Do buyers’ objections make you feel like you’re hitting a brick wall? Here’s how to break through and conquer some of the most frequently heard by ad specialty sales reps.

It’s a familiar situation for any sales rep: You said all the right things, presented your products in the best possible light, and think you are about to lock in a new customer. But before your prospect signs on the line, he or she stops, thinks for a minute, and says:

“Just send me a brochure.” Or: “It’s not really in the budget.”

This month we look at 10 common objections that promotional sales reps hear from prospective clients. While these can often put the brakes on the sales conversation, ad specialty reps who understand the motivations behind these concerns can reframe their pitches, and often come out of the interaction with a new, happy customer.

ObjectiOn #1

What They Say: “It’s not in the budget.”

What They Mean: Times are tight and adding another expense is something few clients want to do.

How to Change Their Minds: As economic challenges continue to take a toll on businesses, worries about budget have become a major obstacle for sales reps. The first step to overcoming spending fears is to get the prospect to be more specific.

“Try to find out exactly how much they have to spend,” says Gina Sealey, vice president of Capital Ideas (asi/157004). “Some, of course, won’t be forthcoming about it, but if you have a budget to work with or a specific amount, sometimes a lower quantity or different item that’s going to fit their budget better can work.”

Jon Fields, a business consultant at The Growth Coach, suggests trying to also get specific about the value that the ad specialty products will bring to the client, to reframe it as not just a purchase, but as an investment.

“If we can assign a value using their numbers, we can ask, ‘What would your company be willing or able to invest in order to generate $10,000 worth of business?’” says Fields. “Then you can say, ‘Let’s talk about a payment plan that would work within your budget.’ ”

Fields suggests even offering prospects information on funding options, helping them seek out loans or grants to ensure the purchase does not stress their budget.

ObjectiOn #2

What They Say: “I’m not the decision-maker.”

What They Mean: An absent third party makes for a convenient reason to put off a buying decision, and may be easier than actually having to say no.

How to Change Their Minds: Scott Tinkelman, vice president of sales and marketing of Kevin’s Wholesale (asi/241850), often runs into contacts at an organization who explain they are just the information gatherer, not the person who will ultimately make a purchase.

“We take that at face value, but just dig a little deeper to find out what their role is,” he says. “Anybody you’re on the phone with is involved in the process somewhat, so they’re going to be able to give you information you can use.”

Dr. Willy Bolander, assistant professor of marketing at Florida State University, suggests that sales reps follow up the objection with a question like, “If that person were here, and also liked what I just shared with you, would you see any other barriers to us doing business?”

“This gives the prospect the opportunity to admit if they have any real underlying concerns,” says Bolander.

If you can demonstrate the value of the products to the contact, even if they do not ultimately make the purchase, you have turned them into an ally. Set up an appointment with the decision-maker, as well as the contact, when they will both be available.

ObjectiOn #3

What They Say: “I already work with someone.”

What They Mean: They do not know you and your track record, or at least not well enough to leave their current promotional product supplier.

How to Change Their Minds: Even if a prospect is dissatisfied with their current distributor, loyalty is an important attribute for any businessperson, making it tricky to get a potential client to switch over to you, so you’ve got to work around that.

“I will immediately say something like, ‘That’s great, I would never want someone to try to take a client away from me if they were happy with my work,” says Steve Levinthal, owner of Wholesale Imprints & Promotions (asi/359870).

But after this assurance, a sales rep will want to learn more about the prospect’s needs and relationship with their current vendor – what they source from the vendor, what they like about their service, and where they may think it is lacking.

At the very least a rep can leave his or her name and contact information and invite the prospect to reach out “as a resource” or for quotes in the future, and then check back after a few weeks.

But there may be a specific rush order or product that their current vendor is unable to fulfill to the prospect’s liking, opening an opportunity for a potential new rep. “Find out if there is one thing their current vendor could do better and what it would be,” says Edie Raether, sales coach and author of Forget Selling: 12 Principles of Influence and Persuasion in Sales Leadership and Life. “They can maintain their sense of loyalty, but it gives you a foot in the door.”

ObjectiOn #4

What They Say: “Your contact has left the company.”

What They Mean: A new person who has taken over your old contact’s role has their own priorities and perceptions about what the company needs.

How to Change Their Minds: A first step is to try to connect with the new contact on a personal level, giving them a sense of what your relationship with their organization has been over the past months or years, while learning a little more about them and their background.

“We would introduce ourselves, congratulate them on the new position, ask a few questions to get a little background on the new contact and then touch briefly on our history with the client firm and the results produced,” says Marcia Golden, managing partner of DJD/Golden, a business consultancy. She says they would then request to meet with the new contact to go over the work to date and brief them on past, current and prospective programs.

Over her 29 years of selling promotional products, Bonnie Lamberson, owner of Image Sales (asi/229980), has seen her contacts leave organizations a number of times, generally being replaced with younger staff members with their own priorities. “They may be looking online or considering another seller, but if you let them touch and feel the product you are offering, it goes a long way toward building that relationship,” she says.

ObjectiOn #5

What They Say: “We don’t need any swag.”

What They Mean: They do not think promotional products, or at least promotional products as they understand them, would be useful for their company.

How to Change Their Minds: Prospects that have a generally negative view toward promotional products may be speaking with limited knowledge of all that distributors can offer, imagining pens and mugs are about the extent of what “ad specialty” encompasses.

“I’ve had better success in making sure they understand everything that we do: Do they buy thank-you or holiday gifts for the end of the year? Are they thinking about a welcome mat? What are their trade show needs?” says Tinkelman.

Though the profit margin is not high, Tinkelman will offer to do company business cards as well – a product of obvious value to any organization.

