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I finally finished the first draft of the re-write of all my content so I can go back into the studio next week to re-record everything to get ready for the new platform and membership launch in Q1.
It’s currently over 108 pages of content that make up over 20 modules.
I don’t think I’ve ever written this much in my entire life.
The final module was on objection handling so I thought I would share some of it in this week’s Tactical Tips section and combine it with a few resources for you.
Also, I think I woke up the LinkedIn algorithm. I posted this week that got over 600 comments, which is absolutely bananas.
I’ll explain more about what I learned from it in the Sales From The Streets Section of the newsletter but first, let’s get tactical.
I'm also hosting a webinar with my friends at JustCall on Sales Coaching and how AI can help. More details below - but feel free to sign up here.
TACTICAL TIPS: The Science of Objection Handling
SALES RESOURCES: The Objection Handling Process
SALES FROM THE STREETS: Wow….and on no….
TACTICAL TIPS:
The Science of Objection Handling
The Art/Science debate about Sales has gone on forever. It’s obviously a mix between art and science but I personally believe it should be more of an art than a science.
The science, or structure, lays the foundation for the art to be more effective.
Very few of us are pure artists in Sales. But even the pure artists started with the fundamentals and some structure and eventually made it their own by testing different approaches to see what worked for them.
That’s why when someone asked me a while ago what I would go back and tell my 22 year old self, my number one answer to that was to A/B split test everything you do.
Identify a part of the sales process you’re having the biggest challenge with, identify two different approaches or techniques you could use to address that challenge and then test them both for a period of time to see which one works better.
You can do this with cold call messaging to a specific persona, cold call intros, subject lines, calls to action, questions in the discovery phase, and objection handling to name a few.
Objection handling is one of my favorites to do this with.
Here’s your tactical tip on how to get better at objection handling with A/B split testing
- Spend 1-2 weeks writing down every objection you get.
- Make sure you write them down word for word. Did they say, “We don’t have the budget,” “We don’t have the budget for this,” “This wasn’t budgeted for,” or “We’re on a budget freeze.” Those are all different objections that can be handled in different ways
- Identify the main objection you get most frequently and have the most difficult time with
- Go into any of the AI tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity and write something like this prompt.
- If you’ve already customized your ChatGPT then you don’t need to tell it who you are or upload any documents
- Feel free to give it more context about the conversations you’ve already had with the client like what their problem is, what the impact of that problem is having on their business, any ROI numbers you have, etc. You can also ask the AI to ask you questions about the deal you’re working on so it can give you a better response.
- For those of you who are expert prompt writers, don’t laugh at how basic my prompts are:)
Here’s a simple example of an objection I face regularly and the responses it came up with.
If you don’t like the responses AI came back with then ask it to give you five more and five more until you do.
The goal is to find two different techniques or approaches that you like. Once you identify the two that you like then, practice using each of them a specific amount of times each.
For instance, the next 10 times that objection comes up, try the first approach and the next 10 times try the second one.
Then track to see which one gets you a better response.
Keep doing this for all the different objections you face to become a master at objection handling.
SALES RESOURCES:
The Objection Handling Process
There are plenty of techniques out there to handle objections but there is also a structure you can follow that is somewhat “science” based.
I used to work closely with Gong’s data lab to extract data about different aspects of the sales process to find out what the best reps were doing compared to average reps.
They wrote this blog that I now use in my training that outlines a 7 step process you can follow to handle almost any objection that you face later in the sales process.
This is not an approach you can use for objections you get early in the sales process (cold call) when you have no context or information to work with.
You need to have done good discovery and have insights and information you can use in order to leverage this approach but if you do, it’s a solid one to use.
As an added bonus, I was researching GPTs to see if there were any out there that were specific to handling objections and low and behold, I found one (full disclosure, I have not tried it extensively so if it sucks don’t be mad at me).
SALES FROM THE STREETS:
Wow…. and Oh No….
I mentioned last week that I was getting pretty annoyed with the Linkedin algorithm and I was going to do a purge of my 1x connections.
Well, I think it woke up the algorithm unexpectedly.
In the Tactical Tips section of the newsletter last week I shared a Meeting Mastery Guide I did with one of my sponsors, Otter.ai.
It includes my pre-meeting checklist along with my shared agenda and summary email templates.
In order to promote this “lead magnet” I did a post last week on Linkedin that included the link to the website where you could download the guide.
It got 7 comments. Yes, 7, as in 7 minute abs: https://youtu.be/9y5K3KsuQ_M?si=CFoGZp-DsLrWlHMy
What about 6? Well, that would be ridiculous.
Sorry, I got distracted.
Back to the point.
Obviously 7 comments isn’t all that impressive to a sponsor.
Since I always want to make sure I’m over delivering on value to anyone I work with, I tried to figure out a way to drive more people to the post which is another reason I included it in last week’s newsletter even though they didn’t ask.
But then I decided to try something a little different to see if I could hack the Linkedin algorithm.
I know the algorithm wants you to stay on the Linkedin platform which is why it hates it when you include links in your posts to other websites.
Since the first post included the link, I decided this time to write a simple post asking people to comment “make it happen” if they wanted a copy of my pre-meeting checklist, shared agenda and summary email templates.
And holy shit did it work…
As I write this, the post has over 1200 comments.
600 of them are mine because I had to respond to every single one of them with the link which kept me up until about 1am a few nights this week.
Regardless, that means over 600 people commented on that post which I’m pretty sure is one of the top performing posts I’ve ever had.
This isn’t going to be something I do often, BUT if you’re in Marketing or you’re trying to build your own personal brand and you feel like you might have a really good piece of valuable content you want to share, you might want to consider trying this approach.
I’m not sure about the psychology behind why this worked or why the algorithm liked it but it obviously does.
PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
JustCall Webinar - November 20, 2024
Here’s what you’ll take away from this session:
✔️ How AI takes the guesswork out of coaching
✔️ Ways to combine AI insights with your unique coaching style
✔️ Real examples of AI helping sales reps improve
✔️ Actionable steps to bring AI into your process
If you’re ready to boost your coaching strategy, this is a can’t-miss session.
ADDITIONAL WAYS YOU CAN LEVEL UP YOUR SALES GAME
- The JB Sales Membership is where you’ll get access to my live training, workshops, AMAs and OnDemand catalog so you can level up your sales skills every day! 3000+ Sales pros have already joined. Are you next?
- The industry-leading Make it Happen Monday Podcast where you’ll get insights and inspiration from some of the most interesting and influential people in the world of Sales and business. (this is where you’ll hear the Guy Kawasaki episode on May XYZ)
- The JB Sales YouTube channel with practical tips that you can apply immediately to drive results along with interviews and content that is guaranteed to get you to think differently.