Objective-based Selling

Objective-based selling is a predefined set of sales steps used by top sales professionals to help improve their ability to sell confidently and close a higher % of deals, entitling them to earn more money throughout their career in sales.

Objective-based selling by SalesBuzz breaks the entire sales process down into micro-steps. These micro-steps are laid out in a logical, sequential order that prospects go through during a sales call.

Objective-based selling takes the guesswork out of selling and allows sales professionals to sell confidently as they know what each objective they need to accomplish before moving on to the next step in the sales call.

Objective-based Selling Example

Here’s an example of objective-based selling:

The sales professional is about to call a lead for the first time.

The lead meets pre-qualification status. The sales rep wants to determine if an opportunity exists.

The lead (prospect) must be fully qualified for an opportunity to exist.

The sales professional must engage the prospect in a conversation to qualify the prospect.

How can the sales professional get the lead (prospect) to be willing to converse?

With objective-based selling, the sales professional knows they must first PIQUE the prospect’s interest in the first few seconds of the sales call.

The sales professional selects the correct opener (what you say after “Hello, my name is…”) for this particular lead to capture their attention and curiosity.

Once the PIQUE interest phase of the objective-based selling strategy is achieved, the sales professional knows exactly the next step in the process and selects the correct question to ask the prospect to continue the sales call down the predefined path.

Using objective-based selling by SalesBuzz takes the guesswork out of selling. Because the predefined path is undisputed truth as it follows the steps consumers need to make during the purchasing process, the success rate is higher than sales reps using random, gut feel, captain wing-it style of selling.

Objective-based Selling Eliminates Call Reluctance

Another advantage of Objective-based Selling is that it eliminates call reluctance.

How? When sales professionals know each micro-step of the sales process and how to execute each play to achieve the objective, they no longer fear picking up the phone.

Example of how objective-based selling eliminates call reluctance:

Let’s say the sales professional is making a first-time outbound call to a new pre-qualified lead.

With objective-based selling, the sales professional knows ahead of time that one of three things will happen on this call before they pick up the phone:

1. The gatekeeper could answer
2. The call could go straight to voicemail
3. The prospect could answer

Top sales professionals using the objective-based selling method from SalesBuzz will know one of these three things will happen and be prepared ahead of time, regardless of the scenario.

If the gatekeeper answers, they run the gatekeeper play.

If they get voicemail, they run the voicemail play.

And if the prospect answers, they use the pre-determined opener play for that particular lead type.

Knowing ahead of time what potential scenarios a sales professional could face before picking up the phone, and having a proven strategy committed to memory and ready to use, takes the fear out of picking up the phone.

While other, less skilled, and ill-prepared sales reps hide behind email outreach and LinkedIn messages, top sales professionals who’ve mastered the objective-based sales strategy will produce higher results by having the benefits of using the phone to get prospects engaged in a conversation.

Here’s another example of Objective-based selling.

The sales professional called a new lead and, using the objective-based selling method from SalesBuzz, used the proper opener to accomplish the first objective: Pique interest.

Now what? Without objective-based selling in place, a sales rep may start asking random questions that quickly lose the prospect’s interest and curiosity. Or they may begin to data dump, spilling too much information about what is offered, leading the prospect to say things like:

• We already have something that handles that; or
• Just send me some information

With the objective-based selling method, the sales professional knows they want to use the OPENER to get to the next mini-step, the ENGAGEMENT question.

The engagement question is designed to put your prospect’s attention on an area you need them to think about.

You want to do this to uncover a problem that you would need them to have to be interested in purchasing your solution. After all, if there’s no problem to solve, there’s no need to buy a solution. And the best way to cold-call and get a prospect interested in buying your solution is to ask questions that, based on their answers, uncover a problem they didn’t even know they had.

And to do that, you have to ask an ENGAGEMENT question that places their attention in the area you need/want them to think about and have a conversation about.

This is the power of the objective-based selling method by SalesBuzz.

You learn the entire step-by-step process and how to execute each step that leads to the next step.

The process works in every industry.

How is that possible?

Because even though the problems and challenges your prospects face and the solutions you offer may be unique, the decision-making process is always the same.

Example: No one researches for a solution until they recognize a problem. Therefore, when cold-calling, your first objective is to qualify the prospect to see if an opportunity exists. The first step in qualifying is establishing problem recognition. Does a problem exists that you can help solve that would greatly benefit the prospect?

To uncover if a problem exists, you have to have a conversation.

How do you get a cold prospect willing to converse with you?

You have to pique their interest in the first few seconds of the call.

Hopefully, you can see how using an objective-based selling process from SalesBuzz will lower cold call anxiety, increase confidence and boost sales numbers by learning this step-by-step method for outbound sales.

– Michael Pedone

Michael Pedone is the CEO/FOUNDER of SalesBuzz.com – On-demand sales training courses that teach B2B phone sales techniques that work.