6 Easy Steps to Conquer Your Biggest Sales Objections
Are you or members of your sales team having trouble closing deals because of the objections the prospects raise?
How often do you lose a deal because of a price objection? It’s important to determine what percent of time that price is the issue.
Is it more than 10% of the time? If the answer’s “yes,” and your products are fairly priced, then you could use some tips on handling objections.
Price is only one type of objection and often a price objection masks other types of objections. Prospects will have objections about timing, features, service, shipping and a myriad of other things but sometimes instead of explaining those to you they object to the price.
Objections are a natural part of the sales process. When you and the prospect are taking the steps to move forward in the sales process it is natural that objections will arise.
Sometimes people are just not interested but don’t know how to say no. Maybe they really can’t afford your product or service and don’t want you to know that.
Learning to handle objections is important so that you don’t spend time with prospects who are not going to buy.
What are Objections?
Objections are a signal that the customer has interest in your product, but is not ready to buy. Objections usually arise because either you or the prospect don’t have a full understanding of something important.
People want to feel good about their purchases whether business or personal. They want to know they made the right decision. So sometimes an objection is really the prospect saying, “Tell me why your product is so great, so I can feel good about my purchase.”
Most objections are legitimate and must be treated that way. Many salespeople talk about having to overcome objections. I always use the term “handle” instead.
If I have an objection, I don’t want to be “overcome.” I want to know how you will handle that objection and make sure the purchase is a good solution for me.
As a prospect, this will tell me a lot about how you will respond in the future if I become a customer.
4 Categories of Objections
Objections usually fall into one of 4 categories: price, timing, product or something the prospect will not disclose to you.
The 4th is something like, “My brother sells the same product and I need three quotes but I’m going to buy from him.” Or, “I don’t like you, but I’m not going to tell you that so I will throw out some other objections.”
No doubt, you have come across all the common objections; the next step is to make sure you have a process for handling them.
The following exercise will help you:
- Make a list of the objections you commonly hear.
- Write several solutions that are appropriate for those objections.
- Craft questions that will help you understand the objections.
Here’s an Example
Objection: The price is too high.
Possible solutions: Provide financing, develop at payment plan, explain the return on investment, help them work it into the next budget, discuss the value.
Possible questions (you wouldn’t ask all of them):
- What have you discovered in comparing our product to the competition?
- How much were you planning on spending?
- What is your budget for this purchase?
- Would financing make the purchase possible?
- What features and benefits would make the price work for you?
Handling objections is something you must always be prepared to do. New objections come up, but typically we hear the same objections and need to come up with good solutions to handle those.
It is good to do the above workshop several times a year and remember to use the process for handling objections below.
6 Steps for Handling Objections
Listen: Listen carefully to the objection.
Validate: Make a statement of validation to show you listened.
Ask: Confirm your understanding of the objection by asking a clarifying question.
Solve: Answer objections with the appropriate solution.
Confirm: Confirm that your solution covers their objection.
Move on: If the customer is open to the solution move on to the next step in the sales process.
Handling objections is something that must be easy for you to do. Objections are a natural part of the sales process. In fact, if I don’t get any objections when I’m selling I get a bit worried. I would rather handle objections before I close a sale than after because I never want a buyer to have “buyer’s remorse.”
Alice Heiman has been helping companies increase sales for more than a decade. Her sales programs produce results. Other sales coaches tell you how to increase sales but few show you exactly what to do it and make it so easy. Alice will show you a simple process, that fits your style, to generate leads, handle objections, close the deal and retain customers. Find more info about Alice by clicking here.
