¶ Overcoming Pricing Objections
Pricing objections are one of the most frustrating things you'll encounter as a fractional CFO. It doesn't matter how good you are, you will encounter them and you'll only get more of them as your prospecting volume increases. Here's how it usually plays out. You're at a conference working your magic, shaking hands, and kissing babies. You meet somebody who looks like the ideal client for your firm.
And they ask you what your company does. You give them your well-crafted, perfectly rehearsed elevator pitch and eagerly await to hear their interest in hearing more. Then they crush your soul by saying something like this. Oh wow, that sounds amazing. But a fractional CFO is probably too expensive for us right now. This might make sense for us in a few more years. And then you stand there with your hands in your pockets.
Looking for the nearest exit. But fear not, my friend, by the end of this video, you will have a simple three-step process for overcoming pricing objections. This approach will help you calm your nerves at networking events, intrigue your prospects, and reach the run rate of your dream.
Let's dive in. Now I can't take credit for the framework I'm about to share with you, but I can tell you from experience that it works like a charm. You see, I hosted a fractional CFO prospecting workshop with my friend Jeb Blunt a couple years ago. This guy literally wrote the book on prospecting and sales. In fact, he's written 16 of them. He shared his game-changing framework for overcoming objections at the workshop. It's called ledge disruption.
Ask and it has come in clutch for me dozens of times. Here's a quick breakdown starting with step one. Let's go. When somebody hits you with a rejection, your lizard brain, the amygdala, goes into fight or flight mode. During this time, blood leaves the brain and logic goes out the window. That's why you tense up and don't know what to say when you get an objection. I've felt that way a million times.
And I'm willing to bet you have too. Nothing to be ashamed of. It's biology. Having what we call a ledge statement in your pocket and ready to go buys you a second to quickly calm down and formulate a more logical and less emotional response. Here's some examples of ledge statements. Number one, yeah, I expected you might say that. Number two, most people think that.
Or number three, yeah, that makes sense. Find one that works for you and then get ready to disrupt the objection. Step two, disrupt. Now that we've hushed our lizard brains and bought ourselves a couple of seconds to think, we can work on overcoming those pricing objections. Now, most rookies will argue with this prospect to justify their prices.
But the last thing you want to do is get into a debate. This is destined to fail and will make the prospect defensive or disinterested. Remember, you're not the only one that's trying to win over your prospects. They get hundreds of calls and messages and DMs every single week. And they're very good at getting rid of salespeople. You're not gonna get anywhere by saying the same thing that all those other sales guys say. You've gotta stand out. So instead of getting into a debate
Jeb recommends hitting them with a pattern interrupt, something that they completely aren't expecting. So when they say they can't afford you, you could tell them something like this. That makes a ton of sense. Most of my clients thought the same thing too before I showed them how much I could increase their net profitability. Oh snap. Now this is getting good, which brings us to the final step, which is ask. Now that you've got their interest.
¶ Mastering The Ask And Resources
Ask for what you want. Since you're at a networking event or a conference, you likely want to schedule a call with them to learn more about their business and to determine whether you can help them or not. So just ask for that. It might go something like this.
Can you hop on a call with me on Thursday afternoon around two o'clock so that I can learn more about your business and see if I can even help you get the same kind of results? Every fractional CFO needs three things to be successful. You're gonna need a sound financial strategy for your clients.
You're gonna need clients that are willing to listen and do the work, but you're also gonna need accurate and timely books. But if you're anything like me, you don't want your firm handling bookkeeping. You wanna stay focused on high-ticket advisory services, and that's why my firm uses decimal.
Decimal has built their entire company around providing world-class bookkeeping and financial operations while providing the best customer service and client communications that I've ever seen. Decimal handles everything from bookkeeping to AR and AP to payroll and invoicing. They even take care of taxes. If you value accurate and timely books for your clients, but you don't want to do it in-house, then I highly encourage you to check out Decimal. My firm trust decimal for our books.
And we refer all of our clients to decimal as well. Click the link in the description below to learn more. So in summary, Ledge buys you the time to calm your lizard brain. Disrupt surprises the prospect and reels them back in, and finally, you ask for what you want. The ledge disrupt ask framework is actually easy to master after you practice it just a few times and it alleviates
so much stress for fractional CFOs like you and me. And hey, with your new secret weapon locked and loaded, you might even start looking forward to networking events. Now I want you to check out this video that includes more ways to deal with the objections that are killing your sales call. See you next time.
All right, my friends, I hope you found this episode helpful. If you did, it would mean the world to me if you would leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you're listening to this episode. In the meantime, I can't wait to see you back right here next week. I'll see you then.