This blog was orginally published February 5, 2019 and been updated.

Digital marketing agencies that understand the benefits of call tracking often find themselves putting in extra work to convince their clients that it can be a game-changer. Indeed, one of the biggest challenges you might face when setting up call tracking is reluctance on the part of the client.

But it's more important for them to tap into the power of call tracking when you consider that your clients’ biggest rivals are now using it to enhance their marketing performance. Without call tracking, it’s infinitely more challenging to prove that your agency is driving non-digital leads for your client. We’ve seen agencies turn on call tracking for their customers and immediately uncover a hidden goldmine of leads, with those leads having a much higher conversion rate than their digital counterparts.

This is a big win for your digital marketing agency when building trust with clients because it can help prove that your work is even more valuable than expected. And just as significantly, the data and analytics earned from call tracking can help you better fine-tune your marketing, empowering you to focus on the channels and search keywords that are driving the most inbound calls for clients.

Now let’s dig into the top four agency client call tracking objections.

Dedra Mitchell and Nick Jackson contributed to this post.

1) The strict budgeter client

Objection

Clients with strict budgets can be extremely difficult to sell on the benefits of call tracking. Once budgets have been set, it may seem like there’s no room for negotiation.

Solution

Explaining to the client how call tracking can help definitively prove marketing ROI is a great way to overcome this objection. Agencies have to show that their work is consistently generating revenue. If a significant amount of traffic is not being accounted for, your marketing efforts (and the client’s budget) could be going to waste.

With call tracking added to your agency’s marketing stack, you can be confident that every touchpoint and bit of traffic is being captured and analyzed. This helps your agency prove ROI on your marketing so that you can make the best possible business decisions for both you and your clients.

Are you on a strict budget at your agency too? Good news: Call tracking is a proven revenue stimulant. Download our ‘How call tracking can grow your agency’ ebook to read firsthand how agencies have used CallRail to grow.

2) The “I can’t change my business number” client

Objection

Even in 2021, many clients still have a fondness for vanity numbers. This can be a source of tension when it comes time to switch to call tracking because the client may feel like they’re taking a major risk by changing their number. But are these perceived risks real?

Solution

Before you do anything else, put yourself in your client’s shoes and try to understand their concerns: They’re worried that their current or prospective customers will see a new phone number on their site or offline marketing materials, and they believe this discrepancy will result in a decline in outreach.

This is a perfect opportunity to explain just how unlikely this is — most people aren’t saving business numbers in their phones, and we know they’re not memorizing them. It’s safe to assume your clients’ customers won’t recognize the new number, and if they do, it almost certainly won’t discourage them from picking up the phone.

Pitch this: This deck will help you frame your client's pain points and offer CallRail as a solution to your marketing attribution needs.

Now, let’s weigh the risks: A plain vanity number doesn’t give your client (or your agency) any data that can be tied to marketing spend or campaign performance. So they’re running the risk of not understanding the hows and whys of their marketing performance. They could be spending money on underperforming campaigns because they have no way to correctly measure the data they should be collecting.

Or, to put it as directly as possible: The certainty that comes with knowing how marketing spend can drive conversions is far more valuable to a business than the hypothetical risk of someone being turned off by a new business number.

If the client is absolutely set on keeping their number, recommend that they port that number over and use it to track conversions from offline sources. Porting in their existing business number is a great way to maintain the consistency your client is concerned about.

Once ported in, this number will be known as their main line business number, and all call tracking numbers from various campaigns will forward to this number. This should diminish the majority of their concerns with the notion of change. And as always, give them the safety net of knowing that they still own their numbers.

Here at CallRail, we’re constantly releasing new features that offer big benefits to our agency clients. Check out our new-and-improved Account Center, which makes it easier than ever to streamline the client-management process.

3) The hesitant and unsure client

Objection

A client could be hesitant to adopt call tracking because they’re unsure how much (or even whether) it will benefit their business. The client may believe there are more important tasks to address — like hiring the best talent or keeping customer satisfaction high — and therefore might not be in a particular hurry to get call tracking up and running. They aren’t necessarily saying no, but they’re not saying yes, because it feels like the timing isn’t right.

Solution

Combating this objection comes down to stressing the opportunity costs: Every day the client kicks the can down the road, they’re missing out on data and analytics that could be crucial to the success of their business. And the fear of missing out can be a powerful marketing tool.

Every inbound call conversion that goes untracked is a missed opportunity to better understand what campaigns are driving these leads. Emphasize this to your client to create a sense of urgency. This also creates the perfect opportunity for them to take advantage of CallRail’s Free 14-Day Trial, which will likely show immediate results.

