What is the worst response you can hear from a potential buyer “no” or “maybe”?
If you said maybe. You are right.
Nothing hurts revenue and sales performance in terms of productivity more than the word “maybe”. You see “maybe” can force you to continue to spend time with someone who is never going to buy.
Spending time with someone who is not going to buy from you hurts multiple ways.
It hurts with revenue, profitability, sales performance, and in the end, if you hear the word “maybe” too often it could negatively affect your company and your career.
When I work with sales teams I would typically say, “Shame on us as sales professionals when we hear an objection two or three times, but never create powerful ways to move past it and advance to the next step in the sale process”.
Many of us have heard the same objections year after year. Which means we’ve heard some of the same objections hundreds of times.
In today’s podcast, I am going to give you my secret weapon to handling objections.
Let me say this before we get into my secret weapon to handling objections.
I believe objections can be prevented. Objections’ need to be handled throughout the sale cycle, and the earlier in the sales cycle the better.
But that’s a conversation for another time.
Great sales pros can predict the objections they’re going to hear. It’s not hard, and I am going to show you how to do just that.
The odds are if you have been selling any length of time. You are hearing the same objections repeatedly. If you are new to sales then ask your sales manager this. What are top 5 or 6 objections I am likely to hear, and how they believe you should respond?
In the meantime, here’s my secret weapon to help you accelerate your ability as a sales professional. First of all…
Finding you own voice is critical, and the best way to do that is to practice. Get with another rep who wants to improve or ask your manager to practice objection handling with you for about an hour every week.
So, for today, as you go through your day write down all of the objections you hear. If you already know what they are then list them. Limit it to six.
Here are the common objection categories you can use to come up with your 6 objections:
Not all of these objection categories carry the same weight. Obviously, if you keep hearing “your price is too high” and after you address the concern, you don’t hear back when you follow up, you should resist the urge to address the price concern.
The next step is to deal with your responses: I call it my response model.
With your co-worker or your manager write down as many responses as you can come up with for each objection category.
I know you get the idea. So do this exercise with your team. Trust me; it will be one of the most valuable time investments you will ever make.
Next, breakdown the language inside of the objection:
This is a bit more advanced and beyond the basics.
Here’s an example of an objection you’ve likely hears.
This example typically occurs early in the sales process, and if you don’t have an effective response, it can get you stuck or end your call early.
Okay, let’s focus on the words, “we”, “okay”, and “current situation”.
Finding your voice is critical:
Typically, most sales pros know what he or she could say in response and what they wouldn’t or couldn’t say. The key here is to develop a variety of responded when you are working and practicing with your partner or manager.
Finally, here are a few basic rules for handling objections:
Always keep these four rules in mind whenever you get pushback from buyers.
You will want to take some time to yourself to write down your thoughts based on our discussion today.
And there you have it. Stay Motivated.
