Sales objection: "Just send an e-mail, I will look at your offer"

This is the ultimate brush-off when it comes to sales objections. It is essential to understand why you're getting this objection in the first place.

In some instances, potential customers want an informative email with relevant documents as part of the buying process. Nowadays, this kind of customer is becoming rarer.

Most prospects say it to get the salesperson off the phone because it works. It would be best if you knew why a prospect says, "Send me an email," if they had zero interest? Is it an excellent way of saying "no"? 

Lots of inexperienced salespeople send an email first then make a follow-up call to the prospects. They put themselves in the middle of the frustrating process of pursuing unqualified leads. 

Before answering this objection, which is often expressed by the sales teams, providing brief information will create more meaningful results in terms of clarification.

When the shift from business-to-customer (B2C) sales to business-to-business (B2B) sales started, the game rules changed dramatically. You will struggle to find similarities between B2C and B2B, which requires long and complex sales processes, the unclear return of investment expression, and high revenue jobs.

Simultaneously, the changing game rules start to influence the in-company organizational structures, department responsibilities, and business analysis. The sales and marketing strategies of the cheap and simple product with a target audience of thousands of people and an expensive and complicated product with a target audience of hundreds are naturally different. Therefore, the most radical transformation in the transition from B2C to B2B appears in marketing's business analysis. The sales and marketing departments in B2B must act like olive oil and water, which do not get mixed up in a cup, and these departments must create zero-difference work culture to manage the same process. Zero-difference means a structure that will make both departments commonly responsible for sales success or failure.

To get back to the objection after this briefing, the thing you need to know is that from a B2B sales perspective, it is not correct to assess this statement as an objection. This statement is a possible challenge to create leads in B2B sales. Overcoming this challenge in B2B is only possible by developing corporate competencies rather than seller's competencies. Various titles in line with the seller's competence in B2C must be associated with organizational skills in B2B. Therefore, the department responsible for answering this objection or statement is the marketing department, not the sales department.

Before explaining how the marketing departments of B2B companies can develop these corporate competencies, it is beneficial to express a practical approach. While the marketing department plays a vital role in the B2C market, the sales department undertakes this critical role in the middle or large-scale companies in B2B. These companies with corporate sales establish a marketing department as they grow, but this department's primary function is rarely considered. Therefore, the responsibility to find the answer to the above objection is that the B2B marketing function becomes the duty of sales managers or sellers. This question, which must be answered in the lead generation process, is evaluated in the objection form as these questions become the duty of the sales department by proxy. The healthiest answer to this objection is the "Value Proposition" concept, the B2B sales' backbone.

Value Proposition is defined as which business aspect products, services, or solutions presented to the corporate customers have concrete and measurable contributions. For example, increasing revenue or profit, fast market entry, decreased costs, lower inventory turnover rate, reduced risks. Three parameters are necessary to create a healthy value proposition:

1. Clearly defining a job outcome.
   

2. Determining the revenue-increasing or cost decreasing effect of this job outcome.
   

3. Adding concrete numerical or percentage results of the impact.
   

Value Proposition explains why customers should purchase the solutions we present and why they should purchase them now.

As a result, this statement or objection shows the customer reflex to communicate with us. However, a healthy value proposition is a must with the condition to include this value proposition in the email and specific to the sender. Because this value proposition will make sure the lead will get back to you.

If the potential customer asks you to send over some information about the product you're selling before you get into much of a discussion, he/she is most likely trying to blow you off. So, determining the timing that you get this objection is essential in a situation like this. When you come across a customer like this, don't spend your precious time explaining your product and crafting responses that are not relevant to the customer's state of mind. Focus on keeping the call going, and if you find it right, send the pre-prepared email. 

If the objection comes late in the conversation, you can see it as less of a blow-off attempt, but at the same time, it shows a lack of being able to commit to moving forward. It will help if you prepare relevant scenarios and questions for both the early and late timing of this objection. 

Of all sales professionals' tactics, Mr. Inside Sales has the best one:

All you have to do is have an email already prepared while you're prospecting. If someone tells you to email them something, ask them what their email address is, and send it! Right then!

Say: "Okay, I've just sent it to you. Let me know when it pops up, and I'll show you a couple of links you'll want to explore later.

"Meantime, let me ask you…"

And then ask a qualifying question. The point here is whether or not your prospect will:

1. Give you the time to speak further with them. (If not, they weren't going to open your email anyway, and if they will, then you know there is a legitimate chance they are interested.)
   

2. Actually, open the email. (This tells you how cooperative your prospect is and how collaborative they will be throughout the sales cycle.)
   

3. Blow you off with another objection. (This is great because it tells you that you won't need to follow up on the email—they aren't buying!)
   

4. Allow you to set a definite follow up appointment. (Which is what you want.)
   

Any of these responses will get you a lot further—and give you the information you need as to how to pursue this lead—than sending an email after you hang up and then putting this prospect into your follow up queue.

You will always face this objection while prospecting, and you will see that 80% of these customers genuinely want to blow you off with this objection. It is mostly about your communication process, your approach. 

It would be best to design your opening statement to pique interest and get the prospect wanting to hear what you have to say. This way, you will see fewer objections of this kind.

If you make the prospect proceed into your process, self-serving questions will not work. It would help if you hooked your questions together; each question should link itself to the next. Try to make the conversation natural, and your questions have to be in a logical sequence. 

The most critical time for this objection to come is when you're about to finish your arguments. If you face it in the end, that means:

• You didn't talk to the right person.
  

• You didn't understand the customer's problem.
  

• The customer didn't want a solution; you couldn't catch it.
  

• You assumed the prospect liked your solution/product.
  

Michael Pedone of Sales Buzz says: "By simply making a few tweaks to the sales questions you ask, you can replace common sales objections with sales conversations."

Here are some general ways to respond to this objection to help you separate the real buyers from those prospects who will end up wasting your time (From Sales and Telesales Solutions):

1. I'll be happy to send you some information, but first, I feel I must ask you a couple of questions to make sure this is suitable for you, and that I am not wasting your time. (Ask a couple of open-ended pain questions to make them feel they have a problem)
   

2. Certainly, I can send you some information. If it does fit what you are looking for, when do you think you would be ready to move forward on this?
   

3. Certainly, and after you review it, how soon could you decide on purchasing it if it is what you are looking for?
   

4. What particular aspect of the product has interested you so far, so I know exactly the specific information I need to send you?
   

5. Certainly, I can send some information. How long will you need to review it, do you think? (They usually say a couple of days) How about I give you a call again in 3 days to answer any questions you may have.
   

The most important thing here is that you call the person back precisely when you say you are going to, or your credibility is blown out of the window. They usually read your material promptly because they know you are going to call back.