13.6 Managing Objections

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13.6 Managing Objections

Objections to deliverables, schedules, costs, and other project attributes are bound to surface during your initial presentation and subsequent dialogue. Salespeople are trained to anticipate and manage objections as a natural part of the process. Project managers are not, and they, quite naturally, respond poorly. We tend to react negatively to objections and those who raise them, sometimes taking offence at the negativity both professionally and personally.

Some objections will be unfair. Personal attacks are not all that rare. Take heart, for there is a tried and true method for dealing with this sort of thing. The goal in sales is to remove objections as an obstacle to closing the deal. Yours should be the same. Do not, however, misconstrue the goal of eliminating objections as a green light to dismiss them as poppycock or allow yourself to be drawn into a debate either. The correct approach is to interpret any expressed objection as an indication of a level of discomfort that needs to be diminished to the degree that you get buy-in and, thus, move forward with common purpose.

You want these customers and beneficiaries to be friends and allies, not enemies. To that end, salespeople are trained to:

  • Be receptive to objections instead of dismissing them out of hand.

  • Fully understand the objection from the customer's perspective.

After hearing the customer out and repeating the objections, ask, "If we can minimize or eliminate your concern, do we then have the basis for doing business?" This question may sound odd if not presumptuous. Its purpose is to gauge the potential customer's willingness to negotiate and, more important, close the deal. On the other hand, fighting objections tends to:

  • Make the dialog contentious

  • Increase the likelihood of nitpicking

  • Generally muck up the relationship

Good sales people and project managers react to objections in a positive way, thereby generating good will and facilitating team building. You also need to consider that the first objection raised may not be the real showstopper, so asking if solving the articulated objection closes the deal opens a dialog wherein the customer can say, "yes," "no," or "yes, but ". Sales-people are further trained how to react to each of these. "Yes" is easy, whereas the other two obviously require more questioning with a casual air and, more important, a seemingly open mind. In many sales scenarios and practically all project settings, the customer is likely, if not compelled, to do business with you. Even if their objections will ultimately be rejected, you must go through this to allow them to save face by articulating their concerns. As we shall see, the beneficiary may wish to save face or may wish to drive you ruthlessly, but, in any case, you must remain gracious and be able to backpedal without stumbling. Keep in mind that politics might eventually dictate that deliverables, schedules, or funding issues will be revisited based on this pushback, so you want to leave yourself room to save face as well.

When you think about it, reacting negatively to objections (i.e., with hostility or disdain) probably delivers a message to that customer or beneficiary that they are ignorant and uncooperative, and that you are arrogant and it is hard to do business with you. How you navigate around these perceptions once they set in is beyond me, so let us see how we can avoid getting there in the first place. Let us play this scenario out with the IP Telephone deliverable mentioned earlier.

Suppose some "doubting Thomas" interrupts your presentation by asking, "Isn't IP Telephone new and unproven technology? I read somewhere that it is not reliable and that the per user cost is a third higher than private branch exchange (PBX) or central office switching. Why do we have to pay that much more for something we can get with a technology we understand and trust?"

I have seen presenters respond to this kind of objection by scoffing or launching into a sermon on the irrefutable wisdom of the design intent. Any such reaction essentially says to the objector, "It is going to happen. Get over yourself!" Ouch. Suppose, instead, we followed the course of action recommended in this section. If we did, we would start out with an expression of empathy and then address the objection itself in a manner similar to that displayed in Exhibit 5.

Exhibit 5: Empathetic Response to Objections

start example

I understand your concern regarding the reliability of IP Telephone. When we started going down that road, the project team was a little skeptical about the technology's maturity, too; however, we evaluated the top three manufacturers' products, and visited sites where these products were installed. They were similar in size to our new site and had pretty comparable business requirements. Anyway, as a result of our research, we made three decisions. The first was obviously the product selection. I would be happy to send you the document covering our analysis of the three products we initially thought were equally capable.

Second, we hired the integration firm that did the installation and support at the site we felt best matched our requirements to do the heavy lifting for us because we are in a learning mode ourselves.

And third, quite frankly, we anticipated some concern about product maturity in the user community in addition to our own, so we are installing the base infrastructure from a cabling and power perspective that would allow us to bring in a PBX switching system, practically at the last moment. We do not think we will need to resort to that strategy, but we have about 6 months to go before the first batch of users start moving into the site. So, there is still plenty of time to revert to legacy technology, if becomes necessary.

Finally, let me address the cost issue. The company decided it was time to roll out this technology, to prove it for future voice deployments. That is why we are here today. I honestly cannot comment on any cost issues because I am not an expert on the comparative pricing of IP Telephone versus PBX or more traditional telephony. What I can do is check with the Voice Product Management group who sets pricing of voice technologies for end users, and see what I can find out about what they intend to charge users for IP Telephone. The project team has no say in that, but I will be happy to find out what I can for you.

end example

The backside of handling objections properly can be seen in this example as well. You should have a good story to tell, and you should be able to tell it with clarity and respect for your audience because that is what professionals do. It is also why I keep circling back to the Big Thirteen interrogatory in the first chapter; going through that process is how you learn that good story.



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Complex IT project management(c) 16 steps to success
Complex IT Project Management: 16 Steps to Success
ISBN: 0849319323
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 231
Authors: Peter Schulte

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