OK, you are in a sales role. Sales objections are going to come up.
It is one of the unfortunate ironies that you will get more sales objections when you first start selling than at any other time in your career. The reason that happens is that when you first start selling you don’t have the experience to accurately qualify your prospects or to present to them in a way that will cover what they want to know before you ask for an order.
Sales objections should not be feared.
That’s easy to say for me or any other experienced sales person but maybe not so easy to grasp if you’re new to this game.
So below I’m going to offer some advice about handling sales objections.
Five steps to handle sales objections for newbies:
- Breathe – Don’t panic.
Many an inexperienced salesperson when they get an objection has been known to react with fear or the appearance of being stunned (you know, standing there with mouth open but no words coming out).
Worse still, some salespeople try to argue with their prospects.
The thing you need to get is the attitude that objections are likely to come up and its important not to overreact to them.
- Acknowledge your prospect’s sales objection.
The objection may seem unusual to you it may even seem irrelevant but it is not to your prospect. Your prospect needs to know that you hear his sales objection, that you sympathize with their concerns.
By acknowledging the objection you start to build a relationship between yourself and the prospect and that will help you later in the sales call.
You may say something like, “I appreciate your concerns about the….”
- You need to ask questions about their objection.
This serves two purposes.
Firstly you are uncovering the details of what their objection really is and secondly by asking more questions you are showing that you are interested
Believe me; you’ll get a lot further in sales by being interested than by trying to be interesting. I firmly believe that curiosity is one of the most important traits of a salesperson.
Don’t start attempting deal with the objection until you fully understand what it is.
During this getting process your prospect may well enter her own objection.
Sales professionals know that there is more to answering an objection than the “answer.” They know the client is the key to the solution.
- Feedback their sales objection to them.
When you finally think you’ve got it you need to check with your prospect that you can really understand what their objection is. That way you are both on the same page and there is a chance for meaningful communication.
It often a good idea to feedback their objection to them in the form of question because as a salesperson you can answer a question.
- Qualify it as the only true objection.
When overcoming sales objections you need to qualify it as a true objection.
You may choose to say, “You mean that’s the only reason you’re not buying?”
Now he can either say yes or no. This smokes out the real objection. If it’s a fake objection the prospect will say “No.” then you can ask what are his or her other concerns. If he says “yes, that’s the only reason why I’m not buying” you now know the real objection and you can start to answer it.
The most important part in all of the above is to keep the dialogue going. The worst thing that can happen is stony silence from you when you get an objection.
By acknowledging the objection it gives you a chance to start gathering your thoughts on coming up with questions. Feeding back the sales objection further builds the rapport you have gained by acknowledging them. Finally by qualifying this is the true objection you are not wasting your time chasing phantoms.
Answering the objection will then happen as part of the dialogue between you and the prospect. Your success will depend upon your product knowledge, the fit of your product or service to their needs and your ability to communicate effectively with them (words are the most powerful drug known to mankind).
Following these guidelines will help you, but there is a lot more to handling sales objections.
Just ran across this article which gives some useful information.
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cold calling: how to answer, “what is this in regards to?” – question of the week. “when i ask to speak to the owner of the company, the gatekeeper asks in some form or another, ‘what is this in regards to?’ my question is how do you answer that question?” answer. just answer the question. …
sales education: can sales be taught in the classroom? – that’s the question i put to my linkedin network, and the range of answers i got was illuminating. when i’ve talked about this in the past with sales pros, including some of our veteran account managers here at hoover’s and sales …
Some more interesting articles on sales objections are listed below:
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The 8 Objections – Just Sell®… it’s all about sales® – Objections are a requirement to a successful sales day. In fact, without them, you’re likely not engaging your prospects and customers. It’s the introduction of an objection that can spark a flow of information that can help you further qualify a sales opportunity and better understand the needs and current environment of your prospects.
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Requirements, Trade-offs and Sales Objections :: Medical Connectivity – This is another installment of a series on selling connectivity. You can read the first installment, with links to subsequent posts, here. There is no one product that best fits every customer’s requirements, yet the goal of product …
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Six Major Sales Objections and a Plan on How to Overcome Them … – You are an expert complex sales professional and you know how to use prospecting to your advantage. Before you even make a cold call you have already done …
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4 Tips for the Non-Salesperson on Overcoming Sales Objections – In my previous post, we covered sales objections and some of the most common reasons why a potential client may be hesitant to do business with you. Once you know where that objection is rooted, you can start to work on helping the …
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I Object! How to Identify Sales Objections That Are Costing You … – In a perfect world, we would be able to just do the work we’re passionate about without having to worry about selling our services. But the reality is that we need a steady flow of business to keep our businesses afloat. …
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Overcoming Sales Objections the Easy Way | Chris Garrett on New Media – Overcoming objections is an essential part of the sales process, but it seems one that people I speak to either neglect or are fearful of. Really it can be very easy to counter objections, but before we get into that, I should describe what I mean by objections and what I mean by overcoming. Objections are anything that stops a customer from buying from you.