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Sales Objection: “It's Not a Priority Right Now” | by Steli Efti
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There are two ways of handling the “this just isn’t a priority right now”-objection. Which of the two you should choose depends on why the prospect tells you it’s not a priority. “Reason #1: Your Pitch Doesn’t Push Their Buttons” Did you properly qualify your prospects? Do you really understand their needs, challenges and priorities?
Reason #1: Your Pitch Doesn’t Push Their Buttons “Did you properly qualify your prospects? Do you really understand their needs, challenges and priorities?” If not, you need to ask more questions until you have a clear picture of what matters to them.
Did you properly qualify your prospects? Do you really understand their needs, challenges and priorities? “If not, you need to ask more questions until you have a clear picture of what matters to them.” Then you can customize your sales pitch to match their priorities.
If not, you need to ask more questions until you have a clear picture of what matters to them. “Then you can customize your sales pitch to match their priorities.” If you’re going to use a generic, one-size fits all value proposition, you’re going to miss out on a lot of opportunities. One of the reasons why sales people can create more revenue is precisely because they can personalize the sales approach for each prospect.
Then you can customize your sales pitch to match their priorities. “If you’re going to use a generic, one-size fits all value proposition, you’re going to miss out on a lot of opportunities.” The same product/service can be presented in different ways, to match different needs.
How do you respond to that? What can you do to make a sale happen? “There are two ways of handling the “this just isn’t a priority right now”-objection. Which of the two you should choose depends on why the prospect tells you it’s not a priority.” Reason #1: Your Pitch Doesn’t Push Their Buttons
Did you properly qualify your prospects? Do you really understand their needs, challenges and priorities? “If not, you need to ask more questions until you have a clear picture of what matters to them.” Then you can customize your sales pitch to match their priorities.
How do you respond to that? What can you do to make a sale happen? “There are two ways of handling the “this just isn’t a priority right now”-objection. Which of the two you should choose depends on why the prospect tells you it’s not a priority.” Reason #1: Your Pitch Doesn’t Push Their Buttons
How do you get to the real issue? “You just ask them: “You know what? I’m struggling with this, and I need your help. How come that it’s not a priority, since you mentioned that increasing revenue in the next quarter or two is really the number one goal that you guys have in mind? And I think I’ve demonstrated that our product could help you accomplish that in a pretty powerful way. Where is the disconnect? What am I missing? Why isn’t this a priority at this point?”” Don’t be confrontational about it — just be upfront and honest, and ask them to resolve this mismatch in a way that allows them to save face.
Oftentimes they just told you a little white lie because they were polite, or they were just uncomfortable to bring up the real issue. At this point, many inexperienced sales people make it about who is right and who is wrong. Yes, you can start to argue with them and prove them wrong, point out their fallacies. But do you want to close the deal or do you want to be right? “Most of the time if you probe, the prospect will then tell you about the real objection, for example:” “You know, it actually is a high priority right now, but the thing is, we’ve tried this many times with other startups, and one issue we had is the technology looks really cool, but it’s usually not mature, and then it takes way longer to implement than we thought, so, I really don’t want to get into these problems.” → It’s really about a lack of trust!
“You know what, the disconnect is that I don’t really think you’re going to move the needle on the revenue side. Yes, this could bring like a 2% improvement, but we’re looking for 30% growth! And we already plan to do X, Y and Z to increase our revenue. This is really a small distraction, its not going to make a big enough difference.” → It’s about your value proposition. “NOW you have something you can work with. Here’s a real objection you can manage to move the sale forward!” In sales, an inconvenient truth is always better than a convenient lie.
In sales, an inconvenient truth is always better than a convenient lie. “Because it’s something you can use to move the deal forward (or determine this just isn’t a fit and stop wasting your time on a bad prospect).” If they still give you “not a priority BS”, become more confrontational.