“Every sale has five obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust.” – Zig Zaglar. Most prospects you speak to have sales objections, or reasons they’re hesitant to buy your product. Some fake reluctance to sweeten the deal. How to handle sales objections?
To successfully handle sales objections, you should discover objections, acknowledge the concern and then offer rebuttals to alleviate those concerns.
There is no one correct method to work around sales objections. What’s important though is that you acknowledge the buyer’s concern. Do not leave the concern unaddressed. The longer it lingers on, the lesser the chances of closing the sale.
The opinion of the buyer gets stronger the longer you choose to ignore the objection. Get it out of your way the sooner you can. Remember two golden sales rules:
- First, not every prospect will turn into a buyer. It’s okay to lose a few deals. However learn from them
- Second, there is never a permanent NO in sales. Do not give up.
The 5 Sales Objections
- No Need
- No Time
- No Money
- No Urgency
- No Trust
No Need – “I don’t need what you are selling”
The problem here is that sometimes your prospects don’t know they need what you have. The prospect may not have been actively looking for the solution that you offer. They probably didn’t know your solution existed.
Here, PREPARATION is the key. You should be ready with some BENEFIT statements and FACTS to link the benefits to the prospect’s goals or challenges.
Spend some time on research to back up your pitch with relevant stats.
No Time – “I can’t talk to you right now”
The prospect is too busy or pretending to be busy to talk to you. There is no response to your emails and messages.
The first thing to do handle this sales objection is to “Acknowledge”. “I understand you have a busy schedule…..let me send you an email with the details and call you back. How about today at 4 pm or tomorrow 10 am? What time works best for you?”
Make sure you fix a time for the next interaction. Do not ask the prospect to suggest a time. Give her options to select.
Once a time is confirmed, include that in the email. Best is to send a calendar invite. The email should be short and crisp – highlight the key benefits; use bullet points and short sentences.
No Money – “This is too expensive”
It is true that some potential customers do not have the budget to buy what you’re selling. Sometimes they use this sales objection because they’re afraid they can’t afford you. They are embarrassed to admit.
Show them that they can afford your products or services. Find a way to meet their budget by offering alternatives, options or discounts.
Alternatively, break Down the ROI – If a lead focuses on the “right now,” it’s harder for her to see the big picture. Show her how quickly she can earn back her investment with your solution.
No Urgency – “I’m not ready to make a decision right now”
This sales objection is easier to handle if you have been able to establish the need. The trick is to not sound pushy, but lead the prospect to quickly closing the sale.
Maybe your prospect is in the research phase, or is only beginning to assess solutions to her problem. Hence, you must craft your approach for the stage in the buying cycle that she’s in.
You may not be able to rush her through the process, but you can help guide her to the next stage in the cycle.
- Target your content: Consumers at each stage of the buying cycle need different types of content. Make sure yours matches where a lead is. Stage specific sales pitch, email draft, presentations.
- Create a sense of urgency: Make a special, limited-time offer to encourage your buyer to take immediate action.
No Trust – “I’m not sure this is the best solution”
Do not relate No TRUST to the prospect doubting your integrity or honesty. In the context of sales, it refers to the confidence of the prospect in the deal being offered.
Does the prospect trust your brand?
Remember that buyers want information and not sales pitches. Educate your audience to win their interest and trust.
Your communication should not be to push your sales agenda, but to provide the answers that your audience is looking for. Make value your #1 goal. (What is in it for the buyer?)
Every sales objection has a way out. Pay attention to what your prospects are really saying with their objections and find a way they simply can’t say “no”.
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Avoid the following mistakes to handle sales objections
- Avoid being too enthusiastic – a common mistake sales reps make is pushing for a closure once they sense the prospect is convinced. Take it slow, go over all relevant details
- Avoid talking too much about the offering. Ask questions. Make it an interactive conversation
- Boost the prospects confidence and acknowledge every information – Use positive words and phrases such as “Great”, “Excellent”, “Thank you”, Address the prospect by his or her first name
- Use NUMBERS and FACTS to establish the trust
Listen more than you talk.
