Sales objections can feel like a personal attack, but they’re actually an opportunity to learn more about your customer and close the sale.
Prospective clients usually raise objections when setting up an appointment or during the pre-qualifying stage. However, they can also come up during the negotiation stage when you’re almost closing the deal.
Handling objections is an intricate process for most salespeople. There’s a fine line between being too aggressive and passive when a prospective client is skeptical when you’re making a sales pitch.
We cover in this article everything you need to elevate your objection handling skills.
What is Objection Handling in Sales?
Objection handling refers to how salespeople respond to a potential client and raise concerns in the sales process. The prospective client can voice concerns about timing, and budget constraints, among others.
As a salesperson, your work is to use your objection handling skills to address these concerns and move towards closing the deal. The key to developing good objection handling skills is knowing how to address objections without appearing aggressive.
Handling objections shouldn’t involve arguing or pressuring a prospective customer. Instead, it’s an opportunity to build trust through listening to their concerns and asking the right questions so the prospect can decide on the product independently.
Common Sales Objections
1. Price Objections
Price objections frequently occur during sales because all purchases are associated with financial risk. As a salesperson, you must consider your product’s positioning and how to highlight its value, which will help turn the conversation into risk vs. reward. Offering value and showing a prospect your product’s value will convince the prospect that the reward justifies the risk.
2. Aggressive Objections
As a sales representative, you’ll meet all sorts of buyers — you may encounter aggressive prospects who turn you down unpleasantly. It
would help if you understood that some individuals are naturally harsh, and responding harshly will only escalate things.Harsh responses also indicate the prospect’s experience with salespeople. Not all prospects become customers; if things don’t progress, end the conversation politely.
3. Show-Off Objections
Sometimes a prospect tends to show off all they know about the product you’re selling. Such prospects typically act tough and ask challenging questions.
In such cases, you must show the prospect you’re impressed by their knowledge, listen to their questions, and respond to them comprehensively.
4. Resistance Toward Salespeople
Some objections arise because a prospect is weary of salespeople. A prospect may have had bad experiences with other salespeople or are tired of dealing with pushy salespeople.
As a sales rep, it’s essential to find a way to build rapport with a prospect so that they may be inclined to listen to your sales pitch.
5. Unspoken Objections
Prospects usually have an objection even if they don’t voice it. These unspoken objectives can be a real hindrance to closing a sale. Some prospects are usually embarrassed to bring up some objections, like budget constraints.
Nevertheless, most objections are predictable; if you’ve done due diligence, you can raise unspoken objections and reassure the prospect.
Why Do Customers Object?
1. Skepticism
Skepticism is a common challenge for salespeople when making a sales pitch. Skepticism may arise from not building rapport with a prospect, poor sales presentation, not asking the right questions, and failure to comprehensively address a prospect’s concerns. When pitching, highlight your product’s value and make recommendations that best suit their needs.
2. Misunderstanding and Miscommunication
When meeting with potential clients, it’s common for misunderstandings stemming from poor communication to arise.
Effective communication is critical if you want to engage prospects and avoid misunderstandings. Find the right balance between listening and talking when meeting prospects so that both parties feel understood.
3. Stalling
Sometimes, potential clients use objections to put off making a decision. People usually stall during a sales pitch for different reasons. The prospect may not be authorized to make the decision; some prospects want to compare companies, others can’t afford your product, or they may not be convinced.
Identify what’s causing a prospect to stall and address it so you can close the sale.
How Does a Good Salesperson Handle An Objection?
1. Expect Them
Addressing an objection before a potential client voices them shows that you understand your product’s weaknesses and know where the prospect’s head is. It also impresses them and makes your response to the objection appear less argumentative and sincere.
2. Welcome Them
An unseasoned sales rep’s first inclination when they hear an objection is to respond immediately. Fight the urge to do this; responding immediately may leave you making assumptions about the objection.
Take your time to listen to the objection so that you don’t react defensively and craft a response that will address all the concerns a prospect has.
3. Affirm Them
Most salespeople usually respond to objections immediately. It’s often better to affirm your customers’ concerns — showing compassion will most likely keep the conversation going.
Restate the objection to ascertain that you’ve understood it well; this will make the prospect feel understood.
4. Complete Answers
Once you’ve uncovered all your prospect’s objections, start by addressing the most important objection, as this will be the most significant barrier moving forward. You should do your best to resolve all of your prospect’s concerns. The more efficiently you can address their issues in real-time, the higher the chance of converting a prospect into a sale.
Handling an Objection as a Sales Person
Step 1: The Inner Workings of Objections
Identifying the inner workings of an objection is the same as identifying a prospect’s problem. Inner objections are the ones the prospect has brought up; the way the objections are worded indicates how deep-rooted they are. As a salesperson, you have to find a way to address this problem comprehensively.
Each client objection is a hurdle in the path of a sales conversion. Most clients are usually wary of risks; the more objections a customer has, the more risk they feel when buying a product and the less likely they are to purchase it.
