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In this article, leading Sales Expert Andy Preston explains why it is that so many hotel owners and their salespeople get the “call me back after Christmas” objection only to find in January that they can’t get hold of the person ever again.

Now we’re heading into the festive period, many hotel owners and salespeople will get the “call me back after Christmas/call me back in the New Year” objection but very often when you call those people back in the New Year, they give another fob-off, or even worse – you can’t seem to get hold of those people ever again.

Has this ever happened to you? If you’re anything like the hordes of hotel owners that ask me what to do about the Christmas problem every year, you probably get it quite a lot.

So why is it that the buyers and decision makers give us the Christmas objections? There are various reasons for this. Sometimes, there’s a genuine reason why they can’t proceed with a booking until January – perhaps a colleague is away that needs to be involved or perhaps there isn’t a budget until next year. But, in a number of cases, decision makers use Christmas objections as a convenient way of getting salespeople and hotel owners to go away. Far too many salespeople and hotel owners fall for these objections, take the decision makers at their word – only to be surprised come January when they can’t get hold of that person.

The challenge is – unless you learn to do something about these Christmas objections, you’re going to suffer the same problems year after year, after year! If you’d like to do something to tackle it now, here are some ideas for you:

Sales Tip Number 1 – Prepare To Tackle Them
You know you’re going to start getting these sorts of objections from November onwards, so you need to prepare for them.

This means working out your objection handles, then practising them with friends, colleagues or even in meetings with the rest of the sales team. The better prepared you are for when the objections come up, the better you’ll deal with them.

Please, don’t leave this until the last few moments before your telephone call, do this in small chunks – a little bit at a time but on a regular basis – that helps you remember and use the objection handles best.

Sales Tip Number 2 – Think About What They Really Mean
Let’s face it – if everyone who said those to you either met with you or bought from you in January, then there wouldn’t be a problem, would there? So I’m talking here about the people that use that phrase, but then don’t seem to necessarily follow through come January.

Let’s think about this a little deeper – might some people use that phrase when actually what they really mean is “go away?” Or perhaps “it’s not important enough for me to look at right now?” As someone who originally trained as a professional buyer, I can guarantee you that’s the case!

Here’s a quick distinction – the more new business your telephone call is, the less rapport you have – therefore the likelihood of them fobbing you off is much higher. If you’re with an existing client you have personally a very good relationship with, it’s more likely that they’re telling the truth.

Sales Tip Number 3 – Try Asking Better Questions
Most salespeople and decision makers I meet struggle with asking good questions. Questions that get them the information that other people don’t get, questions that elevate the decision maker’s perception of you, and questions that make the decision maker think.

Before the end of this conversation or meeting you need to ask some more questions to get the information you need!

The most important thing to find out here is if they’re trying to ‘fob you off’, without asking or accusing them directly.

If you can establish there are genuine reasons to put the booking/project on hold until the New Year, you’ve lessened your chances of being ‘fobbed-off’ and it should be relatively easy to pick things up from when you left off come January.

If on the other hand, the decision maker doesn’t appear to give specific reasons for the delay, they don’t seem as interested/motivated as they were, or they seem to want to get rid of you as fast as possible, that’s a pretty big sign they’re trying to fob you off!

Sales Tip Number 4 – Have The Right Attitude
The attitude of the salesperson or hotel owner is also vital in getting the results that you want here. I’ve seen far too many people trudge round from phone call to phone call looking and sounding like they’re terminally depressed. Not many people are going to buy from you in that state, are they?

If you pick up the phone or walk into a meeting expecting the other person to say “call me back after Christmas” then guess what you’re probably going to get in most cases?

You’re in a competitive market and you can bet that the buyer or decision maker is talking to other venues. All it takes is for the salesperson at one of those companies to be better at dealing with the Christmas objections than you are….. and then when you ring back in January they’ve bought off someone else.

The decision maker might say “Oh we went with abc because they have us a cheaper price”. But in most cases what they mean is “we went with xyz because they dealt with the Christmas objections better than you did, and that won them the business”.