Many small businesses don’t have a dedicated sales team, so the business owner takes on the role of sales themselves. This may work out well if the small business owner has a sales background, but what if they haven’t been trained in sales, and don’t have a solid grasp on the finer points of selling? In this case, the small business owner must take time to learn the skill and create a sales plan to guide the process. One of the biggest hurdles to becoming successful in sales is learning to overcome objections.
Many people feel there is some deep, dark mystery to handling objections. Well, if there is a secret, it lies in your proactive approach to understanding how people make decisions and intelligently mirroring their process to influence behaviour. Once you know why they are hesitating, you can reply directly to that specific objection. Here is a simple way to remember how to handle each objection.
Acknowledge, Probe, Answer and Confirm or (APAC).
Acknowledge. Whether or not you feel the objection is genuine, your prospect feels that their objection is genuine, so the first step of the objection handling process is to acknowledge their objection. Acknowledging another person’s objection means it’s time for you to confirm your understanding of the person’s concern. Probing may help get you to the right objection; acknowledging will confirm it for you.
Probe. Get to the real objection. Rarely will people give their real objection right up front. Maybe it’s embarrassing, maybe they feel it’s personal, or maybe it’s because they don’t think it’s as important as you think it is. One thing is certain: When you get at the real objection, you can address it. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have personally jumped to my favourite response regarding an issue that had nothing to do with the question being asked because I didn’t get at the real objection. By the time I finished answering the question that was never asked, I was rewarded by having to fend off the objection I had now created.
Avoid sounding confrontational. Here’s a strange irony for you: Let’s say you guess right and actually do understand the real objection without probing it first. Your reward will be annoyance regarding your confrontational, stubborn, and insensitive approach to communication. So instead of sounding confrontational, set the stage for understanding. Not only will you buy yourself time to think, by clarifying the objection that comes your way, you will send an important message regarding your intention to listen and understand.
Avoid talking too much. Picture yourself in the other person’s shoes. You are looking at a rather difficult decision and trying to analyze that decision as carefully as possible. You are puzzled by one aspect of this decision, so you pose a rather harmless question to ask the person to help you understand something. Out comes a response that just won’t end. It goes on and on and on. You begin thinking to yourself, “This was really not such a big deal to me a minute ago, but judging by this person’s response, I must have hit on a bigger problem than I thought!”
The longer it takes a person to answer an objection verbally, the more credibility the objection is given. So your inability to understand the objection, which you demonstrate by providing a boatload of information in which the answer is somewhere buried, dramatically damages your credibility.
If I still haven’t been able to convince you of the importance of probing, let me put it to you simply: One out of ten objections isn’t even an objection (and that’s a conservative number). What you are really hearing is someone who does not want to be influenced and who is stalling. If you ask that person to clarify the objection, don’t be surprised to hear, “Uh, well, you see, I think you actually answered that question earlier.” That’s because there is no objection!
Answer. Assuming you now know what the real objection is and you have acknowledged it, it’s time to respond. To do this effectively, we need to figure out what type of objection you are responding to. Then we’ll be all set to answer it.
Two Types of Objections
- Misunderstandings
Ah, wouldn’t life be grand if all objections were misunderstandings? A misunderstanding objection means just that: The person you are communicating with has misunderstood something, so you need to clear it up. The solution is fairly simple, but not without an element of risk. In fact, it’s often a classic case of not what you say, but how you say it.
Avoid falling into the trap of making yourself “right” and the other person “wrong.” The goal is to tactfully remove an impending obstacle of personal ego, and get back on track to influencing behavior.
“Feel, Felt, Found”
When dealing with misunderstandings, I suggest a technique I was taught and have used for years. I refer to it as “feel, felt, found,” and when it comes to gracefully telling someone he is wrong, it works like a charm.
The feel portion of this technique is designed to deflect the ego. When you tell someone that a “lot of people feel the same way you do”, you immediately avoid the risk of putting them in a defensive position.
The felt portion injects empathy into your response. It’s one thing for someone to hear that a lot of people feel the same way she does. However, it’s much more powerful for that person to hear that “you have felt the same way yourself”.
The found portion provides your response. At this point, he answer should be an easy one, but there is no sense dropping the ball here. By explaining what you or others have found when they used your solution or service you open the way to offer your answer with the least amount of confrontation.
Using the “feel, felt, found” technique allows you to tell someone, gracefully, that they are wrong. I would be careful not to use this technique more than once per conversation. Don’t worry if you don’t incorporate all three parts of the process. It’s a guide, and nothing more, but you will be amazed at how often it gets you out of a sticky situation.
- Drawbacks
The more difficult type of objection to handle is the drawback. An objection due to a drawback really means that there is a particular element of the solution they are looking for that your product or service cannot address. Fear not, though, because where there’s a will, there’s a way!
First, let’s put this in perspective. The last time you bought a car, did you get everything you wanted? Oh, I’m sure you got the colour or the style, but unless you ordered that car, and had it custom constructed just for you, I’m guessing it only had almost everything you were looking for.