4) The “What is call tracking, though?” client

Objection

It’s not uncommon for a marketing agency to discover that their clients have no idea what call tracking is or why it matters. And that’s fair — there’s only so much room in the world for marketing nerds like us. (Plus, our job depends on us being the nerdy experts our clients turn to for innovative tools like call tracking!)

Their lack of understanding does create a challenge, though, and this is especially true when a client is operating under the (mistaken) belief that phone calls aren’t as important as they used to be.

Solution

CallRail makes educating clients about call tracking easy. The simplest way to explain call tracking is to define it as the process of determining how callers find your business.

Marketing agencies have fully stocked toolboxes to help them understand a buyer’s entire online journey. But if a customer or lead decides to contact a business and the call isn’t being tracked, marketers are left in the dark. We’re constantly working with marketing agencies to improve our product and close this gap, ensuring that every interaction during the buyer’s journey — both online and offline — is accounted for.

Because, at the end of the day, educating and encouraging your clients to make better business decisions is a win for both the client and your agency.

5 bonus tips for objection handling

Know that you know the top four common agency client call tracking objections, we’ve figured it couldn’t hurt to share these five bonus tips to make your objection handling even better. But first, what do we mean by objection handling?

To start, objection handling is the art of listening, learning, reframing, and responding. As you’ll see in these five data-driven tips for objection handling, you must actively show your client that you’re listening to their concerns. In other words, you have to have an **actual **conversation with them.

Listening is your greatest strength in objection handling because 69% of buyers think that listening to their needs is the best way to create a positive sales experience. It’s only through listening to your potential client’s concerns and objections that you can identify how call tracking will help them.

Remember: don’t be disheartened if your client is voicing concern. Often, the best clients enjoy a bit of verbal sparring — they’re naturally clever, critical, and eager to see whether your product would be a good fit in their company. You want those clients.

Bonus Tip 1: Be an active listener

As already discussed, people just want to be heard. Do everything in your power, therefore, to be an active listener.

Listening not only shows customers that you care about their opinion, but it also allows you to **know **what the buyer actually thinks, which gives you the necessary information (such as their pain points) to convert them.

Here are a couple of tips on how to be an active listener: \

1. Don’t interrupt your client when they’re expressing their wants and needs
2. Ask them thoughtful follow-up questions to show them your following along and engage
3. Consider repeating what they said to make sure that you’ve understood them correctly
4. When engaging face to face or virtually, establish eye contact and non-verbal gesture to show that your listening

Bonus tip 2: Mirroring

Mirroring — for instance, repeating a phrase your client has just used or matching their tone of voice — is a brilliant sales tactic, one that helps instantly establish rapport (even when speaking over the phone).

We’ve already stated that people just want to be heard. Is there any better way to do this than by mirroring what they say and how they say it?

In his book Never Split the Difference, Chris Voss says that the last few words after an objection should be mirrored in an upward tone. This stops you from asking “why?” — which can come across as aggressive because it puts the client on the defensive. For example, if your buyer says, “The price is too high,” simply say, “The price is too high?” This informs the customer that you’re listening to them, builds trust, and encourages them to elaborate.

Bonus tip 3: Isolate objections

What a client says can be different from what they really think, and you need the right data to convert. So, by allowing the client to reveal their true objection, you can proceed further armed with the right information. For example, start by saying, “If we found a way to solve this problem, what **other **objections would you have?” If the client has no other objections, then you’ve successfully isolated their real objection. If not, continue trying to isolate that real objection.

Bonus tip 4: Stay silent (at the right moments)

Silence has long been a fundamental tactic for negotiators, detectives, and even therapists. But it’s also a surefire way of allowing potential buyers to reveal their real concerns. A study of 67,149 sales calls found that successful reps used longer pauses when speaking to clients.

Don’t feel like you always have to be speaking. If a client finishes their sentence, but you feel like there's something that they haven’t yet told you, consider staying silent for a few seconds. You’ll be surprised at how often people fill the silence by blurting out what they really think.

Bonus tip 5: Use your team

This one is your last port-of-call, your dynamite, your golden ticket. Studies have shown that team selling is 258% more likely to seal a deal than struggling by yourself. The ideal limit is three participants — any more than that, and your chance of converting starts to drop. Bear in mind, don’t try this tactic on the discovery stage of the sales cycle — in that stage, a multi-team approach negatively affects your chance of a conversion.

Want more insights on how to sell call tracking to your client? Check out this on-demand webinar to learn more.