Episode #440: Art Sobzcak

The most common objections that salespeople hear are the ones they create themselves. They do this by talking too much, pitching too much, or failing to establish value in someone’s mind as to why they should pay for what the salesperson is selling. So how does Art handle objections when they arise? Using his curated four-step objection-handling framework. Learn all about it in this episode of Sales Reinvented. 

Outline of This Episode

• [1:08] The most common types of objections salespeople face
• [2:33] The biggest mistake that salespeople make
• [4:39] How Art responds to objections 
• [7:25] The role of empathy in handling objections
• [8:40] How to handle objections with confidence 
• [11:24] Art’s top 3 objection handling dos and don’ts
• [14:44] Art’s four-step framework at work

The biggest mistake that salespeople make

You can’t overcome objections with goofy rebuttal techniques. You certainly can’t tell someone they’re wrong—they’ll react with more resistance. You have to uncover the real problem. You do that by learning to uncover the reason behind someone’s belief.

People often say, “We don’t have the money,” which may not be addressing the real problem. Maybe they think they can get it cheaper somewhere else. Maybe they have a predetermined limit in their mind (that may or may not be based on reality). Maybe they don’t see the value in what you’re getting.

So how does Art respond to an objection without being argumentative? 

How Art responds to objections 

Art has a four-step process for handling objections:

• Step #1: Don’t respond with a rebuttal. Instead, let them know you won’t argue by saying, “Oh, I see” or “Hey, not a problem.” 
• Step #2: Uncover the real reason behind what they said; isolate the problem.
• Step #3: Take them through a process where they begin to doubt their existing belief.
• Step #4: Once they’re open to thinking differently, reframe your original recommendation for whatever action you want them to take. 

Art goes in-depth into his framework in this episode. 

How to handle objections with confidence

Confidence is created by competence. Competence is achieved through knowledge put into practice.

What are all of the possible reasons why someone might say, “Your price is too high?” For each of those reasons, you want to come up with doubt-creation questions to get to the root of why they believe what they do. 

Then you have to ask yourself, how would someone respond to those questions? You have to continue the process to come up with more follow-up questions. When Art gives this training, they often cover an entire wall with questions and answers. 

You have to practice, make mistakes, and learn from them. That’s how you build competence—and the confidence will follow. 

Art’s four-step framework at work

A potential client contacted Art about doing a workshop. He asked a lot of quotes about why they wanted training. He established their pain, attached a price tag to what it was costing them to have reps who weren’t good at their jobs, and went through the potential payoff of their success.

Art talked about how the workshop would work. They wanted to do it quickly and explained why. When Art presented their potential investment, the Sales Director was resistant and said they couldn’t pay that number. After digging deeper and asking questions, he learned that the real reason for the objection was that they’d never paid that much for an outside trainer before.

Art continued to ask questions until the Sales Director started to realize his objection wasn’t founded. He knew they needed the training and that it would pay for itself many times over. So he went to the President of the company and recommended the training. It was quickly approved. 

Resources & People Mentioned

• Art’s FREE objection masterclass

Connect with Art Sobzcak

• Connect on LinkedIn
• Follow on Twitter

Connect With Paul Watts

• LinkedIn
• Twitter

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Learn More About Art Sobzcak

What was a pivotal moment or experience in your career that fundamentally changed the way you handle objections, and how did it shift your approach?

It was through a series of consumer telemarketing boiler room jobs I had when in high school. All of the places had the objection rebuttal scripts. Some even had the photo album style flip pages where the objection would be at the bottom of the card, and you’d flip to it to see the rebuttal script. I learned after trying these for a while that simply reciting a rebuttal was being argumentative and usually did not work. So, I began to improvise and engage in real conversations with people, which led to success, and ultimately what I have used and taught my entire career.

 Can you share a specific technique or framework you’ve used to successfully overcome a tough objection? Please provide a brief example or case study where it worked effectively.

A prospect contacted me because he loved my podcast, book, and material. They were having their national sales conference and had some interest in having me present a Smart Calling workshop for their entire outside sales team. He agreed it was exactly what they needed. But there was pushback from his boss. We got on a call and I simply went through my objection process. (I’ve condensed this for brevity.)

