“Sorry, we don’t have a budget for that.”
What do you do when you hear this well worn objection?
First, don’t buy into this being an actual legitimate objection. Instead, go back to peeling the onion. Test the theory that it’s actually an objection.
Peel the onion away to find out if having a budget really is their ends need, or just a smokescreen. I can’t tell you how many times I got the deal after somebody says they have no budget up front, or they have only a small budget for my offering, or they never buy what I sell. However, once I peeled the onion and got to the value, they found the budget.
How do you peel the onion? Ask questions that get to their ultimate needs or ends needs. Ask:
“Why is it important to you to solve this problem?”
“What is most important to you about ____?”
“If you had ____, what would that give you?”
“Is there any other way that ____ would help you?”
A solution begins to form in their minds. With their ends need fresh in mind, and an understanding of how your solution can help them get what they really want, more often than not, they’ll find the budget.
But where do they find the budget?
They will reallocate some other expense. Or create it – go to the bank. Any well functioning company has reinvestment dollars on hand, or they can get creative and find it. There’s not a company that I know that won’t go forward with an initiative that wasn’t forecasted and budgeted if something comes along that they see immense value in. So they may forestall other projects to do yours. It all depends on where they are in the value chain.
If the perceived value of what you’re doing is tied into ROI, they will make the investment. In other words, if they see that you are offering them a way to get significantly closer to their ends needs, the pain shifts. They are no longer concerned about a line item. They are more concerned with realizing their big picture goal.
Most salespeople give up way too early on the budget objection. They say, “No budget? No problem. Let’s start looking toward next year’s budget.” The problem is they haven’t fully vetted out whether it’s possible this year.
Until you have determined that it is simply not possible for them to buy this year, keep helping them look at what their alternatives are.
