Want to hear what is your best practice(s) to the NO BUDGET objection
TheAnswer
Best Response to NO BUDGET
18
Close-lost and move on to someone with budget ๐คท๐ปโโ๏ธ
cool
haha the amount of times I have sold to no budget make me love that you back out
All depends if your product is a need to have or nice to have. If it's a need to have, then yes it is much easier to closed won the opp even after hearing no budget. Nice to have product is much harder unless you have buy in from various BU's and C-level to go and find the budget necessary.
Exactly. Not to mention that depending on the nature of the sales cycle, target lead pool and product, you may have to put less work in by investing your time in prospects where that objection doesn't need to be navigated and your value prop resonates more immediately.
Yup.
In my experience prospects will find money for the things they want/need. I have closed $1m+ where I was told in the first meeting there was no budget. Push to secure a meeting to present value and ROI and most importantly discuss the problem you are solving for them and make that problem more $$ than your solution.
Totally agree but I think a lot of solutions and companies struggle with illustrating direct tangible ROI vs more indirect potential ROI which is much less compelling
I couldn't agree more. Value Assessments go a long way! Not many organizations will break out a value assessment in depth and just show ROI. Take those extra steps your competitors aren't whether it be breaking down money saved by shortening sales cycles, combining various tools into one. Wherever ever you can not just show ROI, but break it down for example, reps will have x more amount of time to spend hunting and closing instead of busy work in 4 different tools that are eerily similar empowering them to uncover 2-4 new opps per quarter
No one budgets for technology they didn't realize they needed. Incremental budget is created from ROI. Crunch the numbers, close the deal.
thx for that
Fair
Agreed. EBs can get budget from other areas if they have to
always contextual and matters VERY MUCH imo WHO you are talking to ie. how large is the org and do they have a C in their title.ย
ask yourself first if you've done enough to show the value of your solution and what it can create for your prospect / their company. if not - ask them why, and what would they need to see out of your solution to create value equal to whatever you're quoting them.
if there's no "c" in the title (can be a VP or dir obviously, case by case) and they can't give you a real answer to the above either they were never the buyer or you need to work on that rapport game.
ask yourself first if you've done enough to show the value of your solution and what it can create for your prospect / their company. if not - ask them why, and what would they need to see out of your solution to create value equal to whatever you're quoting them.
if there's no "c" in the title (can be a VP or dir obviously, case by case) and they can't give you a real answer to the above either they were never the buyer or you need to work on that rapport game.
Very true
Don't waste your time. If you're an SDR, book the meeting so they have an idea of if they want to evaluate your tool when they have budget. If you're a closer, move on. If they like your tool or if you completed an evaluation and secured the tech win they will come back. Don't waste time or lose sleep hunting something that isn't there.ย
As a last question ask when the next budget year starts and if your type of tool has been submitted in the budget or not.
As a last question ask when the next budget year starts and if your type of tool has been submitted in the budget or not.
Accurate
Thanks for the feeback
Don't worry about "no budget" at all. Most purchases are not budgeted for and I have sold several hundreds of thousands of dollars against that objection.ย If your product solves a 2 million dollar problem and costs 40k they will run and find that budget.
When someone says that I say "no worries, no one budgets for this. If I can solve for A, B or C I can help you make the business case for change" Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't but it's up to your problem finding skills for this to work.
HOWEVER, affordability can be an actual objection. If I told you I would sell you a 60 million dollar home for 500k and you just didn't have 500k to put up..... yea the deal is amazing but you cannot afford what it would take to get the 59.5 million dollar gain.ย
When someone says that I say "no worries, no one budgets for this. If I can solve for A, B or C I can help you make the business case for change" Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't but it's up to your problem finding skills for this to work.
HOWEVER, affordability can be an actual objection. If I told you I would sell you a 60 million dollar home for 500k and you just didn't have 500k to put up..... yea the deal is amazing but you cannot afford what it would take to get the 59.5 million dollar gain.ย
Valid, however!
ROI isn't as self evident as we'd all like it to be with a lot of enterprise SaaS solutions. I've worked for companies with supposed ROI calculators that are complete horse shit and to really drill down into the numbers, you need to be working with a stakeholder that has the baseline data needed to help you quantify the net benefit and often they don't have that data so now you're putting a bunch of homework on your prospect's plate and surprise: they drag their heels on providing this because it's not a top line priority for them as an individual.
ROI isn't as self evident as we'd all like it to be with a lot of enterprise SaaS solutions. I've worked for companies with supposed ROI calculators that are complete horse shit and to really drill down into the numbers, you need to be working with a stakeholder that has the baseline data needed to help you quantify the net benefit and often they don't have that data so now you're putting a bunch of homework on your prospect's plate and surprise: they drag their heels on providing this because it's not a top line priority for them as an individual.
you raised some good points!!
