take the opposite approach and you’re happy to take on the client and stand your ground and defend your position – “fight” – then the likelihood is that you’ll want to ask some questions around the objection. Unfortunately, in this scenario, adrenalin is not your friend and the question is likely to come across as argumentative i.e. “What are you comparing that to?” will come across as argumentative, so we need another approach… we need a middle ground to create a neutral zone.

The Objection Handling Process

1. Listen

Leave 1 – 2 seconds silence for them to add anything more – and above all else, don’t interrupt them when they’re stating their objection

2. Acknowledge the objection

This needs to be a statement that confirms that you have listened, but is in no way inflammatory. Notice there are no questions, yet.

i.e. I appreciate why you may feel that way… OR I understand that must have been a difficult situation for you… OR I appreciate that being as cost effective as possible in your transactions is a top priotrity for your business OR I’m sorry you’ve had that experience…

3. Specify

Now you’ve acknowledged what they’ve said and made the environment less combative, you can use open and probing questions to establish the real issues. Try to stay away from closed questions at this stage as it’s not helpful for them to be answering yes / no or just a couple of words – you want a conversation and lots of information.

 As well as fully understanding the objection, the aim here is to uncover issues that you may be able to resolve in the future for them

4. Reassure

Summarise what they’ve said to you, making sure you are pointing out the key issues / needs that they’ve mentioned in their answers i.e. “so what you’re saying is that you do utilise recruiter’s services, but have found in the past that the communication has not been of a level that you would want and the quality of the service was lacking in areas”

5. Present (Sell)

It’s only now that you try to resolve the objection. It’s important to promote this in the 3^rd person i.e. hypothetical. “How helpful would it have been if a consultant had done X?”, “Would it be beneficial if a consultancy did Y for you?” Of course, excuse the obvious, but don’t point out a feature that would help to resolve the issue, if your own company doesn’t offer that service!

6. Close

The aim is for the customer to give you a “Yes” answer to your question. It’s at this point that you can then carry on the conversation and find out whether you can help the customer or not i.e. “I’m not sure whether we’re the right consultancy for you, but let me ask you some more questions and we can find out”.

Now I’m not unrealistic and I know that this process won’t resolve 100% of objections that you’re faced with – but what if it resolves even just 50%?

That 50% additional opportunity now gives you the chance to carry on the conversation with your customer and just think what that could lead to… 

Angela Cripps, MD

Connemara UK

12 Management Competencies – Sales opportunities

This is the eleventh in a series of posts detailing The 12 Competencies of a Manager. Each one will expand on the definition given, with information on what the competency means in real terms, as well as hints and tips for managers.

11. Sales opportunities

Definition: Employs knowledge gained from a multitude of sources to identify issues from the customer’s perspective and develops opportunities for business growth. The solutions offered compel the customer to take immediate action.

It surprises me the amount of managers – especially in recruitment if they’re not billing managers – that don’t see that spotting sales opportunities as part of their role.

Whilst it might not be your direct responsibility, it’s important to see this as one of your many ‘hats’ that you need to wear. It’s not just about leading by example, but for me, the key role of a manager is to create success for the individuals within their team.

This could easily start from the ‘O’ in SWOT. How often are you performing a SWOT analysis for your business and creating a plan to follow through on any opportunities that may be available?

1. Know your market

Planning time to review the market and industry that you work in seemed like not working when I was first asked to do it. There I was sitting reading a trade magazine and highlighting articles and roles and editorials that related to my clients… surely this wasn’t work?!

So have you got dedicated market research time each week / month? If not, then you’re already setting a bad example to your team. Keeping on top of what’s changing – whether that be through e-mailers, newsletters, articles, events, seminars, Expo’s, conferences etc. – is critical to spotting opportunities for your business.

2. Lead by example

The above tip is a good start, but some of the best managers that I’ve worked for in the past, made sure that they were there to support their team, when they were tackling elements of their job that might just be a little out of their comfort zone. It’s something that I utilised when managing others.

Regular opportunities for observing client meetings, presentations, even down to sales calls with detailed feedback after the event will show that you care. What’s also important is that they get the opportunity to see you performing these tasks as well. It might not be very often, but if you’ve got a big presentation to do, why not lead by example and do the presentation to the team and ask for feedback, before you present to your audience. They’ll see you in a positive light in the fact that you also practice, as well as feeling that nobody’s perfect and we all need support sometimes.

The key result you’re looking for though of course, is that they learn from you.

