Sales | by Patricia Jones
Customer objections are like nightmares to sales reps and surely will end up losing on your sales. However, not all customer objections mean a ‘no’ to your offerings. They might mean something else too. In this article, we are going to go deeper into customer objections and discuss several tips on how to overcome them and make sales possible.
Your customer may be like –
“We really like your product/service, but …”
The toughest aspect of closing business deals is handling the points that prospects may come up with the clause ‘but’. The buyer’s objection points are typically tough, and stubborn and stand between your business and the desired sale.
What Do Objections Mean?
Objections are usually a need for more information. Such an information gap will most likely stop your leads from making a decision in your business’s favor.
Do not fret out! Nearly all sales conversation encounters at least one objection. And the moment it is uttered, sales agents tend to become defensive. Doing this can make you appear unprofessional and even often incompetent—potentially costing you the business deal.
What do you need to understand about overcoming objections in sales?
Objections are not negative. Almost every time, when sales leads say ‘no’, necessarily it does not have to mean that they don’t want to buy the product or service. The reason for saying ‘no’ might be not having any reason at all to make the buy. An objection is a request from the prospect for more information on the product or service. Sometimes the prospect can’t visualize how your product can help them achieve business goals.
Your role is to focus on delivering information specifically to meet the needs of your prospect’s business and explain how your product can solve a certain problem or produce a certain result for the business.
Once you recognize what an objection is then you can overcome objections with ease. You should never ignore objections and address them always.
How Do You Handle Sales Objections?
Potential buyers can have many objections. This can be related to price, functionality, and many more – you name it, there’s an objection to it. These objections can come during the qualification stage of the sale or during the conversion process, they’re always coming up (no escaping).
With this in mind, it’s critical that sales agents understand the most common objections that come up along with best practices on how to overcome objections.
To illustrate this, look at the infographic below courtesy of ConvergeHub. After reading this, you should have a better understanding of how to build your strategy around rebutting objections, closing more deals, and increasing your sales revenue.
Techniques for Effective Sales Objection Handling
Don’t…
1. Take the objection personally.
2. Interrupt your prospect mid-sentence and rush to overcome the objection.
3. Start your counterpoints with negative words like ‘But’, ‘If’, and ‘So What’.
4. Use excessive sales words like ‘cutting edge’, ‘innovative’, or ‘best in class’.
5. Talk about the product and service USPs without relating them to the objections.
6. Become defensive when prospects question the quality and efficiency of the product or service.
7. Assume that the objection is addressed without confirming it from the prospects.
8. Assume that the deal is lost because prospects have voiced an objection.
9. Have a partial or surface-level understanding of the objections.
10. Offer discounts immediately to resolve the monetary objection of the prospects.
Do…
1. Show Gratitude. Look at this positively – just another way for you to give your prospect more information. Acknowledge your prospect’s objections and provide the information needed to close the business deal.
2. Understand Your Prospects. Connect with your prospects on a personal level. Listen to their objections carefully. This demonstrates that you value their concerns which in turn helps build trust.
3. Dig Deeper. To understand the reason that is stopping them from making the purchase, ask your prospects specific questions that will help you gain a better perspective of their objections.
4. Confirm The Objections. A very effective way to do that is to take notes on all of your customer concerns. Now, rephrase them in your own words. The next thing you need to do is to ask your prospect to confirm if you have captured all the points correctly.
5. Explain Your Unique Value Proposition. Highlight what differentiates your business from your competitors. You should consider the value you’re bringing to your prospect and your prospect’s business.
6. Offer Solutions. Align the features and benefits of your products and services to your prospect’s specific pain points. Pain points include things such as lost revenue, low productivity, poor customer satisfaction, etc.
7. Share the Success Stories of Customers. Share testimonials, case studies, and other references. This may help you overcome objections and give prospects complete confidence in your company’s products and services.
8. Be honest. Skip the sales pitch and make fresh, spontaneous, and persuasive conversations. These conversations should be relevant to the prospect’s objections and help build a great rapport with them.
9. Proactively Bring Up The Objection. Refer to the CRM to learn the objections you encountered earlier. Answer them proactively to win the confidence of your prospects.
10. Offer An Incentive. Encourage your prospects to take advantage of your incentive. Depending on your business, this could be a free trial, free shipping, $10 off your first purchase, and more. This gives both parties a chance to work together and build trust, and mutual respect.
Final thoughts
In a nutshell, you need to understand that not all objections are negative and can often produce positive results if handled correctly. A proactive approach to addressing the customer’s objections will help your business in better conversions. Now that you are aware of all the dos and don’ts against customer objection, it will help you reap more sales for your business.
