Myths of Selling to Government

Handling Closings and Objections in Gov Sales...not

June 02, 2021 Rick Wimberly Season 1 Episode 14
Myths of Selling to Government
Handling Closings and Objections in Gov Sales...not
Show Notes Transcript

Almost anyone who's done any type of sales has been taught closing and objection-handling techniques. That might be fine...but, you're in the big leagues now - government contracting.  Whether local, state, or federal government, business development for government contracts requires a heck of a lot more than learning those closing and objection-handling techniques.  In fact, they simply don't work in government sales and government contracting. In the Handling Closings and Objections in Gov Sales episode of Myths of Selling to Government, brought to you by www.govselling.com, we talk about why these techniques don't work and what you should be doing instead.

Today, we talk about overcoming objections and closing the sale…

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So…tons of books, podcasts and seminars have been created over the years to educate sales people on the fine art of objection-handling and closing. Some in the professional selling field will find it total heresy to suggest objection-handling and closing techniques are not viable practices.  In reality, they are not effective in selling to the government. 


First, the act of “overcoming objections” is a “directing” tactic designed to cleverly replace negative perceptions with positive ones.  As generally taught, it is a method by which we attempt to out-smart and out-maneuver prospects.  They raise a concern. We squash it like a bug with our silver-tongued response.  They attempt to squeeze out of this stranglehold. We are ready to tighten the noose with our market research and charts.  


With all possible excuses exhausted, the dazed prospect is left with nothing to do but buy. Sounds nifty, but it doesn’t work. (chuckle)


First, you may never get the chance to hear objections.  The government procurement process is built to minimize prospect manipulation.  You won’t get the opportunity to play the objection-handling game. And, if you think you’re the one who snuck it in, you’ll find out later that you really didn’t.  


Most of the time, you’re going to have to tell your story through proposal documents and/or presentations.  While questions may arise at points during customer interaction, your best hope is to provide solid answers.  Rarely can you direct the process.


Secondly, You can’t anticipate every objection.  Traditional objection-handling focuses on anticipating objections before the meeting and developing comprehensive answers to common prospect obstacles.  While this makes sense to a degree, it is also impossible to predict every path the prospect might take with questions or objections.  Salespeople focused on providing the “party line” response to objections may get rattled when presented with an unfamiliar road block.


The objection they are giving may not be the real obstacle.  One of the biggest reasons this doesn’t work is the fact that prospect’s verbalized buying objections are often not the real barriers to purchasing.  They may be facing job pressures unknown to you.  They may have other priorities vying for competing resources.  They may be anticipating a role change and just don’t want to deal with the decision.  (This is common in government sales around election time.)   Heck, you may have offended them. ( Government buyers can be a sensitive lot.)  

Aggressive objection-handling may set a tone that will turn off prospects. People do not like to feel manipulated, particularly those in government.  You may win the battle, but lost the war.  A goose egg on the sales charts still amounts to zero no matter how craftily it was obtained.  You’ll be wondering  “what went wrong?” 


Then, there’s the closing process. 


Closing is where salespeople push a prospect to uncover (and hopefully eliminate) latent objections, discover where the prospect falls in the buying process, and ultimately and simply “ask for the business.”   There are trial closes, assumptive closes, shame closes, humor closes, fried shrimp, shrimp creole, shrimp custard …even an approach called the “Golden Bridge Close” which has something to do with Sun Tzu.      


Sales managers are often quick to diagnose a salesperson’s poor performance as an “inability to close,” yet it is likely other factors play a much greater role in their lack of success.  


In government, the buying process is designed to remove as much “salesmanship” as possible.  RFPs are issued publicly.  Questions have to be asked at an open bidder’s conference.  There is no direct access to decision-makers after a point.  Purchase decisions are documented, published openly, and must hold up under scrutiny. Typically there is a protest process available for losing bidders to follow if they do not like the outcome.  Try working your Sun Tzu magic on that.


Then, you have multiple people involved in the process, making closing impossible.  


Some of you may take a position that objection-handling and closing techniques are merely ways to surface prospect questions and pains--ultimately necessary for creating value in the customer’s mind.  We buy that to a point if…if… it’s truly your motivation.  


There is nothing wrong with probing prospect pain points or preconceived notions and attempting to set the record straight where needed (in fact it’s absolutely essential).  There is certainly nothing wrong with attempting to determine where the prospect falls within the buying process, or asking for the privilege of earning his business.  Direct questions are fine, even appreciated.



However, when the process becomes more of a focal point than creating real value for customers, we draw the line.  Objection handling and closing techniques are easily abused and should be avoided.


So back to our question:  If customer manipulation through objection handling and closing techniques is not the right approach, what is the proper way to ensure deals are moved to finality?  The answer lies in your ability to build customer value perceptions (through VP Selling) and your ability to practice “proactive constraint,” otherwise known as “patience.”

Build Value, Be Informed, then Be Patient


We’ve already introduced the key to winning--understanding and building a strong Value Portfolio story.  If you are in the prospect’s office before an RFP is issued, you certainly have the opportunity to learn pain points, explore solution options, respond to objections, maybe even attempt to close the deal with a sole source contract.  If not, you must, through established procurement processes and documents, uncover similar information—hopefully in a more effective manner than your competition.  


Either way, you must develop a concise, compelling value story, and clearly communicate this in the proposal and the presentation.  If you have done this to the best of your ability, then truthfully, the vast majority of your work is done.  Often there will be no opportunity to trial close or make an assumptive close.  Your ammunition is expended and you must simply WAIT.  Patience is not something salespeople (or sales managers) are known for.  After all, our job is to DO something--MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN.  You can certainly try to manipulate the process after proposals are submitted, but in the majority of cases it will get you reprimanded at best and thrown out of a deal at worst.  So you wait.  


It doesn’t mean you stop selling.  Here’s what you must do instead of wasting your time on closing methods:


Be diligent in your efforts to uncover new opportunities and build a greater pipeline.  Success in government sales is reliant on a large pool of opportunities.  Some of them will close nicely.  Others will fall out (often due to circumstances beyond your control).  


Keep doing the C.E.O. of Y.O.U. activities and keep multiple opportunities in play.




Keep close tabs on the decision process.  If you’ve focused on relationship building, partners or coaches inside the organization should be able to provide helpful updates.  Don’t be afraid to ask.  Let’s repeat that.  Do not be afraid to ask!  Sometimes your questions will even help produce action.  Again, ask.


Be ready to engage when you get the go-ahead.  Your work isn’t done in government selling just because you have received confirmation of a purchase. You will have to walk this thing through the remainder of the procurement process.  Make sure you know the process and the players well.  Ask again.


Do a post-mortem, if for some reason you do not get the deal.  This will help you understand where gaps in your offering or sales approach existed.  It’s also a good idea to do a post-mortem when things went well and you won the deal.  Positive reinforcement is often more powerful than negative experiences.


Realizing the limited role of objections and closing will enable you to more effectively focus on the really important aspects of selling instead of getting caught up in meaningless labels.   Sales managers and salespeople wondering how to improve results should focus on the real issues—the ability to build relationships and create clear value—not an inability to close a prospect.  Improvements will be found in looking further upstream in the selling process.