Objection Handling Part 2: "I need to check with my partner"

Why do buyers so often say, "I need to check with my partner" – and how can salespeople respond with confidence?

In this lively episode, Bob and Jeremy tackle one of the most common and frustrating objections in sales. Packed with practical strategies and a dose of humour, this is your guide to turning hesitation into commitment.

We kick things off with a hilarious role-play centred on the fictional Lundgren 7000 air fryer, capturing the all-too-relatable challenges salespeople face when objections arise. But it's not just laughs – we break down the psychology behind this polite but evasive response, helping you understand what’s really going on in your buyer’s mind.

From surprising insights into Dolph Lundgren’s academic background (yes, Rocky IV gets a mention!) to practical tips like using music to build rapport, this episode goes beyond the basics. You’ll discover how to transform objections into opportunities, strengthen client relationships, and guide conversations towards a confident “Yes!”

What you’ll gain:

• Psychological insights into customer hesitation
• Proven techniques to overcome objections with confidence
• Creative ideas to enhance the sales experience, from playful touches to clear communication

Whether you’re a seasoned salesperson or new to the game, this episode is packed with actionable advice to boost your skills and tackle objections with flair. Tune in now and empower your team to close deals with ease!

Explore resources, insights, and tools tailored to support your team's success and strategic growth at realitytraining.com.

Transcript

Decision Making in Sales Training

Speaker 1 0:00

so um bob, if I can call you bob sure I think that you're now going to be the proud owner of the lungren 7000, and I bet you and your partner can't wait to be doing some stuff in the airfryer. So, as I said, it's just 295 pounds okay, um, I didn't.

Speaker 2 0:24

Didn't realise that was the cost actually, for some reason. Look, thanks for taking me through it. What I need to do is check with my partner, and then what I'll do is I'll call you back later.

Speaker 1 0:37

Hang on, hang on, hang on. We've gone through this. Clearly, you're on the mission to provide the air fryer. You've been sent to do this.

Speaker 2 0:50

So why don't we cut out the time, wasting stuff, and you, you buy it and I'll get it sent to your house, um, okay well, I, I you know I I appreciate you being robust in response to that, but I really do need to check with her. This is the right thing to get because you, uh, yeah, come on yeah, I do actually, because if I get, the wrong thing.

Speaker 1 1:03

what kind's a waste of time and money? What kind of relationship is this? It's probably your money, isn't it?

Speaker 2 1:07

My relationship is none of your business, okay.

Speaker 1 1:09

I'm not saying it is, but I think you're able to make a decision like Iron Air Fryer no, no thanks. Is this the Lundgren model?

Speaker 2 1:16

I don't need to be sold.

Speaker 1 1:19

Basically, we've both wasted our time, haven't we?

Speaker 2 1:23

If that's the way you want to see it, yeah, that's exactly what we've done.

Speaker 1 1:32

I'll tell you what. Please don't make any calls about other equipment, because this is a proper place and you've really wasted my time. Well, that'd be nice, wouldn't it?

Speaker 2 1:41

What a lovely person. They were Well welcome to the Reality Sales Training and you may have guessed from the intro that we are dealing with this thorny issue of I just need to check with my partner. Now, of course, this is going to be 95% of the time for a consumer sale of some point, but it may be a business sale where the person needs to check with their business partner. It amounts to the same thing. So I'm going to check with somebody else before I make this buying decision. It's incredibly common. It's probably more common than I think that's a bit expensive.

Speaker 2 2:23

Yeah, I think it is Because I think A there's a percentage of people and we'll come on to that in a minute who do need to check with their partner, but there's also a percentage of people who would rather say that I need to check with my partner than say, oh, I think that's a bit expensive. They think it's an easier out for them to say they need to check with their partner, so they'll use that as their excuse for not buying. Now, jeremy, where do we think this comes from?

Speaker 1 2:51

Where does this old hack Well, I suppose there's a couple of things we can talk about here. Where does check with partner come from in the buyer's mind? But also we'll look at what you can do about it. I suppose it's those two areas really. So I would say, if we go back to you, considering buying the Lundgren air fryer there you know that, dolph.

Speaker 2 3:10

Is there such a thing?

Speaker 1 3:11

No, but I just suddenly thought, if Dolph Lundgren, it's a great name. Yeah, isn't it, it's a great, it sounds like a really good German manufacturer of top-class air fryers or Swedish or Nordic.

Speaker 2 3:21

I almost bought it just because of the name Anyway yeah. Okay, what kind of air fryer have you got? I've got a Lundgren A.

Speaker 1 3:28

Lundgren yeah.

