Dealing with Sales Objections: General
Published by Niall Devitt, Btb Business Training
Today I’m going to start a new series of blog posts about handling and overcoming common sales objections. The title for each post will be “Dealing with Sales Objections” followed by the particular objection that will be tackled as part of that post.
Before I start, I think it’s important to point out that there are no hard and fast rules when dealing with sales objections, anyone who tells you otherwise is frankly talking through their bum. There are however some general rules of thumb that you can apply.
Don’t get stuck
Not effectively dealing with a prospect’s objection/s is akin to freezing the sales opportunity in time. Waiting and hoping that a sales objection will go away has about as much chance as Ireland topping the medals table at the London Olympics. The only way to move the sale forward is to deal with the particular objection.
The Starting Point
Dealing with sales objections should never be a confrontation, it is not a battle of wits or logic, its about two people starting with two slightly differing points of view, talking through until each understands the other’s perspective and than agreeing a solution that satisfies both parties.
Listen to the Objection, Become the Prospect
To better understand any sales objection, always first try to look at the situation through the eyes of the prospect, listen, consider and weight up the factors that led to him or her taking this position. This allows you to empathise which is the key starting point for the negotiation.
Now Communicate your Point of View
The next skill is then getting the prospect to understand your position, if you have taking the time, listened and understood his or her concerns, they now will be open to hearing yours. Ensure that you take the time to explain why things are the way they are; why you can’t offer an additional discount or what additional value is attached to your higher price point.
Negotiate to Reassure
Why is that when we talk about negotiating with prospects, their is assumption that we are merely talking about further discounts, in reality price is merely one factor that can be negotiated. Unskilled salespeople and badly run companies handle objections by dropping their price. Rather, look at negotiation as an opportunity to reassure the prospect as to existing value that they will receive, providing them with evidence that this is in fact the case.
So always choose to provide them with an opportunity to talk to an existing customer over a additional discount, offer a upfront trail peroid to evaluate your product, but always tie in a commitment to close provided the trial is successful.
Agreement and Timescales
The final but none less important piece in overcoming the sales objection is getting the prospect’s agreement to the proposed solution. If it has merely been a case of having to better explain the finer details of the sale, this agreement can be sought there and then. However if there are other factors such as getting a recommendation, these need to be agreed including time frames.
Attaching a timescale to the proposed solution is crucial in that it ensures an upfront commitment to close. In the event, where the prospect is unable to give this commitment, the salesperson has either been unable to deal with the original objection or there is another objection that has not yet surfaced. Either way, this should demonstrate to the seller that more probing and/or reassurance will be required.
Future Posts
As I said at the start of this post, this is the start of a series of posts on overcoming common sales objections. In the next posts, I will be looking at particular objections such as “price”, “competitors”, ”bad experience” etc, however If there is anybody out there who would like me to talk about a particular objection they have difficulty with or indeed offer advice to others, please e-mail me at nialldevitt[at]btbtraining.com or leave a request in the comments section of the blog.
Tags: Dealing with sales objections, handling sales objections, overcoming sales objections
September 4th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Hello Niall,
As Neil Rackham discovered in his research (studying 35,000 sales calls) for his book SPIN Selling, 80% of objections in a sale are created buy the salesperson!
The most common way that salespeople do this is by failing to investigate and focus on the customer’s needs.
September 4th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Hi Elizabeth
While I would agree that Identifying and resolving objections as part of investigative/consulting piece is vital best practice and you and Neil are correct in that it will be successful in identifying the majority of likely objections.
I would add that this is easier to achieve with bespoke products, IT, Services etc
Taking generalisations as black and white can sometimes be dangerous, here’s why:
If we take a imaginary situation where a prospect has five concerns/objections. Taking your example above, we could expect a top salesperson to route out, resolve and realign four of these during the consultative stage. However, there still remains one objection which now becomes the only real obstacle to the prospect buying.
My point being is that what will often happen is, (and this aometimes depends upon your definition of a what a sales objection really is?) good consultation will more often identify and resolve all or at least the majority of a prospects likely objections, but any that stubbornly remain now become focal objections to a successful close.
In other words, experienced salespeople may be already doing what Neil identified, for them to improve may involve focusing and improving around other areas.
Thanks for your comments,
Niall
September 21st, 2008 at 2:11 am
Great reading!
Don’t win the argument and lose the sale.
Prospect just needs more information.
Keep up the good work.
Nick
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:45 am
Hi Nick,
Agreed, Information and the manner in which you deliver the information are key.
Thanks for your comments,
Niall
September 26th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Hi Niall,
Don’t know if you remember me but I was on one of your courses during Xmas 2006.
I have been to other sales training courses since but yours was by far the best.
Love the blog, All the best,
Sean Breen
September 27th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Hi Sean,
Thanks so much for the kind words and yes I do remember you.
If you like, mail me at nialldevitt[at]btbtraining.com and you can fill me in on how things have been going.
Cheers,
Niall
September 28th, 2008 at 12:44 am
So true!
Why win the debate only to lose the order.
Nick
September 29th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Why did he go on another course if the first one was so good ?
September 29th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Hi Seamus,
??? Not sure if your question is meant to be taken seriously but why should anyone attend any type of training?
To learn new skills
To increase their knowledge
To become more effective at what they do
To provide a better service to customers
To become more attractive to employers and I could go on
I’m presuming that Sean possibly falls into the category of someone who is constantly trying to better himself and the work that he carries out. This is a common/necessary trait among all high achievers, from sport to business and is particularly relevant to salespeople.
Why does Padraig Harrington still work to improve his game?
Why does Ronan O Gara practice his kicking?
Why do sales people attend sales training?
To get better of course
Add into the mix, that salespeople operate an ever changing and highly competitive environment and you start to quickly realise, that some more interesting questions are:
How come so many sales people receive little or no sales training?
What can sales training be expected to deliver?
Does the responsibility for this start and end with the employer?
Is it fair to expect performance from untrained sales people?
Why is their such a high turnover of people in the sales industry?
Thanks for the question even if it was in jest?
Cheers,
Niall
November 26th, 2008 at 10:34 am
In response to Seamus: Sean seems to be implying that Niall’s course was the best of those he’s been on.
November 28th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Cheers Burt