Capital Ideas’ Sealy finds that emphasizing the functionality of the products, whether a flash drive with information saved on it or a can opener, can sometimes dispel concerns that recipients will just throw the product in a drawer.

A distributor should avoid becoming defensive or immediately trying to justify the value of promotional products. “Take their momentum and redirect it by saying something like, ‘It sounds like this conversation may be over, but maybe we can talk about the top initiatives you have going on this year,’ ” says David Mattson, CEO of sales training group Sandler Training.

ObjectiOn #6

What They Say: “I don’t have time to talk to you.”

What They Mean: Often “I don’t have time” just means “I’m not sure how long this will take.”

How to Change Their Minds: Saying up front, “It sounds like you are in the middle of something, so I’m just looking for two minutes,” can be surprisingly effective at putting the prospect at ease. Sticking to that promise can ingratiate a sales rep further into a prospect’s trust.

“Do three quick yes-or-no questions to determine whether you should get together for an appointment,” says Fields. He suggests questions like, “Looking at your business, are there things that you would prefer to be different?” That leads to setting up a sit-down appointment, when the prospect will presumably have more time.

This is the strategy Tinkelman follows: “I say, ‘I know you don’t have a ton of time – we don’t need a ton of time.’ All I need is a little feedback from them, and we can set up an appointment or future call to show all we can offer,” he says.

ObjectiOn #7

What They Say: “Just send me a brochure.”

What They Mean: It’s easier for a prospect to throw away a brochure than give a firm “no” to an actual person, so this is more often than not a brush-off.

How to Change Their Minds: Before agreeing to send them anything, ask the prospect a few basic questions to make sure you are sending them information that would be most useful to their specific business needs.

This has the dual benefit of helping you personalize the literature or samples you send to them, while also opening up the conversation and possibly leading to a more detailed chat before hanging up.

Make a follow-up call an automatic part of any agreement to send information. “Say, ‘I will give you three to four days to read over the brochure, then will follow up,’ ” says Raether. “Then when you call back and say, ‘I just want to see if there are any questions and if I could help,’ you are doing what you said you would and are also in the service mode, rather than the sell mode.”

Personalizing a request for more information ensures that the sales rep is making the best use of his or her time, not just sending out hundreds of generic catalogs, expecting few responses. “You don’t want to waste your money or your time,” says Lamberson.

Objection #8

What They Say: “We never got results.”

What They Mean: Their use of promotional products in the past did not meet their expectations.

How to Change Their Minds: Determine what products they were using and what their expectations were the last time. In many cases, clients do not have clear goals and may buy specialty items without thinking about how those items will help to reach that aim.

If the client was looking to drive traffic to his or her website, but gave away pens with a barely legible URL, that may explain why results were not to their liking. It may be that the product was the wrong fit for the audience.

“I was working with a company that had high-end businesspeople as its audience, but they had been giving away cheap keychains,” says Levinthal. “I said, ‘People love that stuff, but if you’re aiming at businesspeople, order 250 things at $4 apiece instead of 1,000 things at $1 apiece.’ ”

Another way to speak to concerns about results is to offer a way to more accurately track and measure results, by using technology like QR codes or PURLS that allow the sales rep to offer hard numbers to the client. A sales rep can also point to where the products did provide value, even if the client did not see it. “When you buy ad specialty products, it might not be to get sales, but to get your name and brand out into the larger community,” says Levinthal. “I would never negate that fact.”

ObjectiOn #9

What They Say: “I had a bad experience with your company.”

What They Mean: Nothing strains a distributor’s relationship with a client more than a mistake like a late shipment or a botched order.

How to Change Their Minds: Fix the mistake and show the customer that what caused the problem in the first place has been resolved. Immediately after the customer has a bad experience, a gesture such as offering a voucher for a free or discounted order can help alleviate the initial frustration with the company.

“Inquire, describe and confirm the bad experience they are referring to,” says Harvey Mackay, author of The Mackay MBA of Selling in the Real World. “Tell them, ‘This event upset us as well, and here’s what we intend to do about it.’ ”

This may mean having to let go of the person responsible for the mistake, or revamping the company’s systems in a way that ensures that kind of incident will not happen again. The key is to be open and straightforward with the prospect about what went wrong and explain why it will not happen again.

“We just try to be transparent with the client,” says Martin Petroff of Marketing Associates LLC. “We built our system so that we can show the milestones along the way to getting their order.”

By keeping the client updated on the order as it moves from the manufacturing plant to their address, Petroff is able to catch a problem early, so the client will have plenty of lead time to change the order and avoid a bad experience.

Also, be proactive in asking for feedback on what went right and if anything went wrong in your followup on each order. That goes a long way toward building credibility.

ObjectiOn #10

What They Say: “Your competition charges less.”

What They Mean: They feel you have not clearly laid out the value that you are offering them and what advantages your products and services have over the competition.

How to Change Their Minds: Competing on price is not usually a good idea for a sales rep, since it can lead to a vicious cycle of charging unsustainably low prices with the constant threat of customer defection as soon as the competition lowers prices a little further. A distributor will find greater success by moving the conversation beyond the price tag and focusing on the broader value and benefits of their offering.

“Be sure that the terms are compatible,” says Mackay. “Tell them, ‘Once you see our quality and service advantages, you’re likely to agree we offer the better long-term buy.’ ”

Levinthal contrasts the service his company is able to offer with the lack of customer interaction many get from cheaper online promotional suppliers as an example of how price is hardly everything. “My brother and I have been in business for 27 years – you can come to my office, you can see me at home, I am involved in the community,” he says. “I recently dealt with a woman who was trying to buy towels and got her call routed to India. I let clients know, ‘My reputation is more important than any profit I would get from you.’”