The Magic of Understanding Sales Objections
Understanding sales objections in the buying process is a seemingly unfortunate inevitability for every sales professional. While you may consider objections inconvenient, annoying, or even crippling, I petition you to consider a new and powerful perspective.
As salespeople, we must see objections not as deal-breakers but as obstacles in front of our customers. And it is your job to help your customer over those obstacles. I will demonstrate this shift in perspective using two scenarios of a salesperson and a customer amid the home buying process.
Scenario 1
A customer comes into your office, but you’re busy with another buyer, so she goes to the model herself. While there, she finds something that is a deal-killer for her. She returns to the sales office and can’t wait to get out. There’s nothing that you can do to convince her to stay.
Scenario 2
A customer comes into your office, but you’re busy with another buyer, so he goes to the model himself. While there, he finds something that he perceives as a problem. This problem is railroad tracks that run directly behind the home. He comes back into your office with an anguished look on his face. He says, “Oh man, those railroad tracks are so close. That’s a problem.”
In the first scenario, the problem the woman finds is truly a deal-killer. Customers with deal-killers don’t stand around and describe them to you. They just leave.
In the second scenario, the problem that the man finds might just fall under his level of acceptable dissatisfaction. This is obvious for one reason: because he hasn’t left.
If the railroad tracks were a deal-killer, he would have gone like the woman in the first scenario. If he doesn’t leave, you can assume that the railroad tracks are an obstacle but not a deal-killer.
The customer is giving you a chance to help him overcome the objection. He says, “I don’t like the railroad tracks, but I like everything else, and I might need to accept the railroad tracks to get everything I want. I might consider this my acceptable level of dissatisfaction, but I need your help. Give me some assurance that this is a good thing to do.”
The customer is throwing up survival flares and begging you for help. He wants to consider moving to the next step in the sales process, but he needs your help to overcome the obstacle. The next move is yours.
When customers raise objections, they are telling the salesperson two things. First, they are saying, “I’m not comfortable with this obstacle, but I think I can overcome it to have the rest, but I need to talk it through.” And secondly, “I trust you to help me.”
In other words, when a customer objects, you need to see it as a powerful buying sign. Do not be discouraged, put off, or negatively affected if a buyer raises objections.
A raised objection is an exciting and invigorating opportunity for you to lower a rope and help your buyer over the obstacle.
There are three powerful phrases at your disposal: “Talk to me,” “Tell me what concerns you,” and “I understand – let’s talk about it.”
Use these phrases to turn overwhelming objections from your customers into obstacles you can overcome, and you will change their world!
