The “We’re Currently Working With Someone” Sales Objection

“How should I respond when, after I do my introduction, the Gatekeeper says – “We’re Currently Working With Someone” How do you overcome that?“

Well, do you want to “overcome” the objection or “eliminate” it from happening?

There’s plenty of sales advice out there on how to respond to that type of objection.

However, I prefer to “fix” what’s causing objections so that I no longer have to overcome them.

The first problem I see, based on your question, is that you mention the Gatekeeper is the one who shut you down with the “We’re Currently Working With Someone” objection.

That tells me the Gatekeeper was given way too much information to begin with.

When you over-explain why you are calling or what it is that you have to offer, it puts the person on the other end of the phone into decision-making mode:

“Do we need this?”

And all too often, the answer will be some form of “NO”.

If you will, you’ll want to break things down into smaller steps or victories to have better success in getting the decision-maker to want to have a conversation with you – or to have the gatekeeper want to put you through to the decision-maker.

Instead of doing a product or service data dump of what you do, have an opener that puts them in a place where they want to know more – or pass you through to the person that would need to know about what you do.

If you lead with what you offer, you increase the chances of hearing, “We’re Currently Working With Someone.”

But if you lead with the PROBLEMS you solve, that objection goes away.

Let me show you the difference between the two.

The What We Offer Opener (Not Recommended)

“Hi, we provide leads for companies just like yours. Our leads have the most up to date contact records and are constantly scrubbed and cleaned to provide accurate info. Is your company currently looking for new leads?”

And now the gatekeeper or decision-maker is put in a spot to make a yes or no decision – and most of the time it’s a NO / WE ALREADY HAVE SOMETHING FOR THAT.

The Problems We Solve Opener (Recommended)

“Hi (PROSPECT’S NAME) this is (YOUR NAME) w/ (YOUR COMPANY) Reason for my call, there’s a possibility we may be able to help your sales team (avoid/lower/reduce) their call reluctance – but I would need to ask a few quick questions first to be sure…”

Breaking It Down

When you tie a problem that hits a nerve with your targeted audience to what it is that you do, you’ll drastically reduce, if not eliminate, the “we already have someone who handles that” and you’ll start to gain interest and get to that next step in the sales process.

– Michael Pedone

Michael Pedone is the founder of SalesBuzz.com: How to Sell By Phone Online Sales Training Course that Reduces Turnover, Increases Pipeline, and Shortens Sales Cycles.