Weekly Sales Tips: How to Get to the Heart of a Sales Objection

How often are you guilty of selling too quickly?

Let’s talk about how to get to the heart of a sales objection.

You know one of the biggest problems that salespeople have to deal with is their desire to solve problems.

Now, don’t get me wrong, problem-solving is an admirable trait and in fact, great salespeople are excellent problem solvers.

What’s the issue with that? Well, the issue is that we often want to solve the problem before we fully understand it. We get so excited about solving a problem that we jump to conclusions as to what the problem really is all about.

Suppose you’re selling furniture and someone asks you about delivery dates. You know the production is behind, you know this is a problem for a lot of people because they usually want their furniture now. Problem is, it won’t be ready for several months. So what happens here?

The natural tendency is to trigger an emotion in your own mind. It puts you back on your heels and because you don’t want things to get worse you go into a defensive kind of problem-solving mode. Here’s the issue. You can’t solve the problem unless you fully understand it.

Oftentimes we think we understand sales objections and in this case, we say, look every furniture store, everywhere in the country is having the same problems. It’s not our fault but we can’t get it to you any sooner.

Let’s back up in this just a little bit. What was the original objection? When that customer asked about delivery dates, what was their objection? Aha! There really was no objection, it was simply an inquiry. A question. They asked about delivery dates, that’s it.

It’s imperative that, as sales professionals, we’re not jumping to conclusions and answering an objection that we do not fully understand. 

We have to make sure we’re getting to the heart of the sales objection. Now I believe that you can do that with a three-part mental framework.

Part 1: Say “Thank you.”

That’s right, say “thank you” when someone raises a sales objection. Your customer needs to know that it’s safe for them to object to something. To raise a concern.

You can help your customer so much more when you know what their issues, problems, and concerns are. So just say “thank you.” Let them know that you appreciate them bringing that up.

Part 2: “Tell Me More”

Great salespeople make a living off of the phrase “tell me more!”

If you want to get to the heart of any sales objection, you need to find a number of variations of the phrase “tell me more about that.”

• “Why is that important to you?”
• “what caused you to feel that way?”
• “Tell me about your greatest concern right there”

Part 3: “How important is this to you?”

See what we’re trying to do is gauge the volume of the objection. Is this a deal killer? Or is it just a deal pauser?

As a sales professional, you have to be curious enough to want to know what’s truly going on in the customer’s mind. And that requires a certain amount of boldness.

I define boldness as doing the right thing for the customer, even though it might make you a little bit uncomfortable. But your boldness will trump your discomfort.

You cannot allow the situation to go unresolved because you were too uncomfortable to be curious enough to ask what the real issue is.

That’s not how professionals think. I want my doctor to ask me questions, I want my accountant to ask me questions. I want my attorney to dig deeper. And I want my sales professional to be curious enough about my situation to continue to probe.

Lean into the objection, resolve those underlying concerns, and change someone’s world.

Until next time my friends, learn more, turn more.