“No, we’re all set.”

“We’re happy with what we have.”

“We’re not looking to change at this time.”

How often have you heard these words come out of a buyers mouth? Nobody wants to hear these words. They stop sales people in their tracks.

Why?

Because, for most sales people, if the prospect already has what you’re selling then why “push” them on something. No one wants to be a “pushy” sales person.  I agree. No one wants to deal with a pushy sales person. BUT, in many cases the customer doesn’t know what their alternatives are and don’t know what they are saying no to. It’s your job to help them make an educated decision based on what they know and don’t know.

You see, when people buy, or more specifically when they decide they want something new it’s due to one of two scenarios. It’s either because they have identified a problem they need to fix OR they’ve seen a product or service that highlights an opportunity they didn’t know they could capitalize on. It’s really that trait forward.

Let me simplify. People switch or change if:

1. They recognize a problem they want to fix or make go away
2. Something (a product or service) highlights an opportunity they want to take advantage of.

Number two is where the win is when it comes to the objections listed above. When a prospect or buyer says they don’t want to change, that they are not looking, that’s code for — We don’t see a problem that needs to be fixed. Therefore, the first reason to change is not present. Here is the good news, number two is still in play.  Unfortunately, too many sales people walk away from a potential sale, because they don’t recognize number two is still on the table.

Putting number two in play is tricky, but if your product or service can truly improve a buyers environment, then you have a chance. The key to putting number two in play comes down to knowledge of your product AND knowledge of your prospects environment. If you don’t know more about what your product or service does in relation to your prospects current solutions you won’t be successful getting number two in play. And, if you don’t know as much or even more about the environment your customer is in, you’ll fail executing on number two as well. Getting prospects to see an opportunity they didn’t already see is a “knowledge play.” You have to know more than your prospects current and future states than they do. That’s hard and requires serious skill, tact and knowledge.

To get your prospect to see opportunities they didn’t see starts with having a super robust understanding of what the common current state is for their environment and what is good and not good about their environment. You have to understand the workflows, the touch-points, the costs, the failure points, the use cases and more. You have to have to know what your prospects are using their solutions for and how they are using them.

Once you understand what your prospects are using for solutions and how they are using them create a list of three or four questions that can or will highlight the differences in what you offer and what your prospect currently has today. The objective is to create a gap in knowledge between what you know and what your prospect knows.

Here are a couple of my favorite questions to ask when I hear the objections from above:

1. No problem, I understand you are all set, but if I could ask one question. Are you familiar with the difference between “insert your solution” and “insert what ever solution they are using?” By asking this simple question you quickly determine how educated the buyer is and on what basis they said their not interested. This is a great question for creating that gap.
2. I understand you’re all set, not a problem. But, could I ask a quick question, how are you solving “insert a common business or workflow problem you know most of your target buyers are struggling with.”
3. Thanks for your time, if I may ask one last question before we get off the phone, how are you capitalizing on “insert a common opportunity your prospects or buyers CAN’T capitalize on in their current environment.”

By asking any variations of these three questions sets you up to find a gap in your prospects knowledge. Knowledge and information are behind every sale. Too often we assume our prospects and clients have all the information and are making informed decisions. This assumption is a bad one. Prospects and customers usually don’t have all the information, they are too busy running their businesses.  It’s up to the sales person to educate them and sometimes that takes a little push.

When a prospect says they are all set, don’t assume they are right. They usually aren’t, it’s not their job to know it all, it’s yours.

Find the knowledge gap and educate the customer. If they’re all set with all the information then you’ve done your job, until then you’re walking away too early.

Don’t quit too soon.