Skerp22

Account Executive, Expansion

Valued Contributor

"We're just too busy" objection

I work for a large media company - basically I sell advertising campaigns (radio and digital) to help companies connect with more ideal customers/clients/patients/etc. as well as help with recruitment as well.

I get this objection a lot - where I meet with a prospect, understand their needs/wants/pains, put together a customized campaign and pitch - and ultimately after following up it's something like "we're just really busy right now / we can't take on any more customers, follow back up in ___."

In some instances I know it's legitimate - where a company doesn't have the ability to take on a greater workload without damaging their reputation and/or doesn't have the staff required to do so. But with this prospect I've talked to him about how we can use the tactics I put together to recruit for any open positions they have to take on more work - but it seems to fall on deaf ears.

Any good recommendations to turn this around and (hopefully) move forward? Good questions to ask that have helped anyone get past similar objections? Or is this guy just a tire kicker?

🏷 Advertising

☑️ Qualification Calls

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18 comments

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poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

3

☕️

In my industry, too busy actually means too busy. We have found that when we sell our product to a resource-constrained team they end up either A) Half-ass implementing the tool and churning after a year because they never got full value or B) Not activating at all and auto-churning without ever getting a fair shot.

However, you should qualify what "too busy" means. Does it mean you don't have enough people, too many projects going on, or is it flat-out BS, and they're not sold like @funcoupons mentioned. Qualify the no, then either move on or keep the pain funnel going.

funcoupons

WR Officer

2

👑

"Too busy" usually indicates that they aren't sold on the value of your product...other than the rare cases where a place cannot take on any more new business like you mentioned, what business doesn't want to make more money or have more customers?

You either haven't discovered their true pain point, or there are other factors at play that they haven't told you about (budget, DM is against it.) Or...in some cases the person you're speaking with is not the actual DM and doesn't care enough to be a champion for you.

Skerp22

Catalyst

1

Account Executive, Expansion

Hard truths - all of which I agree with. The person I speak with does handle the marketing - but this response came after he consulted with the owner. Do you have any good responses to use for these scenarios?

funcoupons

WR Officer

1

👑

It's likely the owner shut it down and it could be for many reasons. Budget, owner wants to go with a competitor, owner likes the current setup, and since you haven't spoken with the owner directly he likely isn't sold on your pitch and the marketing person was not a strong enough champion to get it done.

For responses, I'd simply say "Fair enough, when do you expect things to calm down enough for us to be able to give this another look?" Let them set the timeline. If it's something like "I don't know," or "next year," that's a good indicator that they aren't buyers and worth spending more time on. I'd also try and get the owner involved from the first call next time to figure out whether they're actually buyers or they're just going to shut you down again, wasting more of your time.

Skerp22

Catalyst

1

Account Executive, Expansion

Thank you! And I completely agree with getting the owner involved early, which I tried doing at the very beginning with my initial outreach. But then the marketimg person got in touch with me and said to not contact the owner directly and that he’ll handle it because the owner is just “too busy”

funcoupons

WR Officer

1

👑

Sounds like the marketing guy does not have the pull he's claiming to...

No harm in reaching back out in a few months, but try for the owner.

Annonny

Big Shot

2

Account Executive

We are too busy right now, & follow up in _ time are not legitimate objections to me I feel like they are more of smoke screens. If they wanted to do it they would make the time, maybe you missed a key point that didn't make it to where they felt like it is important enough to move forward at that's time and the follow up almost rolls into the same thing. Something was missed, or they were never initially looking seriously in the first place...you gotta remember not everyone is going to be your customer. Another way to get around The follow up in x amount of time, is to say so let me be clear you want me to call you back 3 months to go over XYZ, but you're telling me if someone else calls and offers you the exact samething, you're going to tell them the samething as you told me to follow up in X time???

Justatitle

Big Shot

1

Account Executive

Have you point blank asked the prospect if this is something he wants to do? If yes and he said yea you have every right to challenge him and drive to a sale.

Hotlead

Politicker

1

Producer

I go right into of course you are your are trying to run a business. Would you be free to meet for lunch? I could bring lunch into your office or we could meet somewhere you prefer, shouldn't take more than 30 minutes and you have to eat sometime.

Works about 40% of the time but it's at least better than giving up on a stupid objection like I'm busy.

GDO

Politicker

1

BDM

Qualify if this really means too busy. If that s the case, find a moment that they have time in the future.

if it s an excuse dig deeper why they object.

EQSales

Opinionated

1

VP of Sales

could be push off, could be genuine. I like to just be honest and humble- "based on this feedback perhaps I haven't effectively done my job at conveying the value and opportunity. if this is just a push off where you don't see the appropriate value or ROI, just let me know, no pressure. if not and there is true internal project competition, would you be willing to share some of those competing priorities?"

be confident in your value and give them an opportunity to be honest if they are pushing you off.

Skerp22

Catalyst

0

Account Executive, Expansion

💰💰💰

Cyberjarre

Politicker

1

BDR

Jump this sinking ship. You’ve paid dues, now go make it rain.

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