Ever happened to you? You are in front of one of your biggest accounts. You’ve asked the right questions and gave a dynamic presentation. So much money hinges on this client’s answer. Your heart is beating rapidly. Your hands feel clammy. The time has come to ask for the order. You take a deep breath and ask for the order. But, the client pauses and says, “I’m just not sure.” or “I need to think about it.” You’ve run head long into a sales objection.

OK, how is it that objections come up? We get objections because things are mass produced. If everything was hand made-to-order especially for one client there would be nothing to object to. As we know it’s not that simple, products and services are designed with a certain user in mind but many users have their own unique circumstances where the utility of the product is not so clear. The job of the sales person in those situations is to clarify the issue and confirm the value is there for the prospect.

So, what do we do with these objections? The wrong way (how not to handle an objection) would be to attack the prospect, or perhaps question their motives or abilities to see the benefit or make the decision.”Can’t you read? It runs twice as fast, How can that NOT be of benefit to your company?” Now, I know YOU wouldn’t do that, but a lot of salespeople do just that. They get into a little war with the prospect, “I’m smarter than you are, you dummy. Or “I know everything about this product how can you possible be questioning what I say?” I don’t (or shouldn’t) need to tell you that’s the wrong attitude to have when you are handling objections.

If you want to overcome sales objections you have to be certain that your product or service is a good one and that it can genuinely be of service to your prospects. And that’s a magic word too isn’t it, Service. Do you know the origins of the work “Sales”? The word “Sales” actually comes from the Norwegian word, “Selje”which translated means, “to serve”. So, as a sales person you are meant to serve. And one of the best ways you can serve your prospects is by helping them talk through their sales objections.

Once you have listened to their objections without interrupting, fed the objections back to them and asked enough questions to understand them well you can then start to qualify the objections so you only deal with the real ones.

Then you are in a position to answer their objection. You can answer by admitting the shortcoming of your product and shifting quickly to a strong advantage. e.g. “Yes our matrix platform adjusts only forty degrees horizontally, but it provides 50% more vertical adjustment than any other machine”.

Of course there is much more information on how to handle sales objections.

Want to find out more about handling sales objections, then visit Greg Woodley’s site and find out more about overcoming objectionsin your business.

Tags: Sales