Overcoming Objections

Every sales process is going to feature plenty of objections. Every business is going to hear a lot of objections. But there is one simple way you can reduce the negative impact an objection may have on your sales presentation.

Let’s back track just a tiny little bit. What is an objection?

In your sales cycle you are going to get to a stage when you attempt to close the sale; or you in fact try to ask the customer to buy whatever it is you are offering, whether it be a product or a service. An objection will likely be used as a response to your offer and is simply a way of objecting whatever it is you have proposed. Objections come in all forms of guises however will more than likely be a reason why the prospect does not want to buy from you. Perhaps you are too expensive. Or they feel that your service is too far away. Or perhaps they have not fully understood what it is you are selling.

One thing you must become an expert in doing is become a critique in your own product or service and thinking of the objections that may come up in a sales presentation. This is where good role playing sessions with a colleague or your partner can really help. Find out all of the negatives that you can think of as to why someone will not want your offer, and write them down. Next, write down all of the reasons why the objection should not matter. Think of yourself as a spin doctor at this stage. So, for example:

“We just like to buy local produce.” – “Yes, I completely agree with you. We are based a long way from you however we have invested a lot of money to ensure that food miles are kept to a minimum and that all of our transport links are well managed.”

“You are at the top end of our budget.” – “Sure, we hear that a lot. So to counter act this we provide a lot of extra support that our competitors will not. So you get full access to our marketing channels and we also provide extra support for a longer period of time.”

Once you have recognised all of these objections, be sure to practice them and learn them so that if you were to ever come across an objection you can simply just use the response that you have come up with.

My other advice for this short post is for you to bring up your objections in your sales presentation. Instead of waiting for an objection to come your way which your prospect may be thinking about and harming their ability to listen to you, preempt the objection first:

“Now, we understand that we are a premium range, and that is why we offer extra marketing and technical support.”
“As an upcoming brand, we understand you perhaps have your reservations about buying from us. However, to counter this we offer a guarantee on all purchases and to develop a trust and a relationship between us we would like to offer you a ‘sale or return’ proposal.”

By recognising the points that people may object to your sales proposal, you will be better equipped to push the sale through and to overcome the objection. And offering the objection up front, on your own terms, will stop any good sales flow later on throughout the process.