Sales Tip -- Beat the In-House Objection
How to Sell to a Business that Does for Itself a Service You Offer
Feb 20, 2009
One of the toughest objections in business-to-business selling of services is that the prospect performs the service in-house.
This is similar to where the prospect buys the service from an outside supplier, but it has its own challenges.
Telephone Sales
It is tough, especially if you make the initial contact with the prospect by phone in an attempt to get an appointment. You have to avoid suggesting the prospect would do better by discarding a decision the company has already made and is comfortable with. Say that in your sales script and you'll get a swift "no."
Outsourced Services
The prospective company might believe that the service being offered to be outsourced is being done free in-house. This, of course, is not true. There is a cost to everything in business.
The prospective company might want to retain control of the function performed by the service you offer, especially if the function is close to the company's core business.
Executive management might want to avoid any disruption of the relationship with employees in the in-house team.
The manager of the in-house team or department will regard your offer as a threat to his or her job or authority.
Sales Strategy
The strategy to adopt, according to sales trainer Paul S. Goldner, author of Red-Hot Cold Call Selling, is not to try to sell the prospect on the service itself, but on an ancillary service that can aid the in-house team.
For example, a purchasing-services firm could offer an in-house procurement group a service of researching and preparing short lists of vendors of particular categories of items. This would take some time-consuming drudgery type of work off the in-house group.
In another example, in some companies news releases are assigned to someone in marketing for whom it is not their main function. A public-relations firm could offer to ensure that releases are sent to a wide but selected group of publications. The firm could also offer to make personal contact with editors.
Sales Technique
When selling like this, you need to modify the sales technique, and word the telephone sales script, according to the management level of the prospect.
Executives, says sales trainer Mark Hunter, think in terms of value rather than price. You need to emphasize that your service firm provides value, such as in the following ways:
- It would enhance the effectiveness of the in-house team.
- It would save the team time.
- It would add the benefit of the wide expertise of the service firm's staff.
- It would relieve the in-house team of tasks that take them away from core responsibilities.
Middle managers think in terms of cost, says Mark Hunter. You need to sell the benefit the manager would get for the price. It helps if you can price the service at a level likely to be within the middle-manager's budget.
You will need to ask the right questions to find out:
- How the in-house team performs it services;
- What additional functions the team would like to do if they had the budget;
- The objectives and goals of the team and what they need to do to meet them;
- How much the company is willing to invest in achieving those objectives.
Business Strategy
The strategy is not to make much money on the adjunct service. The main objective would be to use it to get inside the prospective company to eventually sell more lucrative services.
It could be a long selling process. You must build confidence and trust in the prospect's mind. You need to demonstrate that your firm has the skills needed.
It's a tough objective, so don't meet it head on. Be a specialist, and offer something the in-house team can't do, and will add value for the executives.
See also: How To Sell Over The Phone ; Five Keys To Cold-Call Selling
 |
