Persuasion is fundamental to sales and effective leadership. We need to convince someone to accept our product, service, or point of view. Welcoming an objection to our proposal is alien to most of us because we think it means we failed to sway the prospect. But experienced sales people know that rather than leading to rejection, a well-handled objection is the fast path to a sale. An objection means you are making progress. The prospect is giving your proposal serious consideration.
Objections are opportunities to sell, and an indication of interest, or at least curiosity. Usually they show up in the middle or near the end of a sales call. If they don’t show up, good sales people will try to draw them out because the reasons for an objection are really the keys to the sale.
People make buying decisions emotionally and justify their decisions with facts. A case in point: as a serious photographer I enjoy buying gear to make my photography more interesting or creative. For several years I have watched the development evolution of a new creative lens called Lensbaby. Finally I bought the newest and most expensive version. This was an emotional decision, but I justified it on the fact that it would enable me to create stronger images for monthly competitions. My original objections involving ease of use were answered by the new version, and the fact that a photographer was teaching its use at a conference convinced me that it had a place in my camera gear. Emotion closed the sale, facts justified the decision.
So look for objections as the opening to satisfy an emotional need of the prospect. But sometimes the real objection is several layers deep. Price is often tossed out as the first objection. But we know people do not buy on price alone. It’s one of the top 3 or 4 considerations, but often not number 1. The challenge is to get beyond price to unearth other objections. One approach is to promise to handle the price question but first ask the prospect what other than price that stands in the way of a sale. Handle these other objections first, and then come back to price if needed.
Digging beneath the first layer of objections can be tricky. You must be sincere and honest. You must promise to answer the primary objection, but you should ask the prospect to help you understand more about their concerns. What is it specifically about the issue that they are having a problem with? If the issue is product or service specs, you will need to explain why the specs are what they are and why that is a benefit to the customer.
Sales people often fail to translate a feature or spec into a benefit for the particular prospect and then, most importantly, to seek the prospect’s reaction to the benefit. Sometimes objections can be handled effectively by the old “feel, felt, found” approach that uses a reference to a satisfied customer. Again seek a reaction from the prospect.
Remember to stick with open questions in digging into an objection. “What” and “how” questions are less threatening than a “why” question. Although you may get more specifics with a question starting with “why.” Some have said it takes seven levels of “why” to get to the base objection, but I think that would be hard to do without angering a prospect and losing the sale.
Newer sales people often fear objections and will shy away from responding properly. Two things they need to remember: 1) Know their product, themselves, and their prospect so they have a high degree of self confidence, and 2) Never make up an answer. Instead be honest with the prospect by saying that they will find the answer and get back promptly. Then be sure to do just that.
Most of us do not relish handling objections whether from prospects or employees, and yet they are the fastest way to clearing the air to make the sale. There are some helpful sites on the web for picking up techniques. Here are two--
http://
changingminds.org/disciplines/sales/objection/objection_handling.htm and http://
www.dummies.com/how-to/content/six-steps-to-handling-sales-objections.html.
Just Google “handling objections in sales” to find many more.
Maybe your sales efforts are so good that you cover everything the prospects wants to know and you can close the order without the need to handle objections. Congratulations! However, I don’t believe that is a frequent occurrence. Instead, we are all regular people trying to show prospects how our product or service meets their needs and relieves their “pain.” We believe our offering is right for the prospect. When the prospect doesn’t see it our way, we need to elicit why and then handle the objections to move toward closing the order. Sometimes it can be frustrating, but it’s our job to help the prospect improve his business success with our product or service and that takes patience and skill in handling objections. So welcome the objection—and know that it does not mean rejection.
