I hear from so many translation industry sales people that they struggle with this most common forms of customer resistance. When I ask what they do, a lot of sales people say they aren’t sure what to do, they stick with the tried and true “our quality is better” response, while others give up. Given how recently sales people hear this statement while prospecting, it’s worth exploring what it means and what can be done in response to it.
What It Means
This is the easy part. In my view it can many things. Here are a few ideas:
- It’s really true. There are a lot of really good translation companies out there and the sales person may in fact be talking with a prospect where this is the case.
- It’s partially true. The client is, for the most part, happy. Problems come up, but the vendor deals with them well and pro-actively tries to prevent them in the future.
- I don’t have time to talk to you. I’m busy. I may need another vendor or at least be open to exploring one, but I have 100 other things on my mind right now. I need to address it…sometime.
- Auto-response to get you off the phone. I don’t entertain anything new via phone calls. I am trained to say no, even though our vendor could do better.
How to Deal With It
It is the sales person’s responsibility to uncover the truth behind “we already have a vendor we’re happy with”. Sales opportunities reside in all of the scenarios above. Someone a client who is happy now might find their vendor can’t handle future needs. A mildly happy client might find you are indeed better, but is predisposed to think that all vendors are the same. The busy person could have a burning need, but this doesn’t burn as much as other needs. Sales people can heighten the burn if they handle this situation well. The auto-response is an awful one. Tough to get through, but possible if the sales person is armed with the right expectations and skills.
Two Problems and What To Do To Get Through “I Already Have a Translation Supplier”
The first is the sales person’s expectations. They’re looking for the client who has an immediate need and doesn’t already have a language service provider. In this globalised world, there aren’t that many companies who fit this profile. Most companies are likely have a preferred supplier already or at least have some experience with one or two translation companies. What’s a sales person to do?
In the face of “I already have a vendor I’m happy with” I believe sales people (and their managers) need to change their expectations and assume that everyone already has a supplier. This shifts the sales conversation significantly and should make sales people up their game. This mindset will force them to answer questions such as “why should this company use our services over their current supplier”. The result will be better prepared, more powerful “hooks” based on their understanding of the customer’s business environment, problems and goals. These help get the conversation going. Too often sales people sound exactly the same as their competition, which is a huge turn-off to the call recipient. “I’m just calling to introduce you to our services” doesn’t really give the customer much to work with, sounds like a lot of other sales people and neither demonstrates any understanding of the customer’s business or why the customer should consider their services, let alone give them a reason why they should go through the hassle of changing vendors.
The second problem is a skill issue. Sales people need to know how to handle initial customer resistance. The “I already have a vendor” objection may be true or it may simply be a way to get you off the phone. Customers do this because it works most of the time. Many sales people simply don’t know how to respond to customer resistance, give up and move on to the next, and hopefully, more receptive customer. In doing so they may be missing out on a great opportunity. Effectively handling customer resistance can open up the conversation, enable the sales person to ask questions and potentially uncover latent or even realised issues with the supplier the customer is supposedly happy. They may discover that you are better, but they’ll never know if you can’t handle the objection well or worse, give up. Now more than ever do translation sales people need to develop and even memorise responses to the most common objections they encounter. It demonstrates confidence in your services and, when done right, gently challenges the customer to think beyond the status quo. This is the chink in the armour for you to demonstrate how your company can help the customer do it better.
Bottom line. Develop a mindset that assumes the customer already has a vendor and develop and know cold several different responses to “we already have a vendor we’re happy with” objection to determine if the customer is fobbing you off or really does have a vendor that is fabulous. If you discover the former, you have a sales opportunity worth pursuing.
If you want to learn specific techniques to overcome this and other forms of resistance and sales objections, join my online Translation Sales School, which starts on 28th September and runs through October.