The Cold Call: Handling Objections

In our last blog we walked through basic steps to increase the success of your cold calls. One area that we left out was “handling objections.” This is the toughest part of any sales call or meeting. Rather than fearing objections, you should embrace them; every objection creates an opportunity to reiterate key benefits and value messages for your product or service.

According to an article “Insurance Agent’s Guide to the Prospecting Cold Call,” there are only about six to ten objections you will hear from prospects over and over again. Which is good. If you have an idea of what the main objections are, you can prepare to address them.

However, the bad news is that, until you become proficient at handling these objections, you will have minimal success.

Here are four examples of what the article listed as most the common objections and strategies to overcome them:

Objection:

“Send me something in the mail.”

» Response:

I would send you something, but the cost savings are unique to each company, and I assume that’s very important to you, right? We need to assess what your needs are and the solutions to match them and then you’ll have a number to go with it.

———

Objection:

“I’m happy with my current agent.”

» Response:

That’s great, and I don’t even know if my company would even be a fit, but tell me, if we could offer you a similar product/service, but at 20 percent less the premium, could that at least be worth a look?

———

Objection:

“Call me after the holidays.”

» Response:

I’m sure both of our schedules get pretty busy right after the holidays. Take a look at your calendar — do you have it in front of you? (They usually do.) What looks good for you the latter part of the week of the 18th? I’ll even give you my number in case an emergency comes up.

———

Objection:

“I don’t have time to meet.”

» Response:

I can certainly appreciate your time, but if I am able to share with you a way to measurably reduce costs by 15 to 25 percent and share other things we’ve done to help <competitor>, isn’t that worth a look?”

For our veteran agents out there, we’re interested in hearing if you agree if these are the most common objections you receive when making cold calls? If yes, what responses have you found to be most effective in addressing them?

If no, what are the most common objections you’re hearing and how are you responding?