Move on. If you're already talking to the budget holder or someone from the C-suite and they tell you they have no budget make a note, ask when they begin budgeting for next year and follow back up then. If you're not talking to someone who is in charge of budgeting work higher up the account. A lot of times they don't know what they don't know. If you can show they way they are doing things today is costing them time/money and you have a solutions to reduce that and can prove it out to them, they can make room for budget.ย
Hit up their CFO - if a large enterprise, read their quarterly reports to see what they are spending budget on.ย
if a meaningful problem exists, move onto a higher vertical who has the power to build budget.ย
got it thx
Maybe try and point out how your product/service/whatever can save your customer $$. Money is always going to be a huge pain point, but its not a set number usually. If you can save them money somewhere else, you can sell them on anything.ย
Tell them you don't expect them to have budget, say whatever is needed to get to the demo for the SC to show them the value/cost savings the solution can provide. I find that budget appears more often than not.. it's all about helping them find the funds within their organization - crunching the numbers to tighten up operations
Give them a LARGE range of what the cost might be as a budget then move on. Follow up periodically to monitor their seriousness and make sure they know youโre there as a resource when theyโre ready.
Good call - thanks
All about who you are talking to, how you are solving a need/pain, and what value it brings back to the business. If you get high enough in the organization and the response is still that there is no budget, then its time to move on.ย
much appreciatedย
depends on when this is coming in the sales cycle, where it's coming from, and who said it.ย
someone in manager / director level? eh, they don't know what budget is / who holds purse strings
CEO / CFO - yeah, the probably don't have budget
run discovery - see if there's economic impact of buying your tool is significantly better than the economic impact of doing nothing. if you can pay for yourself 4x over, then sell.ย
if your solution = not that impactful, shake hands & part ways.ย
someone in manager / director level? eh, they don't know what budget is / who holds purse strings
CEO / CFO - yeah, the probably don't have budget
run discovery - see if there's economic impact of buying your tool is significantly better than the economic impact of doing nothing. if you can pay for yourself 4x over, then sell.ย
if your solution = not that impactful, shake hands & part ways.ย
good call
Turn up the solution selling and find an ROI that either saves them money or makes them money and repurpose it to your product. If that can't be found... move on and mark as closed lost.
Depending on the industry there is always money somewhere. The game is to find it. Public sector is ripe with grants and government money that nobody taps into, in the private sector there is almost always budget in other departments that can be shared.ย
If itโs a big private sector sale and theyโre struggling with budget, itโs helpful to think about how your product could potentially benefit other departments or BUโs in that organization and ask that they be included in the decision and potentially share the cost.
Sometimes getting creative with billing helps as well. Depending on your commission structure you might get paid the same off of ARR whether the customer pays everything up front or in installments. You can backload the installments to make the first one small in order to help drive down the immediate cost while still getting them on the hook for the total price.
If itโs a big private sector sale and theyโre struggling with budget, itโs helpful to think about how your product could potentially benefit other departments or BUโs in that organization and ask that they be included in the decision and potentially share the cost.
Sometimes getting creative with billing helps as well. Depending on your commission structure you might get paid the same off of ARR whether the customer pays everything up front or in installments. You can backload the installments to make the first one small in order to help drive down the immediate cost while still getting them on the hook for the total price.
no one ever has budget- but yeah leave em in the dust...but no one ever has budget. ...liars
"Who would we need to bring in from your side to collaborate given that we would need discretionary spending to solve for your problem?"
Get to power -- if your counterpart is not willing to put their personal brand, time, and effort (their cost) into getting their problem solved, then close-lost and move on.
Get to power -- if your counterpart is not willing to put their personal brand, time, and effort (their cost) into getting their problem solved, then close-lost and move on.
Make sure you are talking to the correct people. Ask who else they would like for you to include to your value prop meeting. Gotta be in front of the right folks so you aren't wasting your time.
All good advice. Sometimes reframing the problem you solve into their language and the benefits you've delivered to their competitors (framed again in their KPIs and language) can help to move this to the 'I need this' column
It really depends on where you are in the process. Why were you talking in the first place? What is their incentive to change? Establish value (ROI) and develop a champion. If you aren't able to do either of those things then select "close-lost" and set a reminder to reach out again in 3 months.ย
You have the wrong person and/or wrong timing.ย People with any influence can usually get the budget for something that will help them.ย Or you haven't been convincing enough & amplified some pain points they experience today.ย Or maybe your product just sucks and doesn't do shit as good as the competish.
Need to find the person higher up who has influence over the budget.ย Highlight how you can help them in their role.ย How they can make more money with your solution without taking up too many internal resources.ย Involve different functions & how you'll help all of those teams collectively.
Need to find the person higher up who has influence over the budget.ย Highlight how you can help them in their role.ย How they can make more money with your solution without taking up too many internal resources.ย Involve different functions & how you'll help all of those teams collectively.
First confirm thatโs the only reason-โis there anything besides budget that is holding you back?โ If it is, ask if thereโs an amount that would get this approved (discount?). If no, ask when they plan for next years budget and set yourself a follow up note.
I like @CadenceCombatย 's answer. I'd also avoid trying to use charisma/gift of gab to continue the conversation. Waste of time...Just make sure you understand why you're having the conversation in the first place - sometimes they pull a budget "out of thin air" once someone else is involved or if you start to peel back the onion and demonstrate value they didn't understand before.ย
What is the cost of doing nothing for the customer? How much does status quo cost them? Maybe nothing, or maybe old technology + maintenance renewals + pain points = they really should spend the money. Then you find ways to get creative with your proposal.
Related posts
Members only
44 comments