Objection Handling - Episode 1

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This is the first of a four part series of a key aspect in the sales process known as “Answering Objections”. With this series we’re going to help you move thru objections to get to a “Yes” more often than you currently are.

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Objections stop way too many sales that are in the making, a lot of agreements and negotiation. Sales are all about communication, however this particular topic seems to stump a lot of people. Even if you’re familiar with the entire sales process and you do everything flawlessly, you’re still going to get objections, you’ll still be getting people that for whatever reason will present some form of challenge in that sense, and it’s not that people don’t want to work with you, it could be something on the part of the client, it could be that they’re not hearing what you’re saying, they could even be asking questions about something you’ve already answered.

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As Brian Tracy said, you need to treat objections as requests for more information. How does that change your view in this regard? Considering that, when there’s an objection, clients are bringing forward concerns. People are asking for information to help them towards the best decision for them, they want to make sure we’re taking care of them. They need more information to know that this is truly the best option. How many times have you made a purchase decision and ended up regretting it because it limited you from being able to do something else? We’ve all had those experiences. The question is, how do I make sure this is the best decision for me?

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What’s good about objections is that they actually point you towards the information that they need most to be able to make the decision, most people see objections as a problem but they really are a blessing. Jeb Blount from Sales Gravy has a very good definition for objections, he says it is an explicit expression by a buyer that a barrier exists between the current situation and what needs to be satisfied before buying from you. Beyond that, it’s an indication and here’s where people miss it, we’ve all missed it at some point.

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An objection can also be an indication that a buyer is engaged. If people don’t ask me enough questions, I don’t think they’re interested, if they make questions it’s because they want more information so they want to buy from you, but they have to be able to tell themselves there’s a good reason for it. Objections are very powerful and they’re very important in the sales process, we have to develop the right thinking about them in order to properly leverage them in order to best serve our customers.

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A lot of times people get combative because when someone is objecting you they’re putting you on the defence. If you think back to how our brains are programmed, we still have a lot of programming in our brains for early cave man days and our brains do not like the concept of conflict. We must recognize that fear is a natural response, there’s nothing inherently wrong, it does not make you a bad salesperson. Just recognize that fear is a natural response, the brain is saying that there’s something important to overcome now, but we have to keep in mind we don’t have a lot of time left.

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Always keep in mind the buyer’s perspective, he or she is getting ready to make a commitment with money, so actually the more questions they ask, the better you have to educate and engage with them to help them see the befit that they will gain by working with you. What we have to do is we have to work to lower those barriers, but them at ease, realize that we’re not the adversary. Objections tend to bring the adversary out in both sides. But we are there to help them, not to steal from them, not to harm them. It is important that we recognize they are fearful, we’re also fearful, but we’re prepared to deal with the situation.

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Just calm down, objections are great. You just have to remember to think of it from that perspective, and that’s the biggest key objection handling to remember. The first step in the objection handling process is agree with the customer.