“We’re Happy With Our Current Supplier”…What Now?

This is an interesting and, for some salespeople, a ‘killer’ response from a prospect when you are presenting your solutions.

Your product may be the best in the make, you may have all the gizmos that impress other clients, you may have recommendations spilling out of your top pocket, your value may be better than your competitors.

But the prospect is happy with what they already have.

“We’re satisfied with our current supplier, thanks” is often the biggest stumbling block to many presentations, as it often comes up before you’ve even started the conversation.

The prospect knows you’re trying to muscle in on what they are currently using, and doesn’t want to change.

They’re satisfied with the status quo.

They’ve been with their current supplier for some time now, and they’re comfortable.

Why go through the hassle of change?

Our Sales Training Courses cover a lot of sales techniques and strategies but here’s something you can say that will identify if there still might be an opportunity:

“That’s fine, Mr Prospect, and I can appreciate your most likely satisfied at this time. We are always on the look out for clients who are ‘satisfied’ with their current situation, as we try to make our clients ‘delighted’ with our services. Could you tell me, please, what would it take for you to be more than satisfied?”

Here, you are planting those seeds of doubt in the prospect’s mind.

Notice that you picked up on the word that the prospect used.

“Satisfied”.

The problem with a person being ‘satisfied’ is that it lulls us into a state of homeostasis.

One definition of this is “the tendency toward a relatively stable equilibrium between interdependent elements, especially as maintained by physiological processes.”

Notice the words there?

Stable equilibrium and maintaining.

When something is just maintained and stable, does it get better?

Does it improve?

Does it progress in any way?

No. It just stays the same, and as we know, if something stays still it will atrophy and gradually get weaker.

So this aspect of being ‘satisfied’ needs to be investigated.

I sometimes ask my clients how they feel about our services.

If they say they are satisfied, I get nervous. I don’t want satisfaction; I want ‘impressed, grateful, excited, inspired, amazed, influenced, impacted’.

If the prospect is satisfied, take a few moments to check in with them on what would make them more than satisfied.

This creates dissonance in their mind.

They now have to think about what they are NOT happy with, or how something could be made better.

Previously, their satisfied state was good enough for them; now, you’re making them think that it isn’t.

Their answer could be just the chink in the armour they had been protecting themselves with.

Many prospects will say they’re satisfied with the status quo because they don’t want to sit through a presentation.

Then don’t make them do so.

Ask them questions.

Find out what could be improved. Identify the pains they are experiencing.

Get them out of their bland thinking that today’s solutions will also be here tomorrow.

When you get them to acknowledge just one thing that could be better, it opens up the door for you to find out what results would come from the changes you could offer.

That’s when you will get a hearing ears from the prospect.

Please try out our Telesales Training for the latest prospecting tips and for some more techniques on how to overcome this sales objection and others. We also have this guide on how to be really good at telesales. Be sure to check it out.

Or take a look at our full portfolio of Sales Training Courses.

Happy selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Sales Training