An extremely common sales objection is that the prospect will say, “We do not have the budget right now.” While that might sound like an immediate show-stopper, there are some key things that you can do to try to get around and resolve that objection.
How to Respond when Cold Calling
One key thing to understand here is that you can respond to this in a different way depending on where you are in the sales process.
If you are on a cold call, for example, you will want to get away from the objection and keep the call going, and you can do that by redirecting to one of your pre-qualifying questions.
I understand.
(Optional defuse) And I want you to know that we are not trying to sell anything at this point.
(Optional defuse) I don’t even know if you are a good fit with what we do.
(Redirect to one of the qualifying questions) But if I could ask you real quick:
Are you currently using any automation tools to manage your inventory levels?
You can also redirect to some of the common pain points that you help to resolve.
I understand. (Redirect to one of the qualifying questions) When I talk with other manufacturing companies, the often express challenges with it taking too long to process orders and there are sometimes errors.
Have you ever been concerned by those?
However, if you are at the end of a call and have already asked a bunch of questions, you may just want to redirect to the subject of the meeting.
I understand. And I want you to know that we are not trying to sell anything at this point as we don’t even know if you are a good fit or not.
Our goal is to simply open the dialogue between our two companies so that if you reach a point where there is budget available, you will know who we are and what we have to offer.
Can I put a brief 15 to 20 minute call on your calendar next Tuesday or Thursday afternoon?
How to Respond During or After an Initial Appointment
You may meet with a prospect for a first appointment and this sales objection comes up. Note that this is before any formal presentation or demonstration.
In other words, you have met for 20 to 30 minutes, and the prospect is saying they don’t have a budget, and you have not really had a chance to show them your stuff. Here is how you can respond to that.
I would like to ask you to do me a favor and hold off on that concern right now. We are not trying to close any sale with you right now so the topic of budget being available is not completely relevant.
All we are trying to do right now is clearly identify if we are a good fit for you. That is why we would like to spend 20 to 30 minutes with you and show you some information on how we can help based on what you have shared so far.
We will continue forward aware that you have a budget concern and after that next meeting we can identify the level of fit and direction and pace to go. Does that sound reasonable?
How to Respond When It Is Time to Close
This sales objection can come up late in the sales cycle when it is time to close, and there is not much left to do. At this point, you will need to overcome the objection, and here are some tactics to help with that.
- Get to the root of the concern: Do they not have any money, are they spending the money on something else, or do they not see value in what you offer?
- Budget displacement: Is there something you can replace and thus free up budget that is spent on something else?
- Focus on ROI: Have you built a clear business case for the return on investment for what the prospect would spend with you and identified what the payback period is?
- Identify sources of funding: What is the budget that would pay for this if their budget was available?
- Look for alternative sources of funding: Are there other budgets that could be tapped into to fund this purchase?
- Plant seed for the future: What path would we take from a budget timing and planning process if the decision was made to purchase at some point?
SalesScripter will provide you with an objections map that will help you to deal with this sales objection.