The four columns
- The objection. Word for word, in the customer's language, not paraphrased.
- What it means. One or two versions of what sits behind the phrase.
- The clarifying question. What the rep asks before answering.
- The answer. Short, one for each version.
How to build it
- Take thirty conversations that never reached payment.
- Write out the customers' phrases word for word.
- Group them: usually you end up with ten to fifteen groups.
- For each group, find an example in your own threads where somebody got past it.
- Write down what worked, rather than what sounds clever.
What «too expensive» means
- cannot see the difference from a cheaper option
- comparing against a different type of product
- does not have the whole sum at once, but has part of it
- is not the person who decides the budget
- genuinely is not in your price segment
The first four can be handled in conversation, the fifth cannot. The difference only shows up through a clarifying question, which is why the question column is the most important one in the matrix.
On one project we removed the objection «I do not have the whole sum at once» with a tool rather than an argument: internal split payments, two halves. Deals started closing on the first instalment.
What to do with the matrix next
- Work through one objection at the weekly meeting, on live examples.
- Add new phrasings that worked.
- Once a quarter, remove whatever no longer comes up.