The Truth Behind Business Objections

Workforce organizations focus on engaging business as a customer of government funded services and/or as a partner in sector strategies, career pathway development and work-based learning.  What are some of the common challenges in building relationships with business and industry to support the workforce mission?

Members of the B2B Engage Community of Practice weighed in during Business U’s recent live webinar on business objections.  When asked about the primary objections they face in the field, approximately 60 percent of the responses pertained to: 1) a misperception of the organization’s depth and breadth of its workforce mission (e.g., restricted to working with those unemployed); 2) limited time to participate with the workforce organization; and 3) not in the market to hire employees.

All of these point to the business not understanding the value proposition of what the workforce organization offers. We need to remember that “employer” is only one role a business performs in its day-to-day operations, and as importantly, it’s not their main function. It’s easy to shut down a conversation with a workforce organization when potential business customers express to you that their business is not hiring. The goal for the workforce professional is to position your organization as a high value partner that has its pulse on all types of services that can be referred to solve a broad range of issues (e.g., debt, improving efficiencies; economic slowdown; improving profitability, need for a marketing and/or business plan), which may be preventing them from entering a growth cycle to spur on hiring.

To overcome objections, business-facing practitioners need to elevate their role in the community and demonstrate their ability to bring value to the table during all business cycles through partner resources/services, grants and initiatives.

There are two overarching strategies regarding overcoming objections. The first one is “pre-empting” — anticipate and respond to an objection before it surfaces. And the second one is to always handle objections as they arise. Here are additional key strategies that were discussed with the Community of Practice members to overcome objections:         

1. Create value at the very start of the interaction. This helps to elevate the “knee-jerk” reaction from potential customers who express that they don’t have the time (aka don’t see the value) to meet with you.
2. Drop your agenda and instead focus on listening to the most immediate issue of the business to help find a solution, whether it’s workforce related or not.
3. Use a consultative approach (active listening) during your interactions. By listening and not interrupting when customers share their objections provides an opportunity for them to solve their issue. If you're constantly interrupting, even if you’ve found a solution that you’re excited to share, it can be perceived as objecting to their objection.
4. Ask the business-customer what measures define success even if it’s not required by your funding stream such as an increase in retention, a lower turnover rate, and/or recruitment cost savings.

Business U focuses this month’s webinar on how to build value propositions with business and industry to elevate perceptions about your organization. Check here for our line-up of webinars and summary blog posts.