Build An Objections Map For Effective Cold Calling

There is one outcome that you can guarantee when cold calling and that is that you will face some sort of objections. An objection is like a mini stop sign that the prospect will hold up to try to bring the call to an end. If we can agree that objections are likely to happen, then we can agree that being prepared for the most likely objections can help to create effective cold calling.

Creating an Objections Map Defined
In order to help be prepared for objections, it can help to have a tool or guide that outlines all of the most common or most likely anticipated objections that you are likely to get while cold calling for the product or service that you are selling. And to be most useful, this list of objections will also include the best responses that you can have to those objections. This tool that has objections with corresponding responses can be referred to as an objections map.

Below are three key steps to building out an objections map:

Step One - List Objections
For effective cold calling, brainstorm and create a list of all of the possible objections that you are likely to receive. This list will be different for each product and service but there are some that are common regardless of the scenario and those are:

I do not have time.
I am not interested.
I am already using something today.
I do not have money (budget).
I do not need that.

Step Two - Script Out Best Responses
Step two is to script out the best responses that you can have for these objections. Depending on your sales philosophy and perspective, you may get different opinions around what the best responses are but the goal for the response should be to keep the cold call going and to get the prospect to put down the stop sign.

One philosophy to use is to redirect objections to drive effective cold calling. Redirect objections refers to taking the conversation in a new direction and trying to avoid giving too much attention to the objection. This can be useful on cold calls as you do not have the time to effectively try to overcome the objection so try to redirect to simply keep the conversation going.

Once you have scripted out responses to the objections, test them out by running them by colleagues to see how them sound to identify if any tweaking is necessary.

Step Three - Continue Adding to List
The good thing about objections is that there is just about a finite list of objections that can come up. With that being the case, if you get to a point where you have them all outlined and have mapped out the responses that allow you to defuse them, then you will be very well positioned for effective cold calling.

But, there is a good chance that you may miss a few through the first attempt at the objections map so stay cognizant when making cold calls and you run up against one that you were not prepared for. When that happens, be sure to add it to the map and work on the response so that you can be prepared the next time it comes up.