Hi, this is Michelle Peto, I am one of the sales and leadership coaches with Emerge Sales Training. We have free training available for you to make closing sales an enjoyable process for you and your customers, or to make recruiting an enjoyable process for you and your potential business builder. Sign up at emergesalestraining.com/freetraining.
Today we are going to talk about how gaining clarity from your customer can help you to overcome their objections to buy. After reading this you will be able to put some simple questions to use to truly serve your customer and help them get the products that are right for them.
In sales customer objections not only can discourage us as sales professionals but it can keep your customer from getting your amazing products and that is just not cool. I want take a minute to break this down even further. When objections come up, it is a natural reaction for us to take this objection and assume its a “No”. We then can beat ourselves up because the objection arose and has kept the customer from buying. We are failures and start asking ourselves, “What did I do wrong?”
Well, I am here to say that please do not do this to yourself! You are not failure, it is not about you, so don’t take it personal! The key is to understand the objection and to partner with your customer to overcome it.
Step One to take in overcoming an objection is to understand exactly what is an objection. I read an article from onepagecrm.com that provides an interesting perspective. The article says, ”An objection is an explicit expression from a prospect that a barrier exists between the current situation and what they need to engage your services”. So in other words, an objection is not a “NO”, it is a need for further information. So by getting an objection, you should be hopeful! I know that sounds really strange but it’s true.
Step Two in handling any objection, whether if it is costs, a need to talk to others about buying, or needing time to think about it, the way to overcome them is to ask questions to uncover what is truly going on in your customer’s mind. Don’t go into damage control mode and info dump, we can have a natural tendency to do this! Please DO NOT!
Ultimately, your customer is the only one that can truly overcome their own objection. As a great sales person you create an opportunity for your customer to overcome his or her own objection by asking questions so they can see it for themselves.
Now I want you to keep in mind, typically their first response is a smoke screen. What I mean by that is that it can be a surface level issue and by asking more questions you will get to the true objection. The key is to ask questions and to listen. Let me play out a potential cost issue scenario for you.
Michelle: Okay Sally we have gone over the product details. These are the two most popular products. If you were considering one, which would you prefer?
Sally: I like product A.
Michelle: Great! I wouldn’t be doing my job Sally, would you like to buy product A today?
Sally: No. These products are too expensive.
Michelle: Okay no problem. I understand. If it is okay can I ask, how do you personally feel about what we discussed today?
Sally: The products are really great but they are just out of my budget.
Michelle: So just to make sure I am on the same page, you really like the products but they are a little out of your price range. Did I get that right?
Sally: Yes. That is correct.
Michelle: Okay thank you for sharing that with me. Would you be open to looking at a couple of other options that might be more in your budget?
Sally: Yes that would be great to look at some other options.
In this scenario, initially Sally said the products were too expensive. That was the surface issue. I continued to ask questions to try to gauge where Sally was in her head about the products. First, I wanted to find out of the options I presented which she was favoring. Once I found that out, I then asked what her personal feelings were about the products to gauge her level of interest in the products.
In asking this question I was able to find out that she does like them, it’s just not in HER budget the initial products I offered. Having that information I was then able to move forward with her liking the products and asking if she wanted to look at some other options that were more in her budget. She said yes and with that information I am able to to meet Sally where she is at financially and she can feel good about her purchase.
I was able to help Sally to remove the cost objection by asking questions and truly listening to her. I was able to serve her. That is ultimately the most important thing…serving our customers.
Thank you so much for reading our post today. To sign up for one of our free trainings on closing or recruiting, go to emergesalestraining.com/freetraining.
Have a great day!