8 Tips to Easily Handle Sales Objections
PAUSE
The most successful salespeople pause immediately after a customer’s objection for 5X longer than their less successful peers.
This is where you need to keep calm. Unsuccessful salespeople pounce on objections. They get all riled up, which doesn’t help their cause.
The takeaway? Chill out. Listen. Then reply.
Don’t Speed Up
Reps who pounce on objections do something else too — they speak faster after hearing an objection.
Why?
They get stressed and react from their gut instead of their brain.
Slow it down is the mantra here. Best sales reps take their time responding to objections. Take your time to answer questions. Maintain a slow pace.
Talk Less
Talking more makes you look nervous. You need to sound calm and confident if you want to meet an objection. Tell yourself to talk less. It shows the customer that you’re not thrown by questions; but you’re confident you have the right answers.
When you talk too much and too fast, the prospect finds it difficult to engage in a conversation and share her doubts and concerns. Think of this as your chance to bring clarity to the conversation and engage even more deeply with the customer.
You can’t do that if you’re the only one speaking.
Avoid monologues
Sales reps who jump in quickly, talk faster, and say more also have a tendency to reply with one long monologue.
Why do they do it?
The FEAR of losing the prospect and the sale. They stop creating a conversation and focus only on what’s coming out of their own mouths. They try to talk their way out of the situation. The result? They unleash a long, one-way speech. That completely changes the pace of the conversation for the worse.
Easy solution here: Catch yourself in the act and stop the monologue. Again, a short pause would help.
Clarify with questions
Objection scenarios are rife with misunderstanding. Average sales reps are so eager to overcome objections, they end up addressing the wrong or incomplete issue.
Imagine offering up a terribly long rebuttal only to find you’ve addressed the wrong objection! This could make the objection worse.
Instead of jumping in with a quick reply, Ask questions. Probe to know if you truly understand the customer’s objection before addressing it.
Save the price for last
Pricing discussions are more often than not touchy, delicate, uncomfortable to handle.
So what do you do with pricing? How do you handle it proactively? WAIT to talk about it.
Why does it work to wait? You need time upfront to impress the prospect with your product or service. Price can and should come later. This way there be fewer pricing objections.
Use effective language
Use human psychology to your advantage. Certain words and phrases usually elicit positive responses. Here are 6 winning phrases to use during sales objection handling:
- Imagine: On its own, it has little effect. When you tell the customer what to imagine, it’s incredibly powerful. Here’s an example: “Imagine how happy your employees would be to attend a quick 10 minutes grooming session with a chance to win FREE samples”
- Use case language: Describe the tasks your product helps the customer perform, rather than what it does or how it works. Use action verbs like “engaging”, “onboarding”, and “diagnosing”.
- Successful: The top sales reps say “successful” 4-6X per hour on their sales calls. You guessed it, that’s more than everyone else.
- The prospect’s first name: Cliché but true.
- Decisive language: Use crisp, decisive language like definitely, certainly, and “We can do that.” Confidence is everything.
- Probably: Decisive language is necessary, but it needs to be balanced with cautiously optimistic language. Probably tells customers you’re realistic and will be honest with them.
Embrace objections
It is not a good sign when prospective customers have no or very few objections. A serious prospect will certainly have questions, doubts and wants them answered. Treat them as a positive signal to successfully handle sales objections.
Serious buyers pay attention. That means they dig in, get critical, and ask tough questions. This way they can ascertain your product is a great fit.
Don’t let it shake your confidence.
Use objections as an opportunity. Exhibit how well you understand their challenges and your solution is aligned to their requirements. This helps you move them towards closure.
Remember sales is not a dead, one way pitch. It is a conversation. The objections when handled well and sincerely help your grow as a sales rep.
Take them on with enthusiasm. Happy selling.
If you need to identify bottlenecks in your sales process, register now for the Good Sales Practices assessment.
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