The more you identify and address a prospect’s objections, the more you’ll develop a connection that’ll likely lead to a sale. Addressing the generic objections isn’t enough; you need to identify objections specific to a particular prospect. These specific objections are tied to your company and product — addressing them is the key to closing a sale.
Step 2: Understand the Problem
A prospect’s receptivity to the product you’re selling is a decisive factor in the sales process. Therefore, you must put yourself in your prospect’s shoes and understand the problem to clear any perception problems.
Patience is key in your quest to understand your prospect’s concerns. Most salespeople usually view objections as a desperate race, making the mistake of shutting them down quickly. With an understanding and patient approach, you’re more likely to ask the right questions to help you see where the prospect is coming from.
If you’re impatient or reactive, the prospect will feel pressured, won’t voice their concerns, and will likely turn you down in the long run. If you simply pay attention to the prospect, you’ll appear friendlier, and you’ll be able to form a persuasive response to their objections.
Step 3: Dig up the “Real Reason”
Most objections are smoke screens; however, they usually pinpoint an underlying issue. It’s essential to determine a prospect’s actual concern since you can’t overcome an objection you don’t know. You must figure out why a prospect is bringing up an objection at a particular time and why it’s a concern for them.
Avoid making assumptions; assuming a potential client’s intentions can put the whole deal at risk. When identifying the underlying issue, don’t act as if their concerns aren’t real. Acknowledge and validate all their concerns to diffuse their objections.
If you pay attention to your prospect, they’ll provide clues about their actual problem. Building a relationship with your prospect will help you identify unvoiced objections. Once you’ve built rapport with a prospect, probe them if you feel they’re holding back.
Step 4: Translate the Objection to a Question
Objections indicate that a potential client is interested in your product. Consequently, you should welcome and encourage them. Translating the objection into a question will help you understand what the prospect is objecting to and address the concerns by addressing the question.
Turning an objection into a question is an effective strategy to help you avoid defending a negative about your product and makes you seem like a problem solver. Using this approach will make the prospect feel heard and understood.
Framing objections also help you craft more persuasive responses that will solve a prospect’s problem and add the right value.
Step 5: Ask Appropriate Questions
An objection is an excellent opportunity to learn more about a prospect’s situation. The better you understand the opportunities and challenges, the better you can align your product’s value with its needs.
Asking the wrong questions can make a prospect turn you down. Therefore, you have to be professional and not take any objections personally.
- Allow the prospect to finish speaking before asking questions
- Maintain eye contact as it builds trust
- Work statistics and testimonials in your questions
- Don’t be defensive when asking questions
- Never say a prospect is wrong
You’ll never be able to build a connection with a prospect if you don’t open up your conversations. Avoid yes or no questions; ask them thoughtful questions that’ll prompt elaborative answers from the prospect.
Step 6: Translate the Objection to a Reason to Buy
Sometimes, objections that a prospect raises can be excellent reasons for why they need to purchase your product. A prospect may be hesitant to purchase your product because it’ll bring a lot of change to their company.
However, the change may open the company to a new customer base or can generate more profits. Therefore, you can overcome this objection by providing clear statistics and information demonstrating the advantages of purchasing your product to the client.
To overcome sales objections, you have to neutralize a prospect’s mind and make them receptive to an alternative way of thinking. Turning an objective into a reason to buy is an excellent way to help the prospect see a problem as an opportunity.
Step 7: Render It Unobjectionable
Your main goal is to convince the prospect that they shouldn’t or can’t survive without your product. Making a sale is inherently associated with overcoming objectives. The best way to render objections unobjectionable is by building a relationship with the prospect and reframing how they see your product.
A good salesperson can effectively demonstrate to the prospect their product’s value. Ensure you know all your product’s features and details and dissect all aspects of the prospect’s objection to demonstrate your product’s worth. Understanding your client’s needs and what your product offers is the key to overcoming objections and generating sales.
Dos and Don’ts
As a salesperson, you should always view objections as an opportunity for discussion. The following dos and don’ts will help you leave a good impression and generate more sales:
Dos
- Listen to your prospect: don’t just jump into objection handling without letting them fully articulate their thoughts.
- Alleviate fears and respond to misinformation: if you don’t address them, the prospect will assume their concerns are valid.
- Ask questions, particularly when they aren’t: Asking questions will help you know your prospect’s situation, and you’ll also know their unvoiced objections.
Don’ts
- Never ignore an objection: Unanswered objectives will haunt you since they’ll hinder the sale’s closing.
- Get defensive: It’ll make the prospect put their guard up.
- Overprime: Being dishonest about what you can provide the prospect makes them trust you less.
Conclusion
When handling sales objections, never lose sight of your end goal, which is to overcome them and get a commitment from a prospect. Most salespeople are taught to overcome objections in any way they can; this approach is usually ineffective.
If you don’t resolve an objection when raised, it usually comes back to haunt you. As a salesperson, you should never be afraid of objections; see them as an opportunity to convince a prospect of your product’s value.
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