3. Create opportunities for success for others

This stems right from the first week that a new team member joins you. You will be asking them to achieve standards, so it’s important to show them how.

Put thought into how you can make sure that they achieve success in those first few weeks – week 3 is critical. If they haven’t felt some form of success in what they do in their first 3 weeks, then they are going to be deciding whether it’s the right job for them.

4. Be involved with the top 20% of your business customers

Even if your role is not a sales one, make sure you are aware of who your customers are and get involved – even if it’s once a year at a Christmas customer lunch. Generally, Pareto’s Law works well for analysis of this and 80% of revenue will normally come from your top 20% of customers.

It’s likely that your major opportunities will come from these 20% as well, so keep on top of them. They will share with you the issues they are facing and help you to create solutions that will compel not just the top 20% to buy from you, but the other 80% as well.

5. Analyse, plan, action, repeat

Pretty simple, but so important. This process for creating and spotting sales opportunities is a cycle, not a one off. Quarterly is usually a good timeframe to analyse and plan. It gives you time to action and then an opportunity to review monthly and quarterly to make sure you’re on track for the year.

There are 12 posts altogether in this series, with an addition of the original overview post that details all of the management competencies. I hope they’ll be beneficial for you. For the original post with a snapshot of all of the competencies covered in this series, click here – The 12 Competencies of a Manager

The full series of posts: –

1. Management Competencies – Analysing the Business

2. Management Competencies – Strategic Planning

3. Management Competencies – Monitoring the Business

4. Management Competencies – Meeting Goals

5. Management Competencies – Building profitability

6. Management Competencies – Customer Relationship

7. Management Competencies – Team Priorities

8. Management Competencies – High Business Performance

9. Management Competencies – Team Development

10. Management Competencies – Communication

11. Management Competencies – Sales opportunities

12. Management Competencies – Perseverance

Angela Cripps, MD Connemara UK

http://www.connemarauk.com

 

4. The Competencies of a Recruitment Consultant – Sales opportunities

 

This blog is written to aid both managers and consultants in the recruitment industry. This is the 4^th post in a series of twelve. We’ve already covered: –

1. The Competencies of a Recruitment Consultant – Planning

2. The Competencies of a Recruitment Consultant – Monitoring

3. The Competencies of a Recruitment Consultant – Analysing 

4. Sales Opportunities

This week we will focus on sales opportunities. The ‘sale’ act is described in the dictionary as ‘the exchange of goods or services for an amount of money or its equivalent’ and opportunities as ‘a favourable or advantageous circumstance or combination of circumstances’.

 So what we want are consultants that make sure that they are in the right place at the right time when an opportunity arises, so as to take advantage of the situation and make the sale.

I used to hate it when I called a client and they would say “Oh, if only you’d called last month / last week. We could have used your services then, but we’re all sorted now thank you”.

After a few of these calls, I got the message and after that I made sure that I asked clients about their future needs for at least 6 months into the future. I’d talk to them about their company projects, their annual trends in business, contracts or business that they were currently going after, what their staff attrition rates were etc. All things that could point to whether they were likely to need my services and when would be the time to call, so that I was ahead of the competition this time… and not too late.

Purpose: – The purpose for a recruitment consultant is to seek business opportunities through confidently assisting clients to resolve manpower issues in every aspect of their business

Questions to determine sales opportunities competence: –

1.  Tell me about a recent business opportunity that you identified

• How did you identify it?
• What action did you take?
• What resulted from your action?

 2.  Give me an example where there has been a client issue or need that you have successfully resolved

• How did you go about establishing the issue/need?
• What solutions did you offer?
• How did you show commitment to the solution?
• What was the impact on your business?
• What do you still find most difficult about resolving needs/issues with clients?

 3.  Tell me about how you identify opportunities in the longer term

• How did you establish the opportunity?
• How long term was the opportunity?
• How did you use the opportunity to increase the profitability of your business?

 

High level of competence shown: –

• Ensures every business opportunity identified and actioned and ensures maximum profitability for each
• The solution offered uses market / external / internal information in order to increase confidence with the customer
• Uncovers business opportunities in the short, medium and long term

Each week I’m tackling a new competency and I will follow the same format of purpose, questions and three examples of what a high level of competency would look like.

For the original post with a snapshot of all of the competencies I will be covering this summer, click here – The Key Competencies of a Recruitment Consultant.

Angela Cripps, Connemara UK