Sales Training and Consulting - Objections

Submitted by Mitch Seigel on Tue, 11/23/2010

In most instances, your prospective client’s natural tendency is to reject your first offer through objections. In essence you haven’t given your prospect enough information to show that the value of what you are offering is worth more than the price you are asking.

As long as two parties are engaged in an exchange of products or services, objections will surface. It’s the process of eliminating the objections that stumps many a salesperson. And in some cases you may not be able to eliminate every objection.

The most important part of the process is the beginning. Get all the objections out on the table-all of them! Once you are relatively sure that your prospect has divulged each one, then the work begins. With each objection, look for solutions that your prospect accepts-enough to eliminate it from the list. Do the easy ones first, so you can quickly narrow it down to a few.

Now your knowledge becomes very important. If you are aware of all the benefits of your product or service, you will now need to prove to your potential customer how the objection should not keep them from moving ahead with the exchange. It may mean providing research, samples of other clients who had the same objection and have turned into successful clients, or other means.

Most important, don’t give up. If need be, repeat the process until every objection is exhausted. Should a couple remain, minimize the two remaining objections by showing several benefits why your prospect should make a positive decision to proceed, against only a couple of objections that remain. In other words, help them rationalize why it would make sense to make the purchase or become engaged with your company.

We do this all the time. For example, you go into a department store to buy a dress. The first dress you see would be perfect for your needs. However it’s twice the money you were thinking of spending. But the style is right, the color is perfect, and it matches your shoes and your new purse. You start building a case why it would be OK to reach deeper into your pocket to buy the product.

Remember, it’s only natural for your prospective client to object to what you are offering. It may be that they want to take time to understand the value of your product or service. Or it could be that they are just testing your backbone. Keep in mind that many salespeople go through this every day. They have for years in the past and they will for years into the future.

What are your challenges when it comes to objections? I look forward to hearing your comments.

Until next time…