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ART OF SALES 2, 3.03 (V) Handling Objections

3.03 (V) Handling Objections

As you move through your sales process, something's going to happen to you. You will get objections. Yes, people will object to what you're selling them. And the first thing you need to know is that objections are perfectly normal. They are a natural part of the sales process, so just be ready. The ability to handle objections in the moment is a skill and it's a discipline. So, I want you to picture climbing a mountain. You're climbing and climbing and you're scrambling over rocks and boulders. And in order to climb this mountain you have to get over those obstacles. You can't go around them, you have to go over them. That's the way I want you to think about this. Objections are not necessarily a no. They may be a hard no, but they may also just be coming from a lack of understanding. A prospect may say to me "Craig, you're just not a good fit for this job" or "Craig, your company's service is too expensive, or your new company is just too risky for us to do business with." You're too early stage. These are perfectly natural objections in any sales process. But notice something, I have to know these in advance. I need to know where the boulders are on the mountain, so I know when do I need to be very, very careful. So, let's look at how high performers handle objections. How does a high performer scramble over a boulder? High performers handle objections much differently than low performers. They follow a five step process. The process starts with encourage. I know that sounds crazy. I'm encouraging someone to object to me? Yes, you are, that's exactly what you're doing. My prospect says something like "Craig, your company's service is too expensive" and I say, "Tell me more about that or help me understand a bit more." The first step of encouragement shows the prospect that you are not afraid and you're not defensive. Let's go to step two. The second step of the process is to ask what are called clarifying questions. These are questions that are meant to open up a discussion about the objection. I might ask "Is your concern about expense related to other priorities you have right now or are you comparing our service to another perhaps less expensive solution?" Or I might ask "Are you currently trying to find more budget for projects like this?" These are simply clarifying questions. What they help me to do is truly understand the objection and not make assumptions about what my prospect might be thinking. The third step of the process is to confirm. This is simply confirming what you've heard. I might say something like, "It sounds like you have two concerns, first compared with other solutions ours is about 15 percent more expensive, and you have other competing priorities that need that budget. Do I hear you correctly?" That's called the confirm. And the confirming step of the process honors your prospects and builds your credibility by showing that you're listening. Now, the fourth step you provide your response. The response is actually where you get to answer the objection. I might say something like, "Thanks for helping me understand. Our service is more expensive. There are several reasons why this is the case and I'd like to talk these over." You then talk through the uniqueness of your solution that makes it more expensive, helping your prospect understand. In this step there are often more questions, but you are mostly just sharing why you're more expensive in this case. Once you have shared those reasons and talked it over you move to the last step of the process. The last step of the process is called the check. This is simply making sure that your prospect is ready to move on to the rest of your meeting. You might check like this. "Thanks again for giving me some perspective on your budget. Do you have more concerns here or should we move on?" What you were simply saying here is "Can we continue our conversation?" It doesn't mean that the objection is totally solved, but here's the interesting thing, your chances of overcoming that objection are much greater if you put these five steps together. Now, draw a line in your mind above step four, above the response and stay up there as long as you can. Low performers they jump right to the response, high performers encourage, clarify, and confirm. These are the steps where credibility and confidence is earned. So, one last thought for you. Climbing this mountain, where would you rather fall off? It's an obvious question, right? At the bottom. If you are going to fall you'd want to trip and fall at the bottom. The fall would be a lot shorter. One of the things that true high performers do is seed objections into sales conversations. That's right, you actually bring up the objection, you don't wait for the prospect to do it. You might say, "From our conversation I'm beginning to sense that budget might be an issue. Let's talk about that." You just ceded that objection into the conversation. This demonstrates that you are not afraid. You are confident in your value and your ability to overcome that objection. So, as you move through your sales process, be ready for the inevitable objections that will come your way and handle them like a high performer.


3.03 (V) Handling Objections

As you move through your sales process, something's going to happen to you. You will get objections. Yes, people will object to what you're selling them. And the first thing you need to know is that objections are perfectly normal. They are a natural part of the sales process, so just be ready. The ability to handle objections in the moment is a skill and it's a discipline. So, I want you to picture climbing a mountain. You're climbing and climbing and you're scrambling over rocks and boulders. And in order to climb this mountain you have to get over those obstacles. You can't go around them, you have to go over them. That's the way I want you to think about this. Objections are not necessarily a no. They may be a hard no, but they may also just be coming from a lack of understanding. A prospect may say to me "Craig, you're just not a good fit for this job" or "Craig, your company's service is too expensive, or your new company is just too risky for us to do business with." You're too early stage. These are perfectly natural objections in any sales process. But notice something, I have to know these in advance. I need to know where the boulders are on the mountain, so I know when do I need to be very, very careful. So, let's look at how high performers handle objections. How does a high performer scramble over a boulder? High performers handle objections much differently than low performers. They follow a five step process. The process starts with encourage. I know that sounds crazy. I'm encouraging someone to object to me? Yes, you are, that's exactly what you're doing. My prospect says something like "Craig, your company's service is too expensive" and I say, "Tell me more about that or help me understand a bit more." The first step of encouragement shows the prospect that you are not afraid and you're not defensive. Let's go to step two. The second step of the process is to ask what are called clarifying questions. These are questions that are meant to open up a discussion about the objection. I might ask "Is your concern about expense related to other priorities you have right now or are you comparing our service to another perhaps less expensive solution?" Or I might ask "Are you currently trying to find more budget for projects like this?" These are simply clarifying questions. What they help me to do is truly understand the objection and not make assumptions about what my prospect might be thinking. The third step of the process is to confirm. This is simply confirming what you've heard. I might say something like, "It sounds like you have two concerns, first compared with other solutions ours is about 15 percent more expensive, and you have other competing priorities that need that budget. Do I hear you correctly?" That's called the confirm. And the confirming step of the process honors your prospects and builds your credibility by showing that you're listening. Now, the fourth step you provide your response. The response is actually where you get to answer the objection. I might say something like, "Thanks for helping me understand. Our service is more expensive. There are several reasons why this is the case and I'd like to talk these over." You then talk through the uniqueness of your solution that makes it more expensive, helping your prospect understand. In this step there are often more questions, but you are mostly just sharing why you're more expensive in this case. Once you have shared those reasons and talked it over you move to the last step of the process. The last step of the process is called the check. This is simply making sure that your prospect is ready to move on to the rest of your meeting. You might check like this. "Thanks again for giving me some perspective on your budget. Do you have more concerns here or should we move on?" What you were simply saying here is "Can we continue our conversation?" It doesn't mean that the objection is totally solved, but here's the interesting thing, your chances of overcoming that objection are much greater if you put these five steps together. Now, draw a line in your mind above step four, above the response and stay up there as long as you can. Low performers they jump right to the response, high performers encourage, clarify, and confirm. These are the steps where credibility and confidence is earned. So, one last thought for you. Climbing this mountain, where would you rather fall off? It's an obvious question, right? At the bottom. If you are going to fall you'd want to trip and fall at the bottom. The fall would be a lot shorter. One of the things that true high performers do is seed objections into sales conversations. That's right, you actually bring up the objection, you don't wait for the prospect to do it. You might say, "From our conversation I'm beginning to sense that budget might be an issue. Let's talk about that." You just ceded that objection into the conversation. This demonstrates that you are not afraid. You are confident in your value and your ability to overcome that objection. So, as you move through your sales process, be ready for the inevitable objections that will come your way and handle them like a high performer.