The "Word of Mouth" Objection

When a customer tells you "I don't need to advertise...I get all of my customers through word of mouth." how do you respond? Here's how I answer this tough objection. First I compliment them "That's terrific, you certainly must be doing something right!" This defuses the tension in the situation. I then ask them "What is it that you do that keeps people coming back?" This engages the customer in conversation and gets them talking about their business. After discussing their business for a while I say something like "You certainly have a good story to tell and I can understand why you get so many referrals." This puts them in a positive mood. I finish with "I like working with businesses like yours because of the great response they get to their advertising. Every new customer I bring in for you becomes a new source of referrals. Where the average business gets 50 new people, you would leverage that into hundreds of new contacts through your referrals. I love helping businesses grow their base."

This is a much better approach than challenging this objection. Praise the customer and use his referrals as a selling point.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks

Jim Busch

The "Word of Mouth" Objection #1

"I really don't need to advertise. I get all of my business by word of mouth." "Word of Mouth" is a tough compeititor, it's free and generally it comes from a trusted source. My next few blogs will discuss handling this objection.

When I hear the WOM objection, I avoid challenging the prospect. I begin by praising them, "Congratulations, you must certainly be doing something right for customers to recommend your business so often. What are they saying about what you do here." This strategy pushes the objection aside and engages the customer in a discussion about their business. If the customer is simply using the WOM objection to chase you away, the objection will evaporate as they tell you about their favorite subject--themselves. If you challenge the customer, you force them to defend their initial statement. By accepting their statement at face value you create an opportunity to build rapport and begin probing for needs.

Next time we'll look at another technique to handle the WOM objection.

Thanks--Jim B