Objection handling – Episode 2

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Agreeing does two things, it does something for you and something for your client. Often times when you speak to sales reps, you throw out an objection and they instantly go into attack mode, but imagine you’re trying to fight someone at the bar, and then they walk up and give you a hug, it disarms you and you start relaxing. So if you know that the automatic response to an objection is to say something like “That’s really smart of you” or “I completely understand where you get that”, you’re going to help them relax, agree with them.

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This is Black Belt selling, and as a Black Belt master, you tend to see things differently, here’s the thing about agreement that tie into the whole idea of the martial arts, one of the keys in martial arts is: You don’t engage in battle. Instead you flow with the energy. If this person were an enemy, we’d be throwing them off using their own energy and power. The whole idea is to work with the energy, not against it. Working against the energy creates negative energy, more pain. In this case it’s going to help people relax. It’s going to make people feel like they’re not the enemy, they are there to solve a problem. Keeping that in mind is going to be extremely important as we move thru this process.

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We have to understand more about the objection. Often times the objection that is raised is not the true reason for them not moving forward. Sometimes the prospect doesn’t really know what the real issue is. It can be that it’s too expensive, or this, or that, so then we can start figuring out what the real objection is. This is when you start to talk through it, you start asking questions, like asking them to tell you a little bit about what it is that’s triggering them to think that it’s making it expensive for them. Can the client tell us if they’ve ever spent that kind of money on a product or service? Comments like “I’ve never spent $3,000 dollars on a mattress”, “that’s too much money for that kind of product”, you can be empathic and respond something like “hey, I totally get it” and ask questions “how much have you spent before?”.

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While the client has maybe spent $600 dollars on their last purchase maybe the sale has been done wrong and you shouldn’t have tried to sell a $3,000 dollar product. Ask how the client decided to spend $600 dollars, or how they decided what mattress was best for them, once it’s been worked out, look for information about what they like about the product they chose and how it’s worked out for them.

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If the client responds that the product has some disadvantages and they reveal information, continue to go with the flow of the conversation. There, you might find what the real objection is, it might be money, it might be that they just don’t think they should spend so much money on a mattress. Maybe at that point you can walk them through that their logic is incorrect, they’ve only ever spent money on cheap beds, and you can show them that.

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An important aspect is to make sure that the questions you’re asking are leading questions, not manipulative questions. Never ask questions that show them how dumb they are, you have to ask questions that help them. Let the client share and follow the conversation as it goes, and then once you know you’re leading with the right objection, you’ve listed out and helped them see that they should be spending more than $600 dollars next time, but still $3,000 is a lot.

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At this point you know what mattress they need, now it’s your turn to tell them a story, and you can say something similar to “I get it, it is a lot of money. I had a client last month who came in and it was a very similar situation…”, you have to make sure you detail out the emotional experience of the person before they made the purchase.

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You have to elicit the pain, if you don’t touch on it, you won’t touch the reason that’s holding them back, they’re not going to see that you care, and you have to use the story to present the opportunity that they’re missing if they don’t move forward. Storytelling is an important part of educating, and you should use what the client has been talking about to educate them using their very own words as to what’s really important to them.