• VP of Sales: “Dan likes your material, and I’ve seen it and it’s pretty good, but I don’t feel that you;d be a good fit for our team.”
• Me: “Oh, that’s interesting. Let’s talk about that.(Softening Statement) What led to that?” (Isolating Real Reason)
• VP: “Well, outside speakers don’t work for our group.”
• Me: “How so?” (Isolating Real Reason)
• VP: “We sell into a niche market, so outside general presentations aren’t relevant enough.”
• Me: “I see. Did you have an experience in the past with a speaker that just gave a generic presentation.” (Isolating)
• VP: “Yeah. A guy came in and was talking like we were selling to people at home and used lawn care examples. He lost everyone in the first 10 minutes and they were actually laughing at him by the end.”
• Me: “I can see how that wouldn’t have gone over well. So that’s the main reason you haven’t used outside speakers.” (Isolating.)
• VP: “Pretty much. And, I’ve been to conferences where the celebrity speakers just give their same schtick.”
• Me: “Have you ever seen a speaker who was on point and resonated with the audience.” (Doubt Creation)
• VP: “Yeah, I’ve seen industry speakers who connected because they talked about we did.”
• Me: “So what’s really important is that the speaker is relevant to what the sales reps do every day, speaks their language, and can relate with examples that they experience, right?”  (Doubt Creation)
• VP: “Well, pretty much.”
• Me: “Would you be open to hearing the research process I go through before my programs, so that I tailor and customize what I present so thoroughly that attendees have told me they thought I worked internally for their company? (Doubt creation)
• VP: “Sure.”
• Me: (Explanation of process, value to them, results, etc.)
• They agreed to the program.

Objections can sometimes feel like dead ends in conversations. Can you share a particularly challenging objection you faced and the steps you took to turn it into a win?

• A president of family-owned industrial supply company contacted me because their sales dropped off the cliff during Covid, since they relied on personal sales visits. Their outside reps were not skilled at using the phone, and were resistant to it. He knew they needed to get their reps up to speed, and active on the phone. However, his brother was the Sales Manager, and set in his ways that their reps would not be “telemarketers.”
• The Sales Manager was also stubborn, and not open to an outsider telling him what to do. So the challenge was to coach his brother, the president, on how to get the Sales Manager to agree that they needed to change, or the company would likely have big layoffs. Of course as the president, he could have just told him that he would force him to implement phone training and a process, but that wouldn’t be the optimal solution.
• The president and I worked together on my doubt-creation process, including role-playing. He then spoke with his brother. He got his brother to finally admit that the main thing holding him back was that when he was a sales rep, he was great in person with customers, so that is how he trained his reps. He never used the phone to prospect. He also admitted that his reps were younger, were worried about their jobs, and were open to doing what needed to be done in order to save the business. Ultimately, he agreed, they implemented phone training and a system for prospecting and calling existing customers. This served them well in getting through Covid, and beyond.

What are the top three tools, resources, or training programs you recommend for sales professionals who want to improve their objection-handling skills?” 

• I recommend my recently-updated free masterclass, HOW TO EASILY HANDLE SALES
• RESISTANCE AND OBJECTIONS (WITHOUT Using Uncomfortable and
• Goofy Rebuttals). We formerly charged $99 for this program when it was in webinar form, and the new version is five video lessons, going through the objection handling and doubt-creating process, along with lots of word-for-word examples for dealing with many forms of resistance. You also get the slides, the transcript, and a workbook. Get instant access at https://smartcalling.training/objections/

With evolving buyer behaviors and advancements in AI and technology, how do you see objection handling changing in the coming years, and what advice would you give to salespeople to stay ahead?

The most successful sales professionals over the past 100 years have recognized that human psychology and brain science has not changed. Ultimately, the best salespeople are the best communicators. Technology is and has always been a tool to help us be more effective communicators. It is NOT a replacement for two-way communication. I encourage sales pros to use technology and AI to help them be more efficient, aid in their personal and professional development, and to constantly be curious about how they can be more effective in their overall sales process and messaging.