Making the Sale in Spite of Objections

I recently had the opportunity to chat with a fellow salesperson and when I asked him how things were going out in the field he replied, "Well, things are going great. I just wish I could get more people to say 'Yes'." As sales professionals, I'm sure all of us have felt that way on occasion: you feel like no matter how many calls you make, you just can't seem to pick up any new business. You've gone over the situation time and again, but you can't put your finger on what's going wrong. The only thing you're sure of is that you seem to be hearing the same objections over and over, day in and day out, to the point that it sounds as if all of your prospects have read the same book on how to get rid of salespeople!

Stop to think about that for a moment, and you may find the answer you've been looking for. It may well be that the reason you aren't closing any new business is that you haven't developed an effective way to overcome objections. There might be several reasons for this, but let's focus in on just one: lack of preparation.

"But," you might object, "How can I prepare to overcome an objection when I don't know what a particular prospect is going to say?" That's a great question, and the answer is simple: when it comes to objections, you've already heard them all! It should come as no surprise that there are very few surprises when it comes to objections. After the first few months of selling, you rarely here an objection that you haven't heard several dozen times before.

In fact, if you were to sit down and make a list of those objections you most often here in your sales efforts, I'd venture to say that list wouldn't be very long. In fact, you probably won't come up with more than ten, and those ten will represent 95% of the objections you hear. That being the case, you can very easily prepare to overcome those ten. How? You can script a simple, direct answer that allows you to get past the objection and continue your conversation.

For example, you might have this one on your list: "Thanks for stopping by, but I've been buying from Company X for 20 years and they've always taken good care of me." If you're not prepared, that can seem like a pretty convincing reason to cast your bait elsewhere, and you might leave a business card and be on your way. That would be a huge mistake! After all, wouldn't you like to have a customer who was that loyal to you? Of course you would! So what might you say that would allow you to continue the conversation?

How about something like this: "Well, Mr. Prospect, I certainly appreciate that kind of loyalty and would hope that my customers feel the same way about me. I'm certain that when you first started doing business with Company X, they offered the best value around. However, a lot of things have changed in our industry in the past twenty years. What I'd like to propose is that you and I schedule a brief meeting to discuss some of those changes and make sure that you are still getting the best available service and value."

There you have it: an answer that is simple, direct and easy to remember. Why not prepare something like this for each of the objections on your list? Put them in your own words, memorize them and rehearse them. The next time you're hit with an objection, you'll have a ready response that will allow you to continue your conversation with the prospect, a conversation that can eventually lead to a sale!

Until next time, happy selling!