Speaker 2 3:30

Actually Dolph Lundgren he was in Rocky IV.

Speaker 1 3:32

Is he part of his company?

Speaker 2 3:34

Yeah, he's incredibly bright.

Speaker 1 3:37

So it's not expendable.

Speaker 2 3:41

As an aside, I found out the other day that Dolph Lundgren has got degrees in mechanics or something, or bio, something or other. He's an incredibly intelligent man who just landed in action films in the 80s. But anyway, we digress.

Speaker 1 3:53

Before we digress, when you think of Dolph Lundgren, when you think of your youth and growing up, what film do you think of? It's Rocky IV. It is, isn't it?

Speaker 2 4:04

Of course.

Speaker 1 4:04

How good was he in that?

Speaker 2 4:05

He was excellent and a great soundtrack, that film as well.

Speaker 1 4:09

James Brown.

Speaker 2 4:10

James Brown and a load of other great tracks on there. It's a really, really good film I can't think of what they are. I'll check it out. Oh you listen to it. There's some great ones. The comparison between Rocky trying to run up a mountain and Dolph having high tech training. That music is really kind of. There's no easy way out. There's no shortcut home.

Effective Sales Conversations and Objection Handling

Speaker 1 4:33

It's great. So actually, in the reality of sales training, we're also now giving a byproduct that choose the right soundtracks to motivate.

Speaker 2 4:40

There we go, so back to the original point.

Speaker 1 4:42

So I was saying. I think it comes from a place of fear of making the wrong decisions. If we're talking about customer journeys, suddenly I'm decisions on me, so I'm going to talk about the consumer, talk about the salesperson. I've got to make a decision that the Lundgren 5000, air God 200 and something a bit more than I want to spend. If I took this home and my partner said, what why didn't you ring me? And she disliked it, he disliked it in some way Would I be reprimanded? Would they say I was an idiot? Fear of fear of making the wrong decision. And I suppose the other thing that we've often talked about training is suddenly I think 300 is it worth it? Do I need to lose 300 pounds of my account? Shall I just continue my existence without joining the air fryer train? You know?

Speaker 2 5:33

well, ironically, if the salesperson and this is the big learning, I think if the salesperson had a decent enough job in the early part of the conversation, asked enough questions, yeah, and pointed out the features why this was the right product for you, you probably wouldn't have even used an objection. You go this is a no-brainer, I'll have it. But because they haven't found out your needs and they haven't asked enough questions, they haven't been able to find out what the value points are for you. So now anything they've shown you is going to look like a lot of money and you is going to look like a lot of money, yeah, and you're going to think, well, I don't want to make the wrong choice. So I am going to check with my partner to make sure that they think it's the right choice as well, to to validate my decision and, just as you're saying, in the customer's mind there may be a gap in understanding of the capability of the model.

Speaker 1 6:18

So, for example, if the partner said I really want to do jacket potatoes in heart in way less time and the salesperson hadn't even discussed jacket potatoes or asked me I'll be going, I don't know if it's going to do that and I don't want to ask him anymore. It's 300 quid.

Speaker 2 6:33

I mean it's such a glimpse into your life, isn't it the idea that the jacket potato is the decider? I mean that's just fantastic. I haven't done one.

Speaker 1 6:41

I've got an air fryer now, have you? Yeah, we put some it's not very exciting homemade fries in it. It was quick, I have to say. It dried them out. That might be my skill in using the machine, but I had to certainly cover them with quite a lot of vinegar to make them palatable.

Speaker 2 6:56

Well, look.

Speaker 1 6:58

Let's talk about the salesperson. The salesperson, yeah.

Speaker 2 7:01

Now the salesperson is having sales conversations all day long and through the day they will have different objections and of course we talked about some of these before too expensive, blah, blah, blah. But more often than not they say I think I need to check with my partner. What is it they're trying to do? They're trying to delay the decision just for a little while. Now, if it's true and the statistic is that really only about 10 percent of people who say they want to check with a partner actually genuinely want to do that, I'll just come in there I would say the fact that research is done by consumers so much more in advance.

Speaker 1 7:44

Through the internet, through the pandemic, we're much more comfortable isolating the models we want or the products. We've done that so, as you're saying, I concur with that even more now it's just a delay.

Speaker 2 7:58

So that's the first thing is that I'm trying to delay now. They've made that choice. That that's their, that's their objection they're going to use they need to check with my partner 90% of them, incidentally, don't need to check with their partner they just don't want to make that choice and that decision right then at that moment, to give you the glory of a sale. Yeah, they're just delaying it, laying it Now. What Jeremy demonstrated at the beginning of this podcast was a very, very negative response to that objection. Okay, I'm sure in the modern world he would have been reprimanded for such a response, because he was essentially having a go at the customer.

Speaker 1 8:43

I would also hope that the Lundgren organization would remove that organization as a reseller of their product.

Speaker 2 8:49

Well, you would hope so, but in truth, what Jeremy also demonstrated was that his lack of knowledge of the customer, his lack of questioning and his lack of understanding the value to the customer meant that this sale was never going to happen, and we could have told him that much earlier in the conversation anyway.

Speaker 1 9:06

So let's cover that quickly and then we'll do a little demo for you. So what we're saying here is that who's going to be using the air fryer? What are they going to be cooking? How are you going to be using it? When's the first occasion for it? So we're not going to labour on questions. We've done an episode and we'll do more on how to ask great questions but quite simply, the way you eliminate and reduce check with partner objections is by finding out, uh, or, or how the product's going to be used or the service is going to be used.

Speaker 2 9:32

It's pretty obvious so the other thing yeah, go for it.

Speaker 1 9:35

Well, let's give it, let's give a demo now yeah, or I was going to say one more thing before the demo. Okay, if, um, you'd, you'd asked who's going to be using it. And they said, well, mostly my partner, my wife, my boyfriend, whatever you might be able to say, oh, they're not with you now. No, I've been tasked with doing this, we're just doing some research, the early stages. Or they said, no, I've got to get one, we need one by Saturday. You'd have found out more. That's the point.

Speaker 2 10:00

All right, let's do a demo.

Speaker 1 10:01

We'll go back to me being the salesperson of the long room, but now I'm a better salesperson. I have, in this instance, asked all the questions. Yeah and bobby will go with the flow and whatever I come up with.

Speaker 2 10:12

Now we're also going to explain that this is another great example of what we call permission based objection handling. So let's take it from the top. Try and close me, jay great bobby.

Speaker 1 10:22

I think you are going to have a much less stressful dinner party and it's going to take less time, and you and your partner will really enjoy cooking this. So are you now about to become the proud owner of the Lundgren 9000 at £295?

Speaker 2 10:39

Well, possibly I think it all looks really, really good, but I think I just need to run it past my partner just to make sure it's the right one.

Speaker 1 10:53

Yeah, well, you've mentioned her and I get that. So I understand you just want to run it past your partner. Yes, I do. Yeah, Okay, Can I just check, as far as you're concerned, what the product's going to do, how you're going to use the air fryer, the Lundgren 9000, are you happy with what it's able to achieve for you and the variety of cooking you're doing?

Speaker 2 11:16

I think it looks exactly what we're looking for. Absolutely the size. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 11:22

The reviews. Yeah, yeah, the reviews, great, okay. So what do you think Serena's issue? You did say it was Serena. What do you think Serena's issues are going to be? What are going to be her concerns?

Speaker 2 11:35

I think she'll be pleased with the product. I think she'll just be slightly concerned about the cost. Actually.

Speaker 1 11:40

Okay, so she might just be concerned about the cost, but actually quite like the product. Okay, so if we took a moment to go over what I think her concerns may be, and I help you understand that, can I just go over a few key key things? Sure, okay. So you talked about her concern about whenever you have bought a new kitchen appliance. She thinks it's going to be complicated.

Speaker 2 12:05

You have to read lots of instructions.

Speaker 1 12:07

This just has the images on the front. It has the fish button, it has the meat button, it has the fries button.

Speaker 2 12:14

She literally has to press a button yeah, that's pretty good, so so I I don't think she's going to have to be going through.

Speaker 1 12:22

The other thing is you said she didn't want it to be. You know, stand stand out and be horrendous in the kitchen. You said you've got this lovely black small bone kitchen that you invested in and this is black too. You know, dolph and the team has made it that color, so it won't stand out against the marble. It will complement the marble.

Speaker 1 12:45

Okay, so I don't know if that helps sort of alleviate any serena's potential. Yeah, I mean it's. Yeah, I mean this could go in the boot of your car. You could arrive home as a surprise. You've got the receipt. If it wasn't right, just drive back and see me and of course we'll take the product back. Just don't take it out the box, just drive back and see me.

Speaker 2 13:06

And of course, we'll take the product back, just don't take it out of the box. Okay, well, that sounds fair enough, let's do it Great.

Speaker 2 13:18

So Jeremy used the world famous puppy dog clothes there that we'll talk about on another podcast. Now that is permission-based objection handling, and you get to the point where you're asking permission to remind the customer of the value of this particular product to them. Now a couple of key questions. He asked was I happy with the product? So I wanted to check with my partner. Was I happy with it? Yes, I was. Then he said what do you think your partner's questions or problems might be? Well, nothing, just the cost. Now, of course, the partner's not there. That's not the partner's concern, that's my concern. I'm just masking it. I'm masking it by pretending to want to go and speak to my partner. I'm the one that's concerned about the cost. And now Jeremy asked permission to remind me what's so good about this, and that gives him the chance to restate the value and give me a moment to really think about it.

Speaker 2 14:15

Now I should first of all say that this technique doesn't work 100% of the time, because some people just do want to check with their partner and don't want to spend the money. But a lot of people, taken through this in a relaxed, gentle fashion, will think you know what? What the hell, I'm going to go for it. And this is what's so great about this technique it brings the customer in gently. He said I understand how you feel, which is an example of empathy empathizing with the customer, not sympathizing with the customer. He's empathizing. Then he repeated the objection. You just want to check with your partner now the other reason that you do that. Jeremy, explain why do we always repeat the objection?

Speaker 1 14:59

if I say to bob, so you just want to check with your partner, he might go well. Actually, how long is the cable? Because I want to fit it by the toaster and I have to wrap it all right. So you have got an actual other question or a concern. So they hear that, that and go well, that isn't what I just want to do. I want to know how tall it is. Is it going to fit under the cupboard? It could be anything.

Speaker 2 15:17

Now the other reason to repeat it, of course, is because I've just thrown I want to check with my partner at the person. But you know, we know that 90% of the time that isn't true. He repeats it back to me. A percentage of people, when they have that repeated back to them, will say do I need to check with my partner? Actually, it does do all these things. I'll have it, so you might be able to get a sale just by repeating back the objection. It's a really good technique to get into. Now you've got to practice it. So you're not sounding sarcastic, but practice that return. So I'm San Eiffel, so you just want to check with your partner? Yes, I do, do I? And then you get a chance then, because you're sowing a seed of doubt based on something they've just said, not what you've said, something they've said and it's a very persuasive technique do you, um, do you have your?

Speaker 1 16:03

do you happen to have your phone with you, sir? Yes, I do. Here I am in the shop with the dog, um, I'm going to do a little something extra for you if, if, you just hand me your phone. Thank you, or can you unlock it for me? Yeah, where's your music streaming service here? It's that one there. Okay, right, what I'm going to do here is I'm just going to go in here. We were fortunate enough to be flown out to Hamburg recently, where we worked with Dolph and the team.

Speaker 2 16:26

What I'm setting up for you.

Speaker 1 16:27

here is the Rocky IV soundtrack. Ah, okay, you can play on the drive home because you look at the man of a certain age and I think you'll love driving home to some of those tunes. So that's a little extra from Dolph.

Speaker 2 16:40

Thanks so much. If only a salesperson would do that. Imagine that.

Speaker 1 16:45

A new thing that you get on so well you start to suggest music. This is bizarre. Well, there we are.

Speaker 2 16:53

It's a whole new world. You start to suggest music that they drive. This is bizarre.

Speaker 1 16:56

Well, there we are, it's a whole new world, but if you did share with a customer, you know Dolph Lundgren. Anyway, we've given you some examples. We've gone through the check with partner. Bob said earlier it isn't really any difference in a business context If they've got a check with a partner and they weren't there, you'd simply go.

Speaker 2 17:10

What do you think?

Speaker 1 17:11

their concerns would be well, I think the surround sound in our office, whatever it is, you just follow the same same pattern it's good if with you, it's always an electrical appliance or flooring, isn't it effectively?

Speaker 2 17:20

it's one of those things, the only things that you will actually be buying to a person but, anyway. Um, we think this is a really good area to work on. Um, it is an area to practice as well. So, in your teams, work on this it's a key objection and work on developing the confidence of your people to handle this objection so that every time it comes up, you don't see it as oh, here we go.

Speaker 1 17:44

Or okay, or even worse. Great, when will you have done that?

Speaker 2 17:47

I mean you haven't explored it. When shall I?

Speaker 1 17:50

ring you back, or when will you come in the store again, or no? No Right, we've given you plenty here.

Speaker 2 17:55

Time to handle objections rather than accept them. So there we are. So thanks for listening.

Speaker 1 18:02

We'll see you on another, the Reality of Sales Training 2, soon, but in the meantime, yeah, I was going to say forward this to a team that could do with this, forward this to a team that could do with this. Forward this to a friend who's struggling in sales with Check with Partner. Spread the word, but thanks for, as Bobby's saying, thank you for listening to. The Reality is Sales Training.