Editor’s Note: This article is a chapter excerpt from “Headhunter” Hiring Secrets, available on Amazon.com and other major online book retailers.
There is always a natural tendency to attempt to rebut each and every objection you might receive when conducting your telephone prospecting (or while interviewing). The secret to handling objections, though, is simply to “roll with them”! Get a dialogue going! Rebutting an objection causes tension and anxiety, and seldom gets you anywhere.
In wrestling, martial arts and hand-to-hand combat, the easiest way to deflect the opponent is to “roll with them,” not block them. Someone is coming at you, use their momentum to keep them going past you.
Let’s review some common objections and how to roll with them.
For example, get prepared for this Number One objection:
The best way to handle this objection, which will occur often enough to become an issue, is by using a response like this:
Another, very common objection you will encounter when telephone prospecting:
Here is how you might handle this response:
Let me give you an example of an objection I, as a recruiter, hear virtually every day:
My response is always something like this:
Notice, I don’t “push back”—I merely “roll with it,” and you should too. What do I mean by pushing back? If I responded something like this, “The reason you should use recruiters is. . . .” I would be pushing back.
Let me share with you one more instructive example:
Someone tells you:
(You)
(Their response)
(You)
Assume they respond with something positive. Then, you could say,
(Their response)
(You)
Now, she may or may not agree to do that, but it is a way to again develop an insider who might ultimately sponsor you. You didn’t debate why you shouldn’t apply online, you didn’t whine (spew venom) about how you have applied online six times and have never heard from someone.
Though there are no “magic words” for overcoming objections, there is a “magic formula,” and this is it:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Skip Freeman, author of "Headhunter" Hiring Secrets: The Rules of the Hiring Game Have
Changed . . . Forever!, has successfully completed more than 300 executive search assignments in just seven years. Specializing in the placement of sales, engineering, manufacturing and R&D professionals in industry, he has developed powerful techniques that help companies hire the best and help the best get hired.
A distinguished graduate of the United States Military Academy, West Point, he is a lifelong student of leadership, people and the principles of success. While serving in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Chemical Corps, he also earned a Master of Science degree in Organic Chemistry from The Georgia Institute of Technology and a Master of Business Administration degree in Marketing from Long Island University.