You see, much like your car, or your job, or you house, or your wife (okay, maybe not your wife), you made your decision based on the issue as a whole, not on only one or two pieces of that issue. If you believe that the decision you are influencing is truly in the best interest of the person you are persuading, stay strong, and push on! After you have probed and acknowledged, I suggest you put things in perspective and summarise the benefits of the solution you’re driving toward.
The only gentle reminder I would like to offer involves ethics. If the solution you are proposing does not address the other person’s most important criteria, you have to think seriously about what you are influencing them to do. The idea here is to gain perspective regarding the drawback, not to convince someone it isn’t necessary.
Confirm. It’s not uncommon to hear people say things like, “I really like that” or “That sounds great.” In situations like these, the confirmation step has already been accomplished for you. After someone has said, “That sounds great,” it would be awkward to say, “Uh, so does that address your concern?”
Now, I will not for a minute tell you that by confirming your response to the objection, you have guaranteed the objection will not be heard again. What I can tell you is that by confirming, you have psychologically made it much more difficult for the objection to be brought up again.
Sometimes an objection can be perceived simply as a question. And sometimes when people have a simple question, it can be perceived as an objection. You could try to determine which it is by studying nonverbal cues, emotional expression, and other difficult signals to pick up, but I think this will only confuse the issue more. I have a better idea. Why not treat both objections and questions the same way?
When you are asked a question, doesn’t it make sense to clarify the question to make sure you understand it, and confirm it has been answered when you have finished addressing it? When you treat perceived objections and questions the same way, you no longer have to worry about misreading someone’s intent.
The next time you hear someone complain about an issue involving you or your business, let this person know you have heard him by simply saying, “I can understand your frustration” or “I can certainly appreciate how disappointing that must be.” This acknowledges the other person’s concerns. Then restate the issue: “You placed a lot of income and faith in a market that has provided an enormous amount of volatility.” This demonstrates that you have been listening. It also demonstrates empathy, which is critical here. Now you can begin to address the real concern.
I cannot guarantee that if you follow this process an irate person will magically be happy with the realities of his current situation. What I can tell you, based on years of using this process is that it will dramatically help defuse the emotion. The rest is up to you.
Here are some common sales objections you’ll hear during the selling process and how to handle them. Next time you have a sales call use these methods to overcome each one.
1. Price.
Example: “Your services cost too much. I can get the ‘same’ service from someone cheaper.”
When the bottom line is the biggest hurdle for a client, you need to help them justify the cost. Try breaking down your total cost into smaller amounts that are attached to smaller services so the client can see why your price point is what it is. And make sure you focus on the unique value of your products and services that the client won’t be able to get from any other provider. Remember that no one ever bought on price only on value and if you’re getting a lot of price objections you need to work on communicating the value you deliver better.
2. Complacency.
Example: “I’m okay with the way things work right now.”
When complacency is the culprit, you can try to use just a touch of fear to get the client to see why they need to start thinking about the making changes. Share some research about their competition and some of the changes they have made in their businesses. There is often nothing like a look at everything your competitors are doing that you are not yet doing to move you to action.
3. Fear of Change
Example: “I don’t want to change the way we’ve been doing things for 15 years. Too much can go wrong.”
Often related to complacency, having a fear of change can make the decision-making process a difficult one for many business owners. One way to overcome this objection is to demonstrate past examples of change and how it was positive. For example, show the client a list of different ways the industry has changed over the past 10 to 15 years, and how the potential customer has adapted to those changes for the better. This can help him be less fearful and more confident about changing things up.
4. Trust
Example: “It seems like you know what you’re doing, but how do I know you really have the necessary experience to do this?”
Trust is something that takes time to build, so if it is a hurdle for your potential client, you need to be honest and consistent across the board to overcome the objection. Be forthcoming with information and share testimonials, case studies and references that will take away some of the uncertainty and give the client confidence in your ability to get the job done.
5. Personal Politics
Example: “I told my brother’s friend’s wife I’d use her company for my next project.”
Sometimes there’s not much you can do to usurp a family connection, but you can get yourself in the position to be the next in line. If this is an objection you’re hearing from a potential client, think a few steps ahead and show the client what you can do in phase two of the project or in an offshoot that will likely come about from the work being awarded to a family member.
6. External Input
Example: “I need to run this by my wife/business partner/mentor before I do anything else.”
This can often be a positive outcome, assuming the client is truly consulting with others and not just using it as an excuse. One way to make sure it doesn’t end up as a deal-ending sales objection is to attempt to stay in the process. No matter how great your sales presentation is, it won’t be the same when it’s delivered via a 3rd party so try suggesting a joint sales meeting between the client and their counterparts in order to answer any questions and help facilitate the decision.
7. Timing
Example: “It’s too much for me to take on right now; I’m too busy; Call me again in 6 months.”
If time management or lack of time is an issue for the client right now, chances are it will still be an issue in six months or a year. To overcome this objection, you need to make the decision to hire you an easy one. Start by listing all of the benefits of working with you, outline the value of the products and services you offer, and explain how easy it is to get started. Make the decision to hire you a no-brainer and you will remove this objection.
Keep in mind that your potential clients may have more than one objection so it’s important to be able to identify each one as you see it occur. Once you know what is stopping the sales process, you can arm yourself with the right arguments that will tip the scale